Getting Bay Laurel tree ready for re-potting

[pepperhead212]

Are bay leaves one of those things in shortage in the markets? I don't think I'll have to worry about it!

I trimmed the bay laurel, getting it ready to re-pot tomorrow. It was the worst one of the bunch out there, drying out quickly (in cool weather) after soaking the rootball, so it must be really badly rootbound. So I cut a large amount of the branches off - there might be a couple more I'll cut off -and tomorrow I'll re-pot it.
Trimmed bay leaves, getting plant ready to re-pot. 10-10 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Trimmed Bay Laurel, 10-10, ready for re-potting. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

I pulled the pot off the BL today, and it was solid! Not as solid as the lime tree, which I had to cut off, but a photo shows the roots growing up, into the hydroton; I was surprised it hadn't grown through the fabric. I trimmed it down to about the same size as the lime tree, but only to about an 8 gal fabric pots. I "sifted" a bunch of the soil out of these roots, and used about 50/50 with the new. While doing this, and mixing the two together, I did something REALLY STUPID, and sliced the tip of my R index finger. Very quickly, I put my thumb over it (along with whatever dirt was there!), and the wheels started turning, wondering what on earth could have done this? Then it dawned on me - that knife, which was razor sharp, had slipped into the tub with the dirt! I blurted out something I can't print here, like "You dumb s#*®!" I went inside, rinsed the dirt off as much as possible, then took my thumb off the cut and rinsed it out, then poured some peroxide on it, rinsed, and more peroxide...eventually, the pain went down, and I dried it, put criss-cross Nexcare bandages on it (most waterproof, in my experience), and went out and got into the dirt again!

The bay laurel is finished, and after I got it back up on the deck, I made a solution of Bt israelensis (to prevent fungus gnats), using some saved rain water (chlorine might kill the bacteria), and poured over 2 gal of the solution into the pot, before it was just starting to leak. I soaked the surface of other pots, too, but I'll do it again, before bringing them in.

A photo of the bay laurel, showing the roots growing up, into the mulch, after I pulled the pot off. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Trimmed root ball of bay laurel, showing the old boning knife I use to trim them. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Re-potted bay laurel, ready to come inside, once it gets cooler. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[ddsack]

@pepperhead212 plants look great, but I hope your tetanus shots are current! Ouch! Hope your finger heals well and quickly.

[Danny]

Gosh, way late, but hope your finger healed well and quickly. Too bad I am not closer to where you are, I would beg some cuttings of both the bay laurel and the lime from you !

[bower]

Hope that cut is healing well @pepperhead212 .
I'm pretty sure my giant rosemary plant has the same problem: grew up into rootbound condition. I am just a terrible pruner - I hesitate and then let things go. So this plant is a serious mess of long branches. I've heard that rosemary won't take hard pruning so that has been my excuse... and then she goes and puts flowers on all those lanky tips and that makes it even harder to mess with.
I need pruner therapy, thanks for posting about your good technique!

[PlainJane]

Hope your finger is healing; been there done that.

[pepperhead212]

Thanks @PlainJane and @Bower - the finger healed completely, and I think the fingerprint didn't even change!

About the rosemary - I have never had a problem trimming it! Every season I would trim it way back, just before Thanksgiving, to share it with people at work (I'd take a trash bag of it to work, and a bunch of supermarket bags), along with some of the sage, though not as much of that. It would just start growing back almost instantly! This year I had that problem when it seemed to die, from a 7° night (survived that when only about 2 years old!); there is some green on it, but not much. Fortunately, when I first started this "Hill Hardy" rosemary, from Richter's herbs, I some by air layering, and put that in a fabric pot, and every year I bring that on my back porch - about 10° warmer than outside - as a safety net, STS, and put it on my deck in the summer. It grows some, and I go get what I need in the winter, and just last week I put it on my deck, and there is a bunch of new growth all over it! The pot is about 4 gal, and about 4 years old, so I think it's rootbound, but I'm going to plant that in the garden, in place of that almost dead one, and do another air layering, to plant in a pot again, for another safety net!

[bower]

That's a good time to trim @pepperhead212 . I've been trimming at Christmas for some years but she is now a bit stressed and the bare branch parts are actually long and tangly while the ends are bushy and green - and still flowering ATM.
My problem is that I've been bringing her indoors for the winter for oooh maybe 20 years? Potted up the last time into a 10 or 12 gallon container which is troublesome to move on account of the size of the plant now. Anyway, the growth that happens indoors is so lanky and soft and 'creeping' that the structure isn't really self supporting. I put a bamboo cage around but that isn't really enough either. Thinning I guess is what I need to do.
Just looking at the ol girl today, it occurs that I might even try braiding the excess branches together and see if that helps with strength and balance... oh who am I kidding? This plant is a mess. So pretty flowers though.
I'm not sure what kind of rosemary it is, but so fast growing. The one I rooted and brought indoors, I can't keep up with the growth.