Repotting My Royal Poinciana After Two Years

Repotting My Royal Poinciana After Two Years

Hello Everybody! It has been a long time since I have done anything with my bonsai trees and the first tree to get some attention is my Royal Poinciana with a repotting. This is one of my favorite trees and I will be putting it into one of my favorite pots!

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Current Condition

I grew this tree from a seed and repotted it into the pot it’s in now around two years ago. At the time, the tree was still pretty small and didn’t have a very extensive root structure. After letting it grow for the past few years I am really hoping that it has nice broad roots when I dig it up.

My Royal Poinciana is quite the steady grower. It grows a new set of leaves every few weeks just as the oldest branch is starting to turn yellow and fall off. I have seen a maximum of around five little branches sprouting out from the top at one time. I contribute the dying branches to all the moving around and stress I have been putting the plant through. Now that I have settled down, it should begin to rebound and become much healthier.

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How to Repot a Royal Poinciana

Removing the Tree

The first thing you always have to do in every repotting is remove the plant from its pot. For this, I like to use a flat faced scraper to go along the edges of the pot, gently loosening the soil and the roots . This should free the plant up as long as it isn’t completely root bound. Pull the plant out and place it in some water to soak while the rest of the materials are set up. It is very important to never let the roots of your tree dry out. Some other alternatives to soaking the roots in water are spraying the roots every so often or placing the roots in a damp paper towel. Any option is fine as long as they don’t dry out.

Preparing the Pot

While the tree is soaking its time to prep the new pot. You can opt to use the same pot it was already in or use a new one. It’s all up to you. In this repotting I am opting to use a new pot to give the tree extra room to grow and encourage growth. Start by placing mesh at the bottom of the pot, to prevent any dirt or rocks escaping from the bottom, and poke some wire upwards through the bottom of the pot, to be used later to hold the tree in place.

Filling the Pot

Next, pour in a thin layer of some bonsai soil mix. I am using a mix of 1/3 akadama, 1/3 pumice, and 1/3 black lava rock. Once that is in a nice narrow layer, start filling in some organic soil. For this repotting, I am using mostly organic soil. This is one way to choose to repot your bonsai trees. Others include more of the rocky inorganic soil mix spread throughout the organic soil. Now that there is a nice layer of soil in the pot, its time to water the soil. Another way to dry the roots out is to place them directly into dry soil. To avoid this issue altogether, water the soil thoroughly until water is pouring out from the bottom of the pot.

Potting the Tree

After all of that, it’s time to finally pot the plant! Dig a small hole in the center of the pot to place the tree into. Depending on the size of the root ball, you may need to move extra soil away from the area you’ll be placing the tree so that it sits nicely under the soil. Bring the tree out of the water and place it into the prepared spot. Begin placing soil on top of the roots and press down all the soil to eliminate any air pockets which could cause root rot and wire the tree into place. To finish the job, give the plant one last watering, to rinse out any dust and debris. Lastly, take a minute to admire the beautiful tree.

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Final Results and Considerations

I thought this Royal Poinciana repotting went extremely smooth and the final placement looked immaculate. Removing the tree and securing it back in place was almost effortless while holding the mesh in place proved to be difficult. But that seems to always be my problem for some reason. Now that my Royal Poinciana has been repotted into a much larger pot it should start to grow quite rapidly and I cannot wait to see what this tree starts to look like!

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