Living log

Repotting is fun for human but danger to trees

started 2025-06-28·tended 2025-08-01

Referenced

Young maple from the yard #1

Acer campestre

tree

Young maple from the yard #2

Acer campestre

treedead

Young maple seedlings from the yard

Acer campestre

treedissolved

No shit sherlock, I know.

How this developed

Remark

I think with the larger of the two maple I simply got lucky that it recovers very well. My impression is that the same repot process in the mid of Febuary wouldn’t have killed the smaller one. In the end the whole plant thingi is a game of patience and experience, maybe next time I can resist the urge to do something to a plant if I know it’s a bad idea. The impresstion that later repotting would have been better is just a vage feeling.

ObservationYoung maple from the yard #1
A small maple with lobed green leaves in a terracotta pot among other potted trees on a gravel balcony, black drip-irrigation tubing running between the pots.

The larger of the two survived my strange timing when I repotted it last year in November. In the early spring I took a bit of wire and gave is a subtile bend, but I forgot to take pictures, so it’s not on record. Still I wanted to at least mention it.

ObservationYoung maple from the yard #2

Sadly this one seems to have passed away. My November repotting/division action might been to brutal. Could also be that I didn’t water it enough during early spring. It didn’t grow so strong as the other one maple did last year, so maybe a bit of shade would have helped it I don’t really know. Hopefully the other maple in the yard collection doesn’t die aswell.

InterventiondivideYoung maple seedlings from the yard
A hand holding a maple seedling lifted from its grey pot, a dense tangle of fine roots exposed, over a yellow work sheet with tools and pots — bare-root repotting in autumn.A hand holding a maple up against a white wall, a long trailing mass of fine bare roots hanging below the small pot, autumn-yellow leaves on top.
Two maple seedlings with yellow autumn leaves in a terracotta bowl on a yellow sheet, their stems threaded through small anchoring collars in the soil.

Today I decided to put each of the two young maple I found in the yard this spring into seperate pots. Since repotting should be done in early-spring I try to be very soft to the plant and repot it with as much soil as possible. No root work, my intention is solely to a getting the two out of their tiny pots. Overwintering is done in the cellar, so hopefully they do well.