How do these roots look?

7 years ago

I've been having trouble with my Osmanthus fraguns not flowering well, and dropping leaves here and there. I reached out to Logees greenhouse in Connecticut and they suggested to repot it into a mix with no lime in my mix.

Backstory:
This is one of, if not THE favorite houseplant I own. The fragrance of its tiny flowers is intoxicating!

I lost one two years ago to scale, learned too little too late on how to control it.

This plant was doing well, until I hit it with fertilizer in the spring by accident. Now I know, they don't like fert and only need a top dressing of Cottonseed Meal in spring. After hitting it with fertilizer, I quickly swapped its planting medium for 511. Fast forward, and it hasn't been doing great, sluggish and moody at best. I was expecting a huge dose of vigor.

The fine folks at Logees said the lime in the 511 is most likely the culprit, and these need pretty acidic soil to thrive.

Today, I took it out of the pot, per their suggestion, mixed some new 511 with no lime, and put it all back together again. Soaking it well with distilled water.

The roots don't look spectacular to me, they have some white, not as much as I would have hoped.

Comments and critiques are welcomed!

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Comments (2)

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
7 years ago
It's likely things will go downhill before they reverse course, this because the plant is going to pout about being repotted at this time of year, unless you live in the southern hemisphere where it's almost summer, or in the northern hemisphere within about 25* of the equator.

I took the time to do a little looking into the plant's pH preferences, and the general consensus between those who grow and sell sweet olive was that it prefers soils in the pH range of about 5.5 to 7.5. 2 sites said it "will grow" in very alkaline soils, but I'm guessing you're not much interested in having a plant the only good thing about which can be said is that it lives on.

As far as appearances go, you probably realize the plant (all inclusive - not talking about yours) is never going to win a beauty contest, but it's purty fragrance makes it's innate ungainliness overlookable.

The roots don't look too bad, but the next time you bare-root and repot, I'd start thinning some of the very large roots that are concentrated (or appear to be) on one side (assuming the plant is hale enough to tolerate it). If you don't, you'll end up with a mess you'll have a great deal of difficulty sorting out as time passes.

Al
Treegeek Z6a (Boston)
Original Author
7 years ago
Figured it would get bent out of shape and drop a few leaves and sulk. That's OK.

Agree! Not many folks would be struck by its leggy look with a few leaves. One sniff of the flowers though and it will click on why such a Charlie Brown looking tree is in my home.

I wasn't sure if I should clip the roots back, got nervous and only pulled the dead ones that willingly came off.

I did take it out of the plastic pot it was in and placed it in a clay pot. Being that it's a fussy plant I think the added benefit of air exchange and even dry down will be welcomed.

At the end of the day, I want a healthy plant that produces lots of fragrant flowers!
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