Repotting the Tree

I finally got my tree into its new home. After doing some research on the best location in my yard, I settled on a spot on the deck near the back of the house. The pot is going to be real heavy once the tree is in, so I wanted to make sure I had it in the right place. It should get lots of sun and be sheltered by the house from any extreme wind or cold. So, location selected, new pot (whiskey barrel) ready, plenty of planting mix on hand, I was ready to make the move.

Since I didn't want to put the tree into the ground, I was told to get a new pot at least twice as big as the pot it was in. Scotch Pines do well in a variety of soils, but I wanted the best so I got two bags of Filthy Rich Planting Mix to fill out the barrel.

It was a bit of a struggle to get the tree out of its old plastic pot. The roots were pretty tightly wound.

First test was to get the tree centered in the barrel and level. I also didn't want to bury the crown of the tree. My research said to put the tree on a firm foundation or it might settle and go crooked, so I had to put a couple of inches of planting mix into the pot and pound it down to make sure it was solid before I put the tree in.

First trim! I cut some of the small low branches before I filled in the planting mix. I'm still not sure just how I'm going to trim the tree to make it a Poodle, but I know those were branches I won't want.

It took almost two complete bags of planting mix to fill in the barrel.