Advice on containerised Corylus Avellana 'Contorta'

jamesharcourt

I have 2 of these - and another 'Red Majestic' variety - some for a couple of years - and one for 4 or so years.  I very much love their form!

I think they look best in containers as the elevated trunk flare is more visible and the bare branches are where the beauty is - they look best in the early Spring as the catkins and very young leaves appear.  

Anyway - onto the main point ... I have one that has been in the same pot for nearly 4 years ... and it dries out almost instantly.  I wanted to change the compost for something less free draining and fresher.

I wondered if anybody else has one of these in a container - has ever done a repot - and whether they have any advice re timing or whether it should be / needs to be done at all?

Thanks.

Dovefromabove

I had one in a large (very large) container years ago ... it was in a mixture of John Innes No 3 loambased compost with the addition of about 25% leafmould.  I repotted it every three or four years (other years I removed and replaced the top layer) until it got too large and I planted it in the ground.  As far as I remember I did the repotting in Nov ish. 

jamesharcourt

Dovefromabove said:

I had one in a large (very large) container years ago ... it was in a mixture of John Innes No 3 loambased compost with the addition of about 25% leafmould.  I repotted it every three or four years (other years I removed and replaced the top layer) until it got too large and I planted it in the ground.  As far as I remember I did the repotting in Nov ish. 

Thanks.  The pot isn't that big but I don't want it to get too big.  Should I root prune to keep it in the same container?

Dovefromabove

I never rootpruned it ... I was a bit concerned that might trigger suckering from below the graft and of course the suckers wouldn’t have the corkscrew growth. 

What do you other folk think? @punkdoc @Fairygirl @Hostafan1 and the rest of you?

jamesharcourt

Dovefromabove said:

I never rootpruned it ... I was a bit concerned that might trigger suckering from below the graft and of course the suckers wouldn’t have the corkscrew growth. 

What do you other folk think? @punkdoc @Fairygirl @Hostafan1 and the rest of you?

actually that's another issue with this particular specimin ... constant suckers, way more than my others ... and not coming from the base of the trunk but from areas in the pot 4-5" from the trunk ... initially I thought they were seeds sprouting but they attached to root ... I think it might be rootbound possibly ... maybe I'll root prune it

punkdoc

I had one that lived happily in a pot for about 10 years, with annual addition of new compost. Eventually decided it needed to go in the ground and it is increasing in size, exponentially.

I have no idea whether root pruning would cause suckering, mine chucks out dozens of suckers every year, so doubt root pruning would make it much worse.

As for potting medium, I would agree with @Dovefromabove, it should be mainly JI 3.

Fairygirl

I've never had one in  a pot, so I'm worse than useless for advice 
I'd certainly refresh the top layer each year, and keep it in a decent sized pot if I had one though.
Soil based medium as already said. Compost is never enough for a shrub in a pot.