I got my baby tree!

[New2stuff]

My magnolia tree is a foot tall, I've had it in a pot now for two weeks and it's doing well so far. How long will it take before it's fully established? I'm keeping it in my garage right now, not sure if this is the best choice for it, but until the roots are stable I don't want to risk putting it out in the cold weather. I had to dig around and between oak tree roots to get it out, so the tap root was exposed for about 20 seconds before I got it in the pot.

[WatchMeShove]

It looks like you live in Florida, I'm not sure about the weather there but if it isn't getting below 35* at night, then leave the magnolia outside. They are outdoor plants and keeping it in your garage for enough time could actually kill it. What do you mean by fully established?? Plants usually become "fully established" when they are in the ground, do you mean how fast will it grow or when will it grow into the pot you have chosen?? Please take a picture and I can assess the plant better. Next time you dig up a plant and hurt the roots it might be a good idea to use root hormone on the roots to guarantee success. Also, superthrive has been known to do great things for plants that are hurting or dying. (Not that yours is dying, just saying that superthrive is a great reviver when using for replanting) I don't know if your magnolia was flowering when you dug it up, but you should only dig plants up when they are dormant, usually at the start of winter and then let the plant reestablish it's roots over the winter to have a great flowering season in the spring. I hope this helps.

[New2stuff]

Thanks that is a lot of helpful information. I meant established like- my moms tropical hibiscus plants can't be "messed with" trimmed etc until a few weeks after planting them because in our experience it is too much stress and kills them, I don't want the plant to be stressed out and move it around too much because its roots were exposed so that's what I meant by that. The magnolia wasn't flowering, its only a foot tall, most magnolias take 10-15 years before they flower if you're growing them from seed (according to my grandma anyways, thats how long it took the parent tree of the one I have). It's only getting down to the 50's at night right now but it's been a "weird" winter here some nights down below freezing My moms hibiscus poor things got such a bad shock from it and my old gardenia plant barely made it through (still not sure if it's going to make it) it has no leaves anymore on the bright side, it had the black mold fungus stuff on its leaves, so hopefully if it makes it that problem is gone..

[New2stuff]

oh yeah, here's the pictures of the tree and it parent tree

[img]https://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz226/ladydogcd/stuff009.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz226/ladydogcd/stuff010.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz226/ladydogcd/stuff011.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz226/ladydogcd/stuff012.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz226/ladydogcd/stuff013.jpg[/img]

[WatchMeShove]

Looks like you have a southern magnolia, I have one in my front yard and one about the size of yours also. I dunno what kind of soil you are using, however it looks really damp, and also looks like it might need some perlite for aeration. Other than that, the plant looks fine, it could live in that pot for at least two years, probably more. One thing about putting small plants in a larger pot is that you should be careful not to overwater it. Also, you really don't need to worry about exposing the taproot of any plant. The thing that shocks the plant is digging up the roots. All the small white fibrous roots get broken off when digging plants up and those are the roots that are actually sucking up all the water, not the large ones. The larger roots are mostly for holding the plant down and holding nutrients in them, this is why when you dig up plants, they go into some state of shock. A plant's roots can be exposed for a number of hours and still live as long as they do not dry out. As you can see in my picture, I have an avocado tree which is growing completely in water alone and it's roots are exposed to light 24hrs. a day.
[img]https://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac21/watchmeshove/photo22-1.jpg[/img]

[jam8952]

I'm new to this garden forum wow I did not know that you could put plants in water alone like you have in your picture above I thought maybe it would drown it with it being in the water alone all the time.But however I do have a question and I hope you can give me some information too.I live in alabama but I was thinking about going to the appalachain mountains which is on the east coast of the united states for a trip and to go camping and while going on my trip I'm going to take some garbarge bags with me and a shovel and while I'm hiking in the mountains if I see some interesting plants I want to dig up I'm going to dig them up and put them in a trash bag and bring them back to alabama with me and plant them in my yard and just do some expermenting to see if they will actually live in the south or in my yard. but I was wondering how long can its roots be free or exposed before the plant actually dies.The reason why I'm asking is because I'm not going to have enough room for alot of pots in my car thats why I'm taking trash bags only.Thanks and I hope you can give me some information.I will start another thread just encase my question doesn't get aswered.Thanks

[New2stuff]

I'm kind of new to plants also so I don't know, but you might want to double check where you're going to be, a lot of that area is protected national forest and you arent allowed to remove anything from it.