I would be hesitant to wash off existing soil if the plants show any stress at all. Were these mail order or purchased locally? If mail order, I would definetly not re-pot until the stress of travel has been overcome. If locally purchased, re-potting may be fine although I would still allow most plants to acclimate themselves to the new environment, water, lighting, etc., before shocking the roots with a re-pot. Repotting disturbs the tiniest of feeder roots and some plants will grow right through that process and others will go into shock. Good luck!

Harry

I bought them at a local nursery. The soil that they cam in doesn't seem like anything special, so I want to give them a better growing medium.
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Neither of these plants is especially problematic when it comes to soil requirments. I can't see what the soil is like in the pots, but obviously, they are doing fine with whatever it is. I would wait, but it probably won't make a huge difference if you repot. Its your call.

Harry

Newgen,

My experiences with Wax Jambu, show it to be a resilient plant. I received mine last year, and re-potted it (it had very little shock on the re-potting process). The plant did shed most of the leaves last year, during a period of dry heat and intense sunshine (early fall).

The leaves are thin, and the plant takes some time to adapt to full sun if it was growing in part shade area before. However, the tree pushed out new leaves and growth shortly after 2-3 weeks of adapting. I grow Wax Jambu in a 15 gal container, in full sun in South Orange County about 15 mi inland.

Thanks Harry, and nullzero:

I intend to keep these under my patio with filtered sun. Summer here is intense, so no need to expose the Wax Jambu's thin leaves to all that. The Caimito's leaves are thicker and waxy, kinda like the Indian Rubber tree's, so I don't expect too much problem with it.

If you repot them, keep them in a shady area for a few days if you disturb the roots a lot. If the plants dont show any shock, move them into filtered sun and slowly keep increasing it. FULL sun might burn them during summer esp with our low humidity so maybe consider some filtered light during the hottest part of the day.

The plants look nice and healthy, good luck,
-Ethan

What type of fertilizer do you use for your Wax jambu? I have a few seedling that are three inches tall. they have not grown in a few months.

Thank you in advance!

whatsnew: sadly, the wax jambu didn't make it, lost all leaves, branches dried up, I had to get rid of it last week. I must've damaged all the tender feeder roots when I was rinsing the soil off the rootball. I don't have the courage to do this repot process to the caimito. I will have to practice the gritty mix repot procedure with some other more disposable plants, like a citrus or something like that.

Newgen,

So sorry to hear about the wax jambu. Is it a common practice to rinse the soil off the rootball?

That's highly recommended, from what I've read. But there are a few people who don't do it that way. I think if it's a little seedling or a very small tree with not much roots, there's a higher chance of success. A fully-developed root ball (5-gallon or larger) presents a much bigger challenge, how to get rid of the soil without damaging the roots.

Newgen,

Sorry to hear about your loss. When I usually do repots, I avoid removing all the inner soil from the center of the roots. What kind of weather conditions did the Wax Jambu experience during and after the repot?

When did a Wax Jambu repot, I took it out of a 5 gal container. Trimmed around the bottom 30% of the roots, then took a hose and washed off excess soil for about 30 seconds.

I then placed the root ball in a dug out portion of the container. Covered the root ball up and added layer of mulch then watered. Placed the newly repotted Wax Jambu in partial shade.

nullzero: You avoided removing the soil from the center of the roots, I didn't, right there is what I think doomed it. The weather was nice, not hot at all, and I placed it under shade, indirect sunlight. I did NOT trim the bottom portion of the root ball like you did, nor did I place a layer of mulch.

hi newgen, sorry for your loss. I know how you feel. I'm glad you did not repot your caimito. From my experience, caimitos like lots of consistent, even moisture....gritty mix probably wouldn't be the ideal mix for it. They have lots of fine feeder roots and don't like to be handled either. If you feel nervous about doing something to a plant, that's your gardening instincts giving you a heads up! That's my advice after killing many many plants, including 2 caimitos. :)

June

June:
my caimito has several of the leaves brown out and dropped. I suspect overwatering, so I moved it from under shade to under a starfruit tree to provide filtered shade. Have you ever experienced leaf drop on yours? The normal green leaves show areas of brown and fell off the branches.

Thanks,

I once repotted a caimito during the fall. Leaves started turning brown, I thought it needed water... but it died, I might have killed it with overwatering also. I suspect they need to be a bit rootbound before being repotted. newgen, you might want to ask that question to someone who "hasn't" killed caimitos! :)

I waited until my caimito has a lot of roots before I repotted it. I never disturb the roots when repotting. I put some soil into the larger pot, then take the caimito out and place it directly in the pot. Then add more soil to it and water. I think once your caimito is big enough then it will be hard to kill. Last winter my tree stayed in the basement and my husband thought the soil was wet so he did not help me to water it. Couple days later and when I went to check on my tree, all the leaves wilted and dried up. Most of the leaves fell when I shook the tree. I thought my tree was going to die. So I pulled off all the dead leaves and took it up to the morning room. I water the tree and pay more attention to it for the rest of the winter. The tree then slowly recover and now it's full of leaves.

thanks for the tips ch3rri. Good to know that big caimitos are tougher. I have had young caimitos w/flowers but they keep dying from overwatering or underwatering, pretty finicky if you ask me. But I'll try again. If they have bright light in the winter, they will flower.