Advice needed on planting my wollemi pine

[Shiveringtropicals]

I am hoping to get some advice on how to plant my wollemi pine. It has been in a pot for years now but it is not really happy.
I want to put it in the ground but i have a really high water table and i know they don't like to sit in water for a long time.
So now i have made a raised bed 8 inches above the soil line of the garden.
But somehow it still doesn't feel right, the soil seems too wet and compacted and the water table too high.
Is there something i can do to make this setup work? like perlite or sand or planting really thirsty small evergreens?

The day before i dug down 2 feet and there was no water.

I took some pictures after we had about 2 inches of rain so the soil is wetter than normal.

The puddle of water is 15 inches below what will be the new soil line of the raised bed.
The rootball of the tree will go 12 inches deep so it is 3 inches above water after it has rained.

Should this work or is it a bad idea?

i put some plastic over it so the hole won't fill up in the rain

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Shiveringtropicals

[Tracy]

24 minutes ago, Shiveringtropicals said:

Should this work or is it a bad idea?

Unless you are prepared to get another one and start over in a pot, I would suspect this isn't going to work.  Even if you keep the soil dry in the top several inches or 20-30 cm, the roots will want to go down to the level of the underlying ground and below.  How big a pot is it currently in and is it possible to go with an even larger pot?  Wishing you success.

[Shiveringtropicals]

1 hour ago, Tracy said:

How big a pot is it currently in and is it possible to go with an even larger pot?

I have it in a square 18 litre pot, i do have larger pot sizes that i can put it in.

i'm definitely not prepared to get another one and start over.

 

On another note what type of soil should i use if i put it in a pot cause i have used pure peat based soil and it is starting to decompose into mud after a few years.

Something long term like garden soil maybe? Bonsai soil?

Edited June 18, 2020 by Shiveringtropicals

[palmsOrl]

Shiveringtropicals, can you post a photo of your Wollemi pine please?

I bought one in 2009 and it survived for about 2 years in a pot before dying.  I think the summers are a bit hot here for this species.

[Shiveringtropicals]

This is a picture from last january

[Silas_Sancona]

20 hours ago, Shiveringtropicals said:

I have it in a square 18 litre pot, i do have larger pot sizes that i can put it in.

i'm definitely not prepared to get another one and start over.

 

On another note what type of soil should i use if i put it in a pot cause i have used pure peat based soil and it is starting to decompose into mud after a few years.

Something long term like garden soil maybe? Bonsai soil?

You might take a look at the WollemiPine.com site Seems to have alot of good info regarding repotting, watering, and placement both as an indoor specimen, or planted outdoors....

Soil -wise, appears a well draining soil mix containing ground / small chunk Coconut Coir, and stuff like Pumice ( No perlite.. ), and/ or Turface/ Seramis is recommended over anything containing Peat ( Awful growing medium, imo,  except for those plants that absolutely have to have it )

Also looks like these will not tolerate any fertilizer that contains more than say 3% Phosphorus in it ( Would bet ferts. derived of Ammonium Nitrate are also detrimental to them as well ).. Being from Australia, kind of figures these would hate Phos. even though having no relation to anything in the Protea family, which also doesn't tolerate Phosphorus at all.

[palmsOrl]

Thank you Shiveringtropicals.  I would love to try one again someday.  They are amazing looking trees!

[Shiveringtropicals]

So here's an update on the wollemi pines.

I ended up planting it there and i even planted another next to it in the same area a year later.

It turned out to be a good decision the second one even grew past the older one, its really starting to look like a forest of them.😀

i really noticed their health improving over the last 2 years.

[thyerr01]

Those are some of the nicest Wollemi Pines I've seen, great job! What are the two in pots at the front?

[Shiveringtropicals]

1 hour ago, thyerr01 said:

Those are some of the nicest Wollemi Pines I've seen, great job! What are the two in pots at the front?

Thank you. The 2 in front are wollemi pines aswell, i'm not sure where i'm going to plant those just yet.