When repotting bonsai, I try to keep roots exposed to air for as little time as possible. When I know what pot a tree will be planted in ahead of time, I’ll add wire and screen to the pot before I begin the rootwork. I knew I’d plant my sawara cypress into a terra cotta […]
Repotting
Partially bare-rooting sawara cypress
When repotting coniferous bonsai growing in nursery soil – typically soil with a lot of organic material – I try to remove all of the soil from a portion of the rootball. How much old soil I remove or bare-root depends on how many roots I find and the overall health of the tree. In […]
Reducing the rootball
When repotting a bonsai for the first time, I begin by looking for the transition from trunk to roots. After finding this transition, I can then determine how much of the remaining rootball to keep. Options for reducing the rootball include carefully combing out the roots and reducing their length or simply cutting them, soil and […]
Initial repotting
Repotting bonsai for the first time is not without an element of excitement. When the transition from trunk to roots is buried, it can take some work to find out what the nebari, or surface roots actually look like. And considering that the roots can be very important to the overall look and value of […]
Repotting a Western juniper
It had been a while since I last repotted my Western juniper. Although the drainage remained good, I’d been anxious to repot since styling the tree last fall and deciding on a new planting angle. Wester juniper – August 2012 To maintain the angle indicated during the last styling, I affixed an aluminum wire that […]