Pot bound Japanese cedar.

Allymc · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:34 am Post subject: Pot bound Japanese cedar.

Hi there,

I am new to the bonsai and after reading round the subject for a few weeks i have taken the plunge as it were and purchased a Japanese cedar from a local nursery to train as a bonsai about two weeks ago.

I though i had chosen well regarding the shape of the tree etc. However it was quite pot bound and i thought it was best to re-pot it asap.

A week later as the weather was a little warmer i decided to re-pot it into a new pot , not a small bonsai pot as i heard that the stress of that would kill it. I started to try and tease out the roots and remove some of the compost it was in. All was going well but after a time it became increasingly difficult to get the compost out from between the roots due to the congested circular mass of the roots.

I managed to remove about half of the compost , as well as loads of roots that came away as well !

At this point after about 2 hours I thought i was never going to get compost out with out totally damaging the tree and killing it, so i potted it up into a new pot with some new compost. I pruned off some branches and gave it a water. I was going to wire it but decided against it.

Have i done the right thing ? will my bonsai die ?

HELP !!!!

kenuk · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:13 am Post subject: Re: Pot bound Japanese cedar.

Hi and welcome

I think your ceder should be o/k, i don't think you will have pruned too many roots.

Another way to get rid of the old compost would have been with a gentle jet of water from a hose pipe, or just washing the roots in a bucket of water.

But let the tree settle now for a bit.

Surrey John · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:14 am Post subject: Re: Pot bound Japanese cedar.

Hi Allymc - welcome to Bonsai Help, where you will receive courteous and useful answers to all your questions, from experts in at least three continents! And what a dificult situation you have come up against with your cedar.

I am not one of the experts in three continents, and I don't have a Japanese Cedar, but I have dealt with several heavily tangled and dense root balls. It seems to me on balance, provided you have used a good porous granular soil mix with plenty of grit in it to encourage rapid drainange, that the best thing to do now is to leave it in its new pot for a year or two to grow on and givie it time to replace the roots you have inevitably cut out with the root combing. Then, after a couple of years (possibly even just one), have another go at it. When I have tackled heavily pot bound root systems, or very thickly entangled root balls,I have found one good wheeze is to have a bucket 2/3 full of water handy, and in between sessions of light, gentle, pruning and combing to dunk the root ball in the water and shake and twist it quite vigorously. You need to hold the trunk quite firmly to do this, and as near to the base as you can, to minimise the torque on the trunk when you twist. The water in the bucket will wash out a lot of the soil you couldn't get at with the rake, and you will also be able to see much more clearly where the roots are in the ball, so it gets easier to rake them. Another good way to clear the soil from the roots is with a hosepipe and a fine single jet of water - play it into the root ball to remove the soil.

I'd like to add one final point. If you haven't used a porous soil mix as described above, then I would actually consider repotting it again now, but I would wait for answers from three continents before taking my final decision.

Best of luck! Stay with us and let us see the progress of the tree.

Cheers. Smile

SJ

Stymie · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:41 am Post subject: Re: Pot bound Japanese cedar.

Ally.
You didn't mention what kind of mix you have repotted into. This information could be quite helpful to us. Does it drain freely?

Allymc · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:46 am Post subject: Re: Pot bound Japanese cedar.

Hi ,

I used a mix of some bonsai compost i brought from a DIY shop ( not the "special " Japanese stuff ) and coarse gravel / grit as i heard that conifers prefer a more gritty compost.

Should that be OK ?

Cheers

Stymie · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:52 am Post subject: Re: Pot bound Japanese cedar.

That sounds fine. Don't feed it until next month. We would like to see a photograph if you have one.

Allymc · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:57 am Post subject: Re: Pot bound Japanese cedar.

Thanks for the advice

Fingers crossed !

yamadorinige · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:18 pm Post subject: Re: Pot bound Japanese cedar.

I repotted a new Japanese cedar( Cryptomeria japonica) last year and had exactly the same problem with the rootball being more root than soil.
I started off by removing the bottom third of the rootball with a pruning saw, then attempting to rake the roots out but it was so congested that I just gave up and put in a pot as it was. The tree is doing fine, as I think yours will.
It would be best if you keep the tree in a semi-shaded area for about 3-4 weeks to give it chance to recover. I wouldn't do any work on the tree during this time.
When you wire the trunk/ branches it will be best if you tightly wrap them with raffia of electrical tape as the bark and cambium have a tendency to separate from the wood when bent. Further information can be found here:
http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Cryptomeria.html