AusBonsai

Hi Bonsai people I have been noticing that this bonsai has been lifting itself out of the pot.
On investigation it has become root bound with the biggest roots wrapping around the edge.
Also the potting mix has gone spongy so
the plant needs a major repot.
Would someone advise me on how hard could I root prune.The pot depth is about 2cm and I want to get as much new mix in the pot as possible. Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

You should be able to remove at least half of the root ball. You need to rake out all the roots and trim back to the pot shape. Make sure you use a free draining mix and put some in the pot first. I always cut back about half of the top as well to balance the roots. Make sure you water in the mix well to remove air pockets and seasol it for at least a week. Aftercare is the most important thing and never allow the roots to fully dry out.

Hi Lulu,
I have a couple of lilly pilly but I have not done enough with them to be an authority on the species however most other natives do far better when root pruned in the warmer weather. I note that you are on the North coast so maybe your climate is mild enough to get away with root pruning natives all year round but down here I would defer repotting nay natives until October or later.

Also note that lilly pilly covers several (related) species and I'm not sure whether they all have the same requirements.
Look forward to other contributions if other growers have better personal experience with one or more of these species.

In general I follow similar guidelines to Bougy fan but often prune roots harder than 1/2 on species I'm confident with.

Hi Lulu,

Definitely not an expert but I did document the root work I did to a lilly pilly last October. This Syzygium australe 'Bush Christmas' had been in this same pot for about nine years. The rootball been had cut in half a couple of times however, the fine roots had become so dense that it was very hard to water. I went pretty hard on the roots, removing the downward growing roots, reducing the thick horizontal roots and thinning out the fine surface roots. I also removed quite a lot of the foliage at the same time but I don't have a photograph sorry. Anyway here is the tree back in March. Subsequently, this tree has been to a Hugh Grant workshop, where the structure was set for the future.
Hope this helps

Terry