AusBonsai

Waw! That was a serious root cut back. I see many of you are repotting this time. Up to when do you do your repots? Is it not too early?
I am worried now...off to London of the 1st july and coming back end of the month...I have lots to repot and not sure if august will be fine?

Looking good Shibui. Amazing how far you can cut the roots back. Might have to start pruning mine back a bit harder. I like the idea of splitting the roots too. Would this work on a large tree?

Josh.

Hi Neli. Have a good trip and don't worry. Repotting can be done safely for a lot of the year. We see Grant Bowie and others repotting pines in March and April, Craig W and some others are repotting cedars in mid summer. I have shown that I can successfully bare root and root prune trident maples in November and December when they are growing fast. Maybe here and I assume where you are the climate is different from Japan and we can get away with things they would not or maybe this insistence on repotting only when buds are swelling is just another bonsai myth that has been perpetuated because growers are frightened to ask questions or try new things.
I start to repot my deciduous trees as soon as the leaves have fallen and continue up to bud swell. I usually try to leave Japanese maples and elms until later because I think they are susceptible to fungal infection through the cut roots in cold, wet mix.
I have no problem cutting the roots of tridents hard. the cut roots branch out and produce a far better nebari.

Josh. I have seen others splitting roots of larger trees as well. Sometimes it produces the desired effect but not always. A really hard cut initially gives a far better result.

Thanks Neil,
I have been digging trees from the bush every month of the year...and I was told they will not live...they will die....this is the wrong time of the year...most of them with few exceptions lived.
Oyakata also told me with the proper after care you can repot any time, but dont tell that to any one because if they do it, and if the tree dies they will say I dont know what I am talking about.
I just did not want to take chances with my expensive trees, and thought that deciduous and conifers, are a bit different from the local trees.
Tropicals I repot during all warm month, so I planned all the repots for august and left that month for that.
I have also lots of trees in the ground. Some I plan to dig out and sort out the roots like you in august. But some what I do it dig on one quarter of the roots and chop short 1-3 roots and bury again. I mark the part I cut back, and do the same with another section 2 month later during the growing season.
Thanks for the reassurance and advise.

Great little tree Neil I have one of your quinces and it is shooting leaves everywhere should I repot and root prune now or is the tree just confused from the relocation up here

I'm not sure Dan.e. Sometimes the trees do get confused, especially when they get a bit of warmth after a cool spell so maybe it thinks spring has come early. Note that Chinese quince do not always drop leaves. The ones in the grow beds have green leaves all year. Safest to leave it for now and see what happens. It might settle into dormancy if you get some cool weather but it seems better to repot these in spring anyway and it does not seem to matter if they still have green leaves when you do root pruning.

Thanks Neil

Thanks for the up-date mate, very interesting.

I'm not sure this trident has developed much but I'll put it up for consideration again anyway.

The fine print says 2 current photos so here's the second to confirm entry this year.

This trident has had a winter prune and repot since last time. The nebari does not show in that photo but it does have a reasonable radial root system.

Well, all the pieces for this one seem to have fallen into place!

Great tree Neil and will only improve now that the big corner has been turned

Lovely tree shibui.
Looks great with the exra bits gone. Excellent taper and trunk movemebt

Sent from my SM-G800Y using Tapatalk

This trident scored a place in a shohin group displayed at Canberra Bonsai Society show this spring. No special work, just trimming as needed, regular watering and occasional fertiliser.

Congratulations Shibui,

Great thread too.

Thank-you,
Kevin