New trident maple, too late to re pot?

[bonsai_beginner]

I just received this lovely little trident maple and I've notice roots coming through the drain holes of the pot.

I'm wondering, is it too late to repot it?







I think it might be too late to comb out the roots and re pot it. Am I right?

Thanks


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[Pearcy001]

Hey BB,

Even though there is roots coming out it may not be pot bound. I'd slip it out to have a look without disturbing the roots and check how bad they are. If you're not sure take a photo to put up while its out.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

[Bougy Fan]

You can carefully slip pot it but I would not recommend disturbing the roots too much if you inexperienced.

[treeman]

A few roots at the bottom doesn't mean it needs repotting and this one looks fine. Just leave it as is and give it a feed.

[bonsai_beginner]

Okay great! I'll have a quick look at the roots tomorrow and take a photo

Thank you


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[bonsai_beginner]

Here are some pics of the roots.








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[Bougy Fan]

Holy crap I think treeman has to eat his words - that is shockingly root bound. You can tease out some of the wrapped around roots and trim them and leave most of the centre root ball intact. Put into a bigger pot and fill around with mix. Keep it in semi shade for a few weeks with seasol for the first week. I would defoliate it was well if it were mine.

[Truth]

Yeah try to rake out some of the circling roots, and lightly trim the ends of some of them. Plant it ideally in the ground to give it the most strength, or into a bigger pot back filled with some inorganic substrate.

I wouldn't want to be leaving it as is, it'll only get worse otherwise.

[bonsai_beginner]

This will be my first attempt at doing this.
So I try and remove as much of the soil from between the roots as possible, tease out any of the longer roots that have wrapped around and then repot it into a larger pot and back fill with soil?

What happens if the root mass is just solid roots? Do I cut into it? Or leave that for next year?

Thanks


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[treeman]

Holy crap I think treeman has to eat his words - that is shockingly root bound.

Ok wheres my Knife and fork.

[shibui]

Holy crap I think treeman has to eat his words - that is shockingly root bound.

I have to disagree Bougie. True there are roots circling the outside of the mix but there is still plenty of spaces in the mix for water, air and more roots. I'd be happy to keep this tree for another 12 months and have seen far worse. I know this tree has been in the pot for just 12 months (see below)

So I try and remove as much of the soil from between the roots as possible, tease out any of the longer roots that have wrapped around and then repot it into a larger pot and back fill with soil?

What happens if the root mass is just solid roots? Do I cut into it? Or leave that for next year?

Here's the dilemma. I have shown that it is possible to repot tridents in full leaf at my place but cannot confirm that it will work everywhere for all abilities. I would be comfortable with cutting roots and repotting but cannot yet guarantee that it will be ok for everybody.
Safest option is just slip pot. Part fill a large pot with mix. place rootball exactly as you have shown it without moving any roots and fill with more mix. This one is not too root bound that it will cause problems by difference between new and old mix/ roots.
2nd option. Break root ball apart by hand without breaking too many roots. Pot up as above. No problem because you are removing few if any roots.
3rd option. Cut any outside, circling roots and pot up into new mix. Essentially a full root prune and repot. According to my trials should be possible but I can't be absolutely certain . Conventional bonsai wisdom says this is not possible

Disclaimer: I grew this tree and have just sent it to BB.

[Bougy Fan]

Ha ha I will get you a napkin Mike. I am happy to defer to shibui's advice - perhaps just a slip pot is in order ? This is a perfect example of advice being location and experience dependent. I would not want to have a Trident that rootbound in summer here in Brissy. And with my level of experience I would be comfortable doing as I have advised. But you have to decide what you are comfortable with BB. I will note it has been said that unless you are killing trees you aren't learning

[bonsai_beginner]

Hahaha well as my name would suggest I'm just beginning and maybe it's not best to perform my first re pot and root prune at a time that could be dangerous for the tree haha

I think I'll probably play it safe for now and slip pot it into something a little bigger and wait till next year to do any real root pruning

Thanks all for the advice


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[dansai]

When you do go to repot check out shibui's post on repotting tridents. You may be surprised how much you can cut off a trident. Not advisable for most other species.

On repotting time, I'm with shibui. I've repotted trees out of proper season many times before I knew better (if you call reading conservative wisdom knowing better). Although most of my trees are natives and so don't have an exact season other than when it's warm (all but about 4 weeks where I am) I have done Japanese maples in leaf and black pines in summer. I personally would be fine trimming the roots back on your plant, but it will be fine to leave it to next year. Just don't be scared to be ruthless when you do.

[NAHamilton]

Hi Bonsai Beginner, I'm still pretty new to Bonsai so thought I'd get in on this as I've just been potting and root pruning a few chinese elms which are in full leaf.

Last year I bought a load of Shibui's trident seedlings, ran out of pots and threw a load of them into one big collander. Early January I had some spare time and pots available so I split them up (10 or so if I remember right. I pruned the roots right back to untangle them, and potted them individually. They went straight back into the same spot of full sun until mid afternoon. No problems.

And now to my point I reckon just get stuck into it and teach yourself some lessons (assuming the tree wasn't too expensive). The elms I was talking about are only starters, $15 or $20 I think so if they die it's a fairly cheap lesson. It's excellent value for money if you learn to prune the roots, repot and provide the necessary aftercare to keep them in health.

Just to repeat this isn't expert information I'm giving you, it's more advice to get stuck in and learn from mistakes. Although I'm pretty confident what you'll learn is these trees are way tougher than we give them credit for.

Cheers,
Nigel