AusBonsai

Thanks for this, very informative .

Very valid observations Mike! As a past mass murderer of stock trees, your message resonates.

It's almost as if growing bonsai stock in ordinary nursery pots (or heaven forbid, oversized bonsai pots) is somehow flawed....
Overwater? Nope. Overfeed? Difficult. Improved performance of store bought potting mixes? Yes, on the proviso that you don't use complete junk.

UV stability with some of these containers has been mentioned by a few people to be an issue, it has taken a bit of trial and error for me to find the expected working life of these, however clockwise from bottom left: 4-5 years, 2 years and running (still trialling these ones), 6 years+ (drilling out regular nursery pots does compromise them a little) and 4-6 years. The large black crates are fully UV stable for 10+ years. All figures full sun, an hour northeast of Melbourne.

All sarcasm aside, my advice to anyone growing bonsai would be to ditch nursery pots or modify them.

Cheers,
Mojo