Benji - Major root surgery time!

[Drac0]

Picked up this benji last weekend at a garage sale. It's currently 75-80cm tall & about 5-6cm across the base.

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The pot is milk crate size with a good sized drainage gris in the bottom, covered with fly screen. The plastic container will go in the bottom to help lighten the crate. The tile is there to encourage lateral growth.

More to follow.

[Drac0]

Now the root system......

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The soil was basically bad garden soil - while cleaning I came across a 20 cent piece, a couple of clothes pegs, some broken jewelry and numerous lolly wrappers.

So all ready to go with the surgery but right now I have no idea where to go with it. Got it sitting in a weak seasol solution while I have some lunch & contemplate where to go. Always open to suggestions.


Cheers

[NathanM]

I would remove any directly downwards growing roots, remove any roots you don't want/need, trim roots back.
The I would cut the top fairly heavily, reduce the height and see where it shoots. Cut down to a low small branch as a new leader.

[Boics]

* Remove crossing, overlapping roots etc.

[Drac0]

I probably went a little far, but decided the roots really needed decimation. After even more cleaning this is what came out:

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As you can see there is one massive root & quite a number of large unwanted roots. But the real problem was at the top of the roots in the last image where it looks like the plant was attacked by borers. There is a large dead area & most of the roots around it were dead, leaving little on that side.

I gave the area a bit of a carve and am hoping it can later become a feature, maybe develop it into a split trunk. Will have to wait & see. After over an hour of raking the roots out I set to work. Using the toothpick method to try & make a decent nebari. The end results:

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And the final result, before working on the other end tomorrow afternoon.

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Cheers

[Boics]

Personally I would think with all that root removal that you might like (need) to take a bit off the top....
Some might even say a whole lot!?

[kcpoole]

I would remove a lot off the top too. At least take back the long lanky branches, but remember Benji can be poor performers when trying 5to get them to backshoot on old wood.

definitely leave some of the foliage on there.

Ken

[Drac0]

I would remove a lot off the top too. At least take back the long lanky branches, but remember Benji can be poor performers when trying 5to get them to backshoot on old wood.

definitely leave some of the foliage on there.

Ken

Yeah, that's the plan for tomorrow arvo, just ran out of time today.

Cheers

[bonsai_beginner]

Any updates on this tree?



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