Live Bonsai Tree Emergency Repotting
Overcome many challenges when repotting a neglected bonsai. How to repot a live bonsai tree that is severely overdue for repotting.
How to safely remove a bonsai from its pot.
How to handle decomposed soil.
How to safely handle the roots of the bonsai.
How to choose which roots to prune and which to keep.
How to secure a bonsai tree in the pot so that roots may quickly re-establish.
This Cotoneaster bonsai semi-cascade has been neglected and badly needs to be repotted. There are several challenges, all can be confidently overcome.
This cotoneaster is arguably one of the most valuable trees in my garden all the roots coming out of the bottom of the pot here it’s desperate for a repot if i leave it like this it’s going to continue to decline it’s already got some die back but if i fail or go too far it’ll get even worse it may even die so i cannot screw this up i don’t really want to have to do any pruning so this tree can preserve its energy but these suckers coming from the base of the plant a they’re in the way and b they’re just going to keep stealing energy from the top of the tree so i definitely don’t want these i’ve got to get rid of them for the next step i’m going to very carefully pull some soil back see if i can’t find the location of the nabari so this tree came into the garden over the winter definitely not me that let it get in this state the previous owner just didn’t have time to maintain this collection so i bought the lot so i’ve started to hit some bonsai soil here i’d normally go a bit further see if we can’t find any structural routes but time’s really against me i’ve got another i’ve got a japanese maple that i need to repot as well let’s see about getting this tree out the pot so there’s a lot of dead wood on this tree and the live vein isn’t very thick and i’ve noticed just giving it a wiggle there’s a little bit of play in that i’m not going to really crank hard on the trunk to get it out of the pot because i’m just going to snap it and i have to actually come in with the karma and dig it right out there’s the karma repotting sickle whatever you want to call it i’m just going to scrape around the edge tell you what i’m going to come underneath and get rid of this the roots that are on the bottom that’s going to make the pot a lot more stable good grief it’s absolutely solid got to come in with the weapon mass destruction i think if this is how much roots on the outside what’s going to be on the inside the shape of this pot is not making it easy oh my word it’s wobbling all over the place i’ll say hey thinking if only had a tool especially designed for cutting through lots of root and soil and arms if i’m not careful oh dear there you go all right let’s get a little test pull and where the live vein is just going to gently put some pressure now see the trunks moving independently of the root ball so i need to do some more work oh there you go oh gotcha yes let’s see if we can get this amount of roots off try and maintain a nice flat bottom under this matter of roots all the while i’ve got to watch out for this dead wood i don’t want to snap any dead wood off this tree if i can help it no it’s there’s too many thick roots down here i’m going to go with the chopstick and there’s no point being gentle with this mata roots down here if i leave it in place it’s just going to hamper water and oxygen penetration so i’m going to cut any roots that start at the bottom and go back up any damaged ones and any of this fine matted root that we’ve got until i can find my way to some friable soil or at least soil anyway so now that i know that i’ve got some decent friable soil on the bottom and there’s enough for me to work with and the roots aren’t too bad i am going to do a bit more work up the top here a lot of the trees that came from this collection all have terrible soil at the top which is why i’ve kind of not gone too far just in case i had to remove a ton of root just to get it out of the pot nice uh structural roots there be careful around those right now that i can see what i’m doing i think i’ll get some of these tie downs out of the way as well right the bulk of the work done i’m just going to come in with a finer chopstick that’s much more kind on those structural roots cottonyastro i’ve got beautiful fine roots but it does mean you have to be extra gentle with them i have had issues with nursery stock protonia so i’ve repotted in the past i’ve gone a little bit gung-ho with the old uh the old root rake you end up removing far more root than you realize yeah we’ve got quite a lot of black in here so it wouldn’t surprise me if we’ve got a a core of really old broken down compacted organic soil underneath the trunk underneath the trunk which is certainly partly why it’s not very healthy the temptation is to simply do the top sides and bottom and pot it again but you’re just delaying the problem really i don’t want to risk the tree you know what do i do just do the top sides and bottom or do i grab the ball by the horns and get this muck out and just just deal with the problem at its root right now i don’t want to be the one to kill this tree i love this tree it’s a big risk to clear all this out you know no matter how hard i try i’m gonna i’m gonna have to remove roots to get through to it right so now that i’ve identified the location of the main structural routes i can now really really effectively get underneath and start excavating this really bad soil i’m doing minimum damage here and hopefully you can see i’ve removed very little in the way of roots that’s the beauty of the chopstick is it’s just so sensitive and delicate that i’m doing minimal damage and still able to get the job done quickly or efficiently look at the color difference like we got this this very dark organic material versus this beautiful akadama all right i think i’ve done as much as i can from the top now so you’ve got some nice friable soil through here and that’s why i’ve been focusing on the top got some nice intact particles hopefully i can leave some roots some of them beautiful roots that are formed in this intact akadama i can leave those untouched just clean out as much of the organic stuff as i possibly can from below and then the tree can go on and thrive that’s the that’s the plan anyway any roots that are just thick and don’t have much feedback i can cut so this thick root here i think this is one of the ones that was poking at the bottom of the pot and i can see clearly there’s not a lot of feeder root attached to it so i’m just going to come in and slice that out of the way and where we’ve got that dense packed soil on the top of the uh the root system it’s very dry under here obviously water has not been percolating well through that organic soil i have to keep these roots hydrated i think quick spray in some thicker structural pieces i’m just going to work around those i’m not going to cut them if i don’t know what they’re doing yes now just clean some of this out best as i can i’ll still be leaving some organic matter around the edges underneath this slot let’s just at the moment that’s fine i’m happy to leave some root ball untouched the untouched roots are going to help this tree survive the operation and i can come back and sort the organic stuff out that i leave behind at the next repot if i don’t want to do a complete bare rooting simply because the tree is not healthy enough if the tree was a young piece of nursery stock i’d happily bare root it and do whatever but if it was a young piece of nursery stock it wouldn’t be this blooming difficult it starts to feel wood up there now so i’m right under the trunk lovely but i’m just going to very quickly get rid of any of these matted roots from the side so that the root ball can integrate with the new fresh saw that i’m going to put there we in all right and then any damage roots or circling roots now to make sure i can get soil in all the air pockets underneath some of the areas of old soil that i’m leaving on i’ve just i’ve dug some strategically placed holes and i’m going to use another piece of chopstick just to sit in there so i can see where they are i’ve got another one under there to get under this big root poke a nice long chopstick through there so i don’t lose it i’ve lost some pieces of this what a [Music] disaster [Music] so [Music] uh so we’ve got a lot of dust which means i’ve over chop sticked because there were some really tricky spots to get some soil into i’m just going to cut back some of these uh loose roots we’ve got the more useful ones i’ll pin down i think one’s a point enough and on all sorts of different directions they can get cut off right i’m just going to use a hook to pin these roots down there we go that’s better this is the last one it’s gonna hold it in place nicely [Music] a little wire hook like that that’s better there we i have go settled in nice top dressing of moss keep those roots nice and protected as well as stabilize the surface of the soil just a quick spray holds that moss in place when i go water it in and once water we’re done just gotta hope it’s gonna survive now though
