The first repotting of yamadori bonsai material is the second high risk operation on the road to becoming a bonsai tree. Here is how I deal with field soil during the repotting process of this Potentilla yamadori bonsai material.
Bonsai beginners: how to make a bonsai tree, one must learn bonsai repotting. repotting bonsai for beginners is mysterious or stressful. in this bonsai tutorial, I show how bonsai repotting can be done the endless ritual must go on. bonsai are so expensive, so how to repot bonsai is an important skill! but starting into bonsai is so expensive, so there are mistakes to avoid. somedays at mirai how to repot bonsai is taught in the workshop – bonsai tree repotting, yamadori repotting all stages of repotting bonsai.
when restoring a neglected bonsai, the root system should be a priority.
Progressing pre-bonsai towards becoming a fully fledged bonsai means systematically working the root ball down to a size that can fit into a suitable bonsai pot this yamadori potentia pre-bonsai has been in this pot for several years now i’m going to repot it work the routes and see what we find i picked this tree up over winter as part of a 36 tree collection the previous owner tells me that it hasn’t been repotted for several years and that’s sort of borne out in some of the die back that we’ve got in these branches start by getting it out of this pot are there any tie downs oh no it’s not tied in so i can just start taking it out now there’s a bit of movement there yeah i don’t want to force it so i’m gonna have to dig it out i need to get a nice angle here so that i can get past the lip that’s in the pot once i can get past this lip get right down in there it’s a little bit awkward because the sides ribbed so with a little bit more finesse now i’m going to work down from the top see what nabari we’ve got trying to be nice and careful in close to the trunk there just so i don’t damage any of the structural roots when i come to them but i’m being fairly vigorous here i need to get through this what we’ve got here is a core of organic soil whether that’s field soil or compost potting mix i don’t know then on the outside we had some uh slightly more modern bonsai soil so there’s probably a lot of organics in the inside here maybe we can sort some of that out as well oh my goodness aha look yeah there’s a bit of a structural route there not sure if it’s actually a dead piece or not or whether it’s living but that is exactly what i’m looking for where we start to get into these structural pieces i know that i’m at the right depth i’m starting to uncover some nabari you see lovely just need to go nice and careful here because the roots are back bud so to speak potential don’t call us as such so i don’t want to do any damage to the nebari there’s another bit let just in there that’s another structural piece ah look at this here we’ve got some really black organic probably field soil here it’s really quite dense cakey yeah i definitely want to deal with this this muck i don’t want to leave this in at this iteration we’ve got black roots in here i don’t know whether those are living or not rather than uncovering that negari i’d much prefer to deal with some of this mucky old soil and i come underneath the trunk now i wonder it weighs a lot let’s go gravel down here [Applause] getting rid of this field soil is the absolute best thing to do with the health of the plant but i can’t lie i am not looking forward to this oh more glass fantastic repotting this tree is hazardous it’s dead root here cut that out because it’s smack bang in the way there’s more dead stuff in there but yeah i can just wanted to isolate it before i cut it just in case i was cutting into live material all right so that’s live that’s good there we go nice live route there dead let’s just mush peel that off my fingers but if i can i want to get all this black stuff out although that’s starting to get loose now look i might have to stop soon i run the risk of destabilizing the tree that’s uh on dodgy ground then right some of these wedges are getting a bit unstable now so i’m going to support the trunk with my hand and carry on trying to get this muck out we’re getting there they they’re getting close [Music] well that’s that’s not too bad in there i might leave this section that route’s dead but it looks pretty structural i’m just going to leave that bit that’s fine so there’s a almost a lateral vein of field soil and we’ve pretty much taken a whole wedge out here under the trunk and then this side as well i’ve got a really good idea on where the structural roots are the living at least i’m just going gonna just finish off around the top trim back some of these torn roots work the sides where they were cut with the karma and then i’ll get it potted if anyone’s wondering why i’m not bare rooting this or washing it off in the garden there’s a couple of reasons first as soon as you start washing it off you can’t change your mind similar to how you treat a conifer i do want to leave some of this root system untouched you know i’m not doing this to spread out the base as if it was a maple or anything like that and by leaving some of it untouched where there’s some decent soil hanging around it’s just i know that it’s going to recover really well then also with the health slightly questionable i just think it’s wiser to leave some of the roots untouched i can always come in later and sort them then oh yeah and the other reason was because i just really worried about destabilizing the tree much like a juniper these these guys have a tendency for the whole veins to die back and obviously with a lot of the roots that i’ve seen being dead i am just a little bit cautious although the more that i uh the more that i work this section the more black field soil that i’m coming across so who knows what this is going to look like just have to have the discipline to stop now you see that bit right there that is the bit of the root ball that i’m going to leave untouched oh my god discipline don’t you say a word little tip with your training pots watch out for these little insets they’ll just sit with pools of water in them stick some holes through them [Applause] [Music] thank uh [Music] it’s several weeks later now i’ve been protecting the potential pre-bonsai from frosts in the polytunnel over there after producing its first flush of leaves it paused as potential tend to do and it’s just showing signs of starting to extend admittedly not as vigorous as some of my other potential that haven’t been repotted and it’s even producing a few little flower buds so i think it’s safe to say that it survived the operation so now i’ve started fertilizing i’m just gonna let it rock out and when it’s producing some really strong growth i’m gonna come in and do some initial styling to set it up really nicely on its bonsai journey if you watched this far in the video you obviously enjoyed it so please drop a like it really helps the channel out and it makes me really happy if you want to see the first styling on this tree in a few months time make sure you subscribe then you won’t miss it
