Reasons Not to Repot a Bonsai Tree
I explain several good reasons to NOT repot your bonsai tree with root pruning.
You can “slip pot” your bonsai into a large pot at any time, if you do not prune or damage the roots.
See part 1 for good reasons to prune the roots, and when to do it.
Welcome back to part two of this series on repotting your bonsai stay tuned [Music] welcome back to blue sky bonsai my name’s dave and in this episode i’m going to be talking through five reasons why you shouldn’t repot your bonsai now in part one of this series i talked through 10 reasons approximately speaking why you should repot your bonsai in spring if you haven’t watched that yet please do go ahead and watch it you can see it here so why should you not repot your bonsai the first big reason is if it’s the wrong time of year and as we saw in the last episode in the energy calendar there are a few wrong times of year in autumn your tree is storing away the last of the energy down into the lower trunk and into the roots not a good time to be pruning off those roots [Music] and in winter the tree is dormant and all of that energy is stored in the lower trunk and in the roots again not a good time to be pruning off those roots and a quick side note here you can actually slip pot your bonsai into a bigger pot at any time of the year that means taking the whole root ball the whole of the soil tried to not disturb the roots and put it into a bigger pot you can do that any time of year moving on to the second reason you wouldn’t want to repot your bonsai if it is in some way suffering if the health is not so great on your bonsai for example if it has a fungal infection or an insect infestation in those cases you need to treat the fungus or you need to treat the insects get rid of them but don’t repot it at those times and the reason is because as your tree is recovering from those problems it might have lost its leaves due to the fungal treatment it’s going to need all the root mass it can to re-grow those leaves a third reason not to repot your bonsai is because if you want it to grow bigger if you want to fatten up the trunk or just grow the whole tree a bit bigger just leave the roots undisturbed let the roots do their work let it grow pruning the roots of a bonsai tree does limit the size of the bonsai tree once you put a small tree into a small pot you’re not going to get much growth after that i don’t expect this little japanese maple to fatten up much at all in the next 10 years realistically and if i wanted it to i’d put it into a bigger pot and i would not do root pruning i wouldn’t disturb the roots [Music] the fourth reason not to repot your bonsai and do root pruning is because if you’re doing some major branch pruning if you’re going to cut off a few big branches and remove a lot of the foliage mass you need all the root mass you can still keep to put out new top growth so don’t prune the roots if you’re doing major branch pruning and once again you can do slip potting if you’ve pruned off a few big branches you can slip pot into a bigger pot without touching the roots any time of year no problem [Music] and the fifth reason to not repot your bonsai and prune the roots is what if those roots haven’t actually filled out the container that it’s in at the time if the roots are still growing healthily and there’s still space in the container from to grow further let it grow on it’ll be good for the tree as the roots grow those tiny invisible root hairs are in all the little pores between the soil or even in the soil just literally by taking out the pot and looking at the roots you may damage those root hairs so try not to remove any soil if you’re not going to repot the tree [Music] that is in a pretty healthy state it is not pot bound and i’m not going to repot it so here’s a very good example of a tree that i don’t need to repot yet because the soil is still looking healthy and it’s not pop-bound the roots have not pervaded the whole pot yet so i’m literally going to put it straight back in [Music] [Applause] let’s just put the tree straight back in there [Music] push it down see one little route that was around the side there when it hasn’t developed so well and like in this case then we leave it another year but it’s curious that it hasn’t grown that so much [Music] and now on to that famous sixth reason why you shouldn’t repot if you don’t have enough fresh bonsai soil whatever soil mix you’re using if you don’t have enough of it don’t start the job get the supplies and then start what you shouldn’t do is half repot the tree leave the roots still exposed whilst you’re going out to get some new soil or whatever those roots may dry out so don’t start the job if you can’t finish it in part three i’m going to show you some important tips that could be vital to help keep your bonsai super healthy before during and after repotting so don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already done so thank you so much for watching please hit the like and share buttons and feel free to leave a comment if you’ve got any questions or suggestions and i’ll see you soon in part three
