A Couple of Junipers

[RobGA]

The Junipers I purchased the other day, keep calling me. I ended up repotting the Shimpaku as it was so root bound, I felt Georgia weather would allow it and now the roots can spread in a nice mix of akadama, pumice and lava rock 1:1:1. Fingers crossed. Plan to style in the spring.

The other, a Procumbens nana, just looks like it needs some help. The roots on the surface are many and many look like they must be dead as they are not in the soil. Should I forget it until spring? In the meantime do I cover those surface roots with anything?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I would scrape some dirt from the bottom of the procumbens, sink it deeper into the pot and use what you scraped off to top it up.

Roots growing sideways along the container wall don't mean a plant is root bound. It looks like your itoigawa had plenty of room left to grow more roots. I point this out because I want more people to understand that it's OK to do something if our hands are itching, but I think it's not in all of our best interests to call something rootbound when it isn't. We might give people the wrong impression. Rootbound means that the top growth has stalled due to the physical limitations of the pot; there is a dense mass of tangled roots that barely have any soil left. If you can poke a chopstick in there and not touch any roots, it's not rootbound. I mean to say this with the best intentions, sorry if it comes off as harsh.

I do see that the soil is organic and in a rich black color. This hints towards potential overwatering issues. Bonsai in organic soil require way less waterings than our plants in bonsai soil would.
It's good if you can keep that in the back of your mind when watering. Mine do fine with once every two weeks for conifers. My maples however, demand weekly or twice a week in organic soils.

Nice plants by the way! I hope you do well together!

 

[RobGA]

Did a slip pot into a larger pot to get the finer roots covered. Didn’t disturb the soil the tree was in and covered the finer roots with moss. Used the same 1:1:1 mix. Will repot to a bonsai pot late winter/early spring and work on getting the roots sorted out.

 

[Bonsai Forest]

Looking good.