Half bare rooting technique

[Scorpius]

Unclear what you mean. Barerooting or reducing? Half bare rooting a tall root mass doesn't really reduce the height...?

To reduce height on nursery trees in tall pots (And most any other nursery sourced tree) I just saw off the bottom 1/3 to 2/3 of the root mass to start. If it's deciduous, I also bare root.

Bare root top half and replace with bonsai substrate. Let new roots grow in top half. When tine comes you can then saw off the bottom half with no issues because you have nice new roots in the top half.

 

[bonsaichile]

I don't have to. You made your point and so did I.

Nursery material is a viable option for bonsai. Nursery grown plants are usually in tall containers and using the half bare root technique is a viable option to safely reduce the height of a root ball drastically so it will fit into a bonsai pot.

Nobody said nursert material is unsuitable for bonsai. All I said is that nursery trade techniques have a different purpose than bonsai techniques. Just because something is done in nurseries does not mean it is suitable to be done for bonsai purposes.

So yes, you need to re-reas and hopefully work on those reading comprehension skills. They will serve you later in life, kid

 

[Srt8madness]

Bare root top half and replace with bonsai substrate. Let new roots grow in top half. When tine comes you can then saw off the bottom half with no issues because you have nice new roots in the top half.

That seems like a recipie for disaster. The top half of the rootball would dry out quickly and the bottom half would be constantly waterlogged from the water table keeping the heavier nursery soil soaked.

 

[jradics]

Unclear what you mean. Barerooting or reducing? Half bare rooting a tall root mass doesn't really reduce the height...?

To reduce height on nursery trees in tall pots (And most any other nursery sourced tree) I just saw off the bottom 1/3 to 2/3 of the root mass to start. If it's deciduous, I also bare root.

I do the same with nursery material. Dump it out of the pot it came in, snip off the big roots, cut off bottom third or half, untangle the rest and put it back into a cut down nursery pot. chop the top if necessary, and let it sit for a year to see if it survives. No fancy japanese substrates, just finely ground pine bark, the same stuff nurseries use to produce fast growing roots and plants.

 

[Scorpius]

Well I'll see myself out of this thread.