Impossible Hinoki Cypress? need Help/advice

[Koenye]

Hi Bonsai friends!

1 year ago I had the chance to dig out this Hinoki from someone’s garden. Because my car was too small (Nissan Almera from 1998), I already had to make a first selection of branches.

When I came home I realized the roots where waaayyy to big to fit in the pot I got for it. So my only option was to place it in this big tub. the roots where basically one big piece of rock .

It’s Already standing there for 1 year now I’m and happy it survived so far!

To be honest, I don’t really know what should be my way to go with this tree:

-when to wire it for the first time?
-how to get rid of the big stump of roots (saw??)
-when to repot it?
-will it Budback near the trunk?

I would love to hear some guidelines!
Thanks in advantage and enjoy your weekend

 

[Potawatomi13]

Mostly do not know these. However not much foliage near trunk but these likely what you need to develop tree from so preserve. Does container have good drainage? Need to leave awhile in current container for recovery. Next potting should try to shorten bottom of rootball.

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

Might be a better option to air layer a the branches off right before the foliage. Optionally, you could wire the branches that are bendable, put some movement in them, leave for a year or so for the bends to set, remove the wire, and then layer them off.

Most will tell you hinoki don't really back bud, so once the foliage is that far out, there's nothing you can really do apart from setting some extreme bends to bring it in.
There might be a tree in there somewhere, but my unskilled eyes can't see it.

If it were mine, I'd opt for 10 really nice shohin size hinoki over one big lanky one. Just my 2 cents

One thing to consider if you do air layer, is layers tend to produce the best roots when the branches are vertical. If they're horizontal, they often only produce roots on the bottom of the branch rather than radially.

 

[Clicio]

They do not backbud.
At all.

 

[River's Edge]

So to sum up, wire up the remaining branches to make it easier to air layer them next year if they survive. Strengthen the tree over this year with lots of fertilizer and frequent watering. Then air layer the branches with foliage to create some smaller starter pre bonsai.
When developing retain as much foliage as you can closest to the trunk and inner locations on branches, they do not back bud.
There is no point in worrying about reducing the existing root ball as the main portion of the tree is not very useful for Bonsai.

Second option would be to plant in the garden and try to create a landscape specimen over time!