Keep it or Cut it?

Brian Van Fleet · Apr 13, 2021

Night shot...

ConorDash · Apr 13, 2021

Brian Van Fleet said:
Repotted today. The nebari is starting to spread out nicely. One day I’ll be able to expose a pretty wide base.
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Any particular reason you left the roots quite long?
Obviously nice and fibrous, not long and thick, but seems like you could have shortened radially by a few inches, to give it more root to produce more in the pot?

Awesome base and nebari, really lovely. Ill create that one day...

Brian Van Fleet · Apr 13, 2021

ConorDash said:
Any particular reason you left the roots quite long?
Obviously nice and fibrous, not long and thick, but seems like you could have shortened radially by a few inches, to give it more root to produce more in the pot?

Awesome base and nebari, really lovely. Ill create that one day...

To what advantage? I have some specific reasons for the way I did it, but am curious about the question.

ConorDash · Apr 13, 2021

Brian Van Fleet said:
To what advantage? I have some specific reasons for the way I did it, but am curious about the question.

Ah, everyone loves a good question as an answer to a question

, holding the info hostage till your demands are met!

For further ramification of roots. More ramification, more growth, wider base.

Paradox · Apr 13, 2021

ConorDash said:
Ah, everyone loves a good question as an answer to a question , holding the info hostage till your demands are met!

Some call it a teaching moment... lol

leatherback · Apr 13, 2021

Paradox said:
Some call it a teaching moment... lol

Yup. The best teaching happens when the teacher asks a question and shuts up.
Never had international students more frustrated than when good teaching was going on!

Brian Van Fleet · Apr 13, 2021

ConorDash said:
Any particular reason you left the roots quite long?
Obviously nice and fibrous, not long and thick, but seems like you could have shortened radially by a few inches, to give it more root to produce more in the pot?

1. In 2014, I took this tree to a Kathy Shaner workshop, and we repotted it, aggressively reducing the roots. The result was this:
https://nebaribonsai.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/its-always-the-little-things/. It taught me how far I can safely push this tree.

2. The tree is repotted annually (except 2020), so I have a reasonable expectation of what kind of root growth to expect in a year. The tree has plenty of room to grow.

3. Since I skipped last year, and the top struggled (for this reason, or from wiring every branch that winter), I wanted the roots to have access to as much soil moisture as possible to keep it strong. If you leave 2” of space between the edge of the roots and the pot wall, the roots cannot access the water in that area of soil, and you’re stuck babysitting it for a few weeks while the roots grow. But with akadama soil, roots have plenty of space to expand, even if they start almost to the edge of the pot.

4. Regardless of what is visible, I still removed easily over 50% of the roots; especially anything not in that shallow plane. A few of the roots close to the nebari need to thicken to expand the nebari, like you mentioned. Leaving those roots a bit longer will allow them to continue thickening (think sacrifice branch). They can be cut short later, and still continue to ramify. More photos of the repot are here:

Repotting a Japanese Maple

I didn’t get around to repotting this one last year, and it was the first time I skipped a year repotting it in probably 15 years, so I wasn’t looking forward to wrestling it free, and …

nebaribonsai.wordpress.com

5. Finally, aggressive root pruning can lead to coarse growth, below and above the soil level. At this stage, it doesn’t need coarse growth, it needs even and balanced growth throughout.

parhamr · Apr 13, 2021

Brian Van Fleet said:
1. In 2014, I took this tree to a Kathy Shaner workshop, and we repotted it, aggressively reducing the roots. The result was this:
https://nebaribonsai.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/its-always-the-little-things/. It taught me how far I can safely push this tree.

2. The tree is repotted annually (except 2020), so I have a reasonable expectation of what kind of root growth to expect in a year. The tree has plenty of room to grow.

3. Since I skipped last year, and the top struggled (for this reason, or from wiring every branch that winter), I wanted the roots to have access to as much soil moisture as possible to keep it strong. If you leave 2” of space between the edge of the roots and the pot wall, the roots cannot access the water in that area of soil, and you’re stuck babysitting it for a few weeks while the roots grow. But with akadama soil, roots have plenty of space to expand, even if they start almost to the edge of the pot.

4. Regardless of what is visible, I still removed easily over 50% of the roots; especially anything not in that shallow plane. A few of the roots close to the nebari need to thicken to expand the nebari, like you mentioned. Leaving those roots a bit longer will allow them to continue thickening (think sacrifice branch). They can be cut short later, and still continue to ramify. More photos of the repot are here:

Repotting a Japanese Maple

I didn’t get around to repotting this one last year, and it was the first time I skipped a year repotting it in probably 15 years, so I wasn’t looking forward to wrestling it free, and …

nebaribonsai.wordpress.com

5. Finally, aggressive root pruning can lead to coarse growth, below and above the soil level. At this stage, it doesn’t need coarse growth, it needs even and balanced growth throughout.

Good explanation! Thanks for taking the time to write it up.