Larch Nursery Find, What's Would You Do Next?

[The Warm Canuck]

Just bought this Larch from a local nursery for $117.00, I'm pretty happy with it. All my trees are in early development and are in grow beds, so I'd like to actually get this into a Bonsai pot, but I'm not sure how I should approach it. I'd like to try it in an formal/informal upright, (I'm aware of how difficult it is to make a good formal upright) but I think I can work with what I have. I'm a little weary of working with Larch because I'm not sure exactly how to treat it.

Can I safely repot it, pick my branches and remove the remaining significant amount of the branches? Or should I just repot it and maybe cut it back once it's recovered?

What would you do?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Me…. I’d drink that Bubly!

Then do branch selection and find a hot toddy.

Next year repot. That way the roots are strong this year while the top hamper recovers.

But that’s just the way I do things one at a time on older trees.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[The Warm Canuck]

So, once taking it out of the nursery pot, it was clear what needed to happen. Luckily the root flare was right at the top of the pot, (I'm still deciding on a front, I'm most partial to the last picture) but it's not super important until I do branch selection later on. I then removed roughly 1/3 of the root ball and planted it in a large pond basket, in one of my freshly tilled grow beds. I'm building another grow bed for my broadleaf deciduous, so my six Larches will occupy this bed. All my pines conifers are in another bed. I'm looking forward to this set-up as I can really drench the Larches more often, I've found they like staying wet and they grow like mad!