Need advice on my recently repotted Chinese Privet (Ligustrum Sinensis)

[SpruceWillis]

My Chinese Privet wasn’t vigourous at all this spring, so I decided to emergency repot to get an eye on the roots (it’s normally very vigorous this time of year)

It was ridiculously root bound, so I did some pretty serious root pruning and a repot.

After a few waters, I’m worried the pot might be too small (one side of the pot has roots that are essentially exposed now that some of the bonsai soil has washed away).

I’m worried the tree wont be able to recover in such a small pot, but I’m also not sure it can handle much more work at this point.

Please help - should I:

1) Leave it alone

2) Slip pot it very carefully into a larger pot (note, it’s almost completely inorganic soil so I think a lot of the substrate would fall away)

3) Bury the entire pot and root ball in a bigger pot

 

[Shibui]

The pot size looks good for the trunk thickness but I feel the trunk is a bit too tall and doesn't do the lower trunk justice. I would be looking for a place to chop the upper trunk to reduce height.
The few exposed roots probably won't hurt. You can keep adding some more soil to keep the base covered this year so the thinner roots stay alive but that soil level looks about right for the trunk and existing roots.

 

[rockm]

The pot is fine. It just looks too small because the tree is too tall. That extra volume at the top fools the eye into thinking the tree is large. The trunk is not proportional for a tree that tall. Next spring, I'd look to reduce that apex by at least half--pruning back behind all that foliage and use the back budding to make the image more compact. If you're brave, you can take the entire top off an inch from where it comes off the previous second trunk chop (located above the deadwood spot from the first chop) and cut back all branching by half. That would bring back the proportion to the trunk and nebari.

Privet is pretty tough and resilient. I'd let it grow strongly this season unpruned. Get it strong for next year's work.

 

[cody94withrow]

My Chinese Privet wasn’t vigourous at all this spring, so I decided to emergency repot to get an eye on the roots (it’s normally very vigorous this time of year)

It was ridiculously root bound, so I did some pretty serious root pruning and a repot.

After a few waters, I’m worried the pot might be too small (one side of the pot has roots that are essentially exposed now that some of the bonsai soil has washed away).

I’m worried the tree wont be able to recover in such a small pot, but I’m also not sure it can handle much more work at this point.

Please help - should I:

1) Leave it alone

2) Slip pot it very carefully into a larger pot (note, it’s almost completely inorganic soil so I think a lot of the substrate would fall away)

3) Bury the entire pot and root ball in a bigger pot

How old is that thing?

I've got some I think I can dig between mine and my neighbors fence similar trunk size.