I asked Walter if he would repot a late summer period the palmatum trees which still have a growth of the shoots, and he answered to me : """ I prefer to repot these in late spring. But maybe it works now. """
(cool it's a joke)
The trouble is that most of the bonsai crowd is very much living tradition. So innovation or alternative ideas are often met with criticism. If you get your nose bumped too often, you quickly stop thinking people mean well when asking questions.
Who is perfect, Walter has his own personnality.. I think he has had the feeling that his skills were questionned. I asked him questions later and he answered me very kindly
For Walter he probably only needs to bare root once. At collection or with conifers later. And only to get it into inorganic soil. He doesnt use akadama so it doesnt need total replacement. Because that stuff breaks down into a muck which will need total replacement every so often.
Roots grow even with soil temps around 10C/50F.
I think it would not be in his best interests for him to outright recommend anything in a forum. Let’s say he did recommend to you this technique and you tried it and failed and now you are unhappy because you think he killed your tree. That would leave him in an undesirable position.
Indeed. You just need to try it and find out.
You cut the branches of J maples in autumn after leaf fall (straight after not a week later or even better if there are a few leaves still on the tree) There is a small widow of opportunity then when the cut branches do not bleed. If you prune in winter or spring they will bleed, sometimes a lot! This procedure is for when you are not repotting. If you cut roots, the branches will not bleed when cut. This is what your master meant.
Nothing has changed. If the buds are moving, so are the roots. The only trees I know where this is not the case is Fagus. The reason for summer repotting can be if your winters are too cold and too long, the tree can suffer if you mess with the roots. I don't have that problem here because of mild temps. Leaving all the leaves on the tree ensures very rapid root re-growth.
I’m not understanding what you are saying. What has not changed? Repot the trees in summer if your winters are too cold? That is counter to what Walter is saying about not letting summer repotted trees have a frost in the winter. He goes on to say that they respond as if nothing happened...
I did that last year : result : i had no sap bleeding, but a sap withdraw.. so i prefer to cut the branches in summer because i have no sap issue, and new buds emerge quickly
