Looking for a pot for this scots pine what style and size will be suitable?
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Gorgeous tree. Its literati form and slant suggest a small, shallow, round, unglazed nanban pot, about the diameter of the one it’s in now. Here is one by Ron Lang that’s available on his website (Round Detail). This one is 11.25" in diameter, which would work for a tree over 3’ tall. Not sure how tall your tree is, but Ron can make one for you to spec for not very much (maybe in time for spring repotting if you check with him right now), and the Mirai store has a number of his pots and others that could work as well.
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The tree is tall 130 cm and wide 70 cm
The current pot size is 50Ă—30 cm
How much root mass can be taken off safely ? Approximate age is 130-150 years it is a yamadori collected from scotland
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Hi @Jass,
I agree with @ChuckP, a nanban pot would look great with a tree like that, but you may want to go for an intermediate pot before trying to cram it into a little tray like that. I wouldn’t want to take more than 30% of the roots in one hit, but maybe I’m being chicken? After the intermediate repot I would wait a good 2 years before going for the nanban, although it is down to what the roots look like and how it responds.
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Hi @Jass, how long ago was it collected? Great tree by the way! I agree with Andy, best to transition it into a small pot gradually otherwise it may suffer from the loss of roots which is where pines get their energy.
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Hi everyone thanks for all the answers!
The tree was collected 3-4 years ago I think this is what the old owner told me ,he was planning to repot it into a nice pot but then I bought the tree from him,its a big tree thats why im little bit afraid to put in a really shallow pot
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I concur with the others. Be the turtle, slow and easy. That tree is in no rush, and it’s a good one. You never really know what you have until you get into the roots. You may have a lot of roots around the edge of the container and very little in the middle. I have run into that with pines in bad soil/field soil/compacted soil. As a conifer I would only remove half (one side) of the field soil at at time.
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What about the bottom of the tree ?how much soil can I take off because at the moment is to high to put into a bonsai pot and as suggested i will move this tree into a proper bonsai pot gradualy
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Nice tree.
If you have NOT, watch the several repotting videos.
Even after years of doing bonsai, they were very helpful.
Especially pines.
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Rule : NEVER bare root a pine. Always leave 1/2 to 1/3 untouched.
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I would start by finding the nebari… scratch back the surface soil to find the top roots. In the spring, Just go for it… I would only reduce the bottom roots by 1/3 the first round. Im patient and conservative…
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I’m jealous . Scot’s pine; from Scotland…
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Thanks I will reduce the root mass just little bit
And don’t be jealous ahahah there are so many pines in scotland waiting for collection 
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I agree with being cautious, but based upon the most recent live stream of the repotting of a Cork Bark Japanese Black Pine, I would strive to remove most if not all of the old deteriorated soil from under the trunk while doing less work around the edges. That is assuming the soil under the trunk is still field soil (a good guess based upon the provided history). If this is the case, then one pot option is something that is moderately shallow but still fairly large diameter so I would try to have several options available. Getting good soil into this area will increase the strength of the tree.
If the area under the trunk is 1/2 the diameter of the entire root ball (a fairly large percentage) then it is only 1/4 of the volume of the soil. That is why it is possible to clean out the old soil in this region if the rest of the roots are not cleared too much. It looks like more than it really is.
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Yes the tree is growing in field soil thats why I want repot
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I would like to show you a clip from Ryan back in 2020’s Trophy. Here he talks about repotting yamadori, and really emphesizes on a small container. Not getting intermediate or a big pot to recover (bigger pot, more water and we want a balance).
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@niek13 I think that’s for a yamadori straight out of the ground. This was lifted 3 - 4 yr ago and by now the roots (and tree) have recovered just fine. It’s the first repot of the tree and there will be lots of roots. To take off too many in one go will be detrimental to the tree. That’s why we are all suggesting a slightly larger pot. I do agree with you that had it just been lifted it should be in as small a pot as possible.
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I might disagree. A field tree,or a yamadori needs a few years to recover from collection. Even 1 or 2 after styling.
This is also a yamadori. Ofcourse a different approce will eventually net the same result. It might take longer:)
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@niek13 as you can see the container it is in isn’t exactly small by any means. It has been in that pot for 3 - 4 yrs, plenty of time to recover and grow lots of roots. You can see by the growth it is healthy so now is the time to start transitioning into a bonsai pot but in stages thus allowing the roots to recover each time.
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