Had to share this with the Mirai familia. I pulled the trigger on the Pinus rigida (pitch pine) growing on a rock on my friend’s property, mentioned in the Q&A last week. It separated nearly perfectly from the bowl it was sitting in. I was shocked at the nearly perfect mat of fine hair roots. It only had a handful of pencil sized roots going down into cracks. I held back the urge to chop the tap root, I can take care of that on a future repot. Let me know what you think for future styling. Also I think that third little trunk might be a separate tree.
[I would recommend taking care of the tap root right away. It will only get bigger and impede getting the tree into a suitable pot.]
On second glance, it looks like you’ve already repotted. Taking out the tap root will be task #1 when you repot again.
1 Like
Thanks for the advice. I was unsure in the moment because everything I’ve watched about yamadori seems to imply keeping every possible root you can for initial domestication of the tree. This one surprisingly had lots of roots, so maybe the better choice would have been to cut it. I erred on the side of caution and just kept it, since I wasn’t sure how much water transport was lost from the 5-7 pencil thick roots that were severed during collection. I guess this could set me back if lots of new roots grow from low positions on that vertical root. In any case, I’m just going to pamper the heck out of her until I see solid signs of vigor.
This is far smaller than any of the featured double-flush pines, but at this point is the best tree I have, so my top priority is keeping it alive.
With the unexpected large amount of roots, should I have done a more extreme “repot” procedure for this initial domestication?
When I posted, I didn’t realize it was freshly collected. Maybe keeping the tap root is okay for freshly collected yamadori. Someone more knowledgeable than I can comment on that. The main thing now is to allow it to recover from collection. I see snow on the ground in your photos - you want to protect it from freezing temps until spring.
1 Like
Definitely, bonsai shuffle until the hard frost is done. Cheers.