Repotting needed after styling

Hey Mirai’ers,

I am finishing styling a Juniper that is well stablished, already in a container and 100% bonsai substrate. The styling requires a change of angle and I am planning to move the tree to a slab. Now, normally we wouldn’t style and repot at the same time but considering that I don’t plan to make any root work only relocate the root mass in the new angle in the slab, I recon it should be ok. Any thoughts?

r.

Did you remove foliage and bend branches when you styled the tree?

With junipers I am cautious and only push the tree once, and then let the tree recover before my next step.

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Yes, I did both. I also think it is safer to not “transplant” it - to use a word to mean something less drastic than to repot - but was wondering how much I’d imperil it by transplanting. Thanks for the reply, really appreciated.

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I would enjoy seeing a photo of your tree!

Enjoy your Bonsai!

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When I finish it …

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I think you answered your own question…

What’s the rush? Let the tree recover from styling and then repot next Spring. If you do repot, and you can, just know it’s a calculated risk.

Would love to see a pic as well.

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I will keep the original angle and reconsider over the season the 30° angle shift I was originally planning on… always good to come back to an idea after a while. The current planting angle does not detract from the overall design. Before and after photo to follow.

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Juniper do best when repotting in the heat and humidity of summer. If you don’t have to, wait.

By the way…Iearned that here :slight_smile:

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Here are the before and after pictures. Very challenging subject. Very leggy branches to deal with.!

and IMG_6123|666x500

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here is after.

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My way of looking at questions like this when they come up with my trees is, “it’s only one year”. What I mean is that one year is not going to make or break our trees. The tree is still going to be “settling in to” a new location. The water will percolate different and the soil will be experiencing warmer and cooler temps on a slab. If it was me I would give it a year to tell me if I did everything right, even if I do t touch the roots.

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I wasn’t happy with the apex. here is a new iteration of it.

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Rafi,
I had a similar project and my solution was just gently changing the angle while disturbing the roots as little as possible in its present pot. I added soil underneath the existing root mass to achieve the new angle and rewired the tree to the altered angle and packed new soil all around. Moss replaced and a good bath of diluted Miracid solution.
Looks good after almost a year ( knock wood ).
Leonard