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.
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.
I would enjoy seeing a photo of your tree!
Enjoy your Bonsai!
When I finish it …
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.
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.
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 
Here are the before and after pictures. Very challenging subject. Very leggy branches to deal with.!
and IMG_6123|666x500My 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.
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
