I acquired this Shimpaku Juniper last fall and plan to repot it this spring. Ryan gave me some great style advice during the last Q&A (236) and I now have a good idea where I want to take this tree. But I have a question on how to break up the set of tasks over time.
The following are the next steps for the tree based on what Ryan said
repotting
reposition the apex
identify and position the defining branch
branch selection / structural pruning / jin creation
foliage cleaning and wire the rest of the tree
I want to repot first, it needs it, but from a horticulture / energy perspective should I hold off on repositioning the apex and structural wiring until the fall or next spring, or is it ok to tackle that kind of wiring just after a repot? I’m worried about doing too much to the tree all at once.
The wisdom of the internet is all over the place on this, but my gut says hold off on any structural wiring after repotting to allow the tree to recover and get healthy. What do y’all think?
This is the new (old) pot I picked out for the tree
I think do not do both. Recall that junipers strength is in its foliage, it’s the battery for root recovery pot repot. I thumbed my nose at the one surgery per year guidance on one of my shimpaku and it took two growing seasons before it started pushing big healthy runners again. This is a small sample size, but I think you’ll find a few similar stories online.
When you say it needs the repot, is there a pressing issue with the soil? My process would probably be design change first then repot after recovery. The logic to this is the design being inplace and something you are familiar with after a season will better inform your planting angle and tree placement in the pot.
One major operation per growing season is a good rule. I would do the repot and wait a year to do the styling, perhaps two if it does not grow well. You can adjust the potting angle a couple of years later if the styling requires it. Remember that bonsai is a long game.
Yea, water doesn’t percolate through very easily. I’ve scraped off the top layer of soil down to the beginning of the roots and the soil is pretty broken down and compact. So I guess I’ll repot this spring and then wait a year for the next step.
I’m glad I decided to repot this spring and not wait a year. The substrate was pretty broken down and the roots had grown under the drain hole mesh about 1 cm. It took some work to get them released. I also found that the previous owner had used sand as part of the substrate mix. There were root voids in there that was just sand.
My question is, the foliage is pretty dense in multiple places and I’m worried about not enough sun exposure to the interior and good air flow. Normally I would thin it out a bit, getting rid of crotch growth, weak branches, etc. But I’m worried about doing any light pruning since I just did a pretty drastic repot, trying to clean out dense broken down matter and sand.
What do y’all think? Just leave it alone for a year to recover?
If it grows strongly with nice runners then you can do some styling. If not, then I would let it grow and perhaps do a little thinning to make sure desired interior branches get light.
Top dress with shredded spag, and for the most part leave it alone.. If the roots were bad give it the best chance to recover and remember, root growth will primarily occur in the fall. Regardless of how good it looks this summer, root growth isn’t really going to kick in until vascular growth in the fall occurs. It is easy to get tricked into bypassing the fundamentals as our mind rushes to complete the task. Find something else to work on and let this recover. Just my thoughts, it is your tree but these messages are said over and over again by Ryan, still we all struggle to listen.
