Post 245 Root pruning season

Spring is here in Brisbane even though the nights are still getting down to 12ish, C. That means on the bonsai calendar that  its root pruning season. I started about mid August with all the deciduous trees, then my natives and now its the turn of the ficus.
Here are a couple of other trees I did in some of the earlier work.

 First up is a dwarf Hinoki that I acquired this year. Its been in a garden pot and I wanted to replace its growing media and set it at a different angle, both good reasons for a repot.

 Once out of the pot the highly organic material can be seen. It has grown pretty well in this material with good dispersed root penetration. But none the less my plan is for a much more granular open mix to replace it.

 This is about as much as I want to take off it this time.

 This is the replacement mix, one third diatomite, one third zeolite and one third mini bark (pre-composted).

 Repotted and ready to go for the coming season.

 Next up is another conifer; this one a blaauw juniper. Its been in this shallow pot for the year in my standard four part mix.

 Nice healthy root growth and fully penetrated throughout the mix. At this time of year I find it increasingly difficult to get moisture into the pots. With lots of root growth throughout the medium the spaces for water penetration are blocked up. As a result the trees produce a lot of fine feeder roots in the top 20 to 25mm of the pot further impeding flow. So the top 25 to 30mm gets wet when watering but not much gets further down. Another really good reason for root pruning and repotting.

 Pruned back and ready to go again.

 Back into the same pot in the three part open mix.

 This is an upended Swamp Cypress.It grew all summer in a shallow pan of water and was starting to push the tree up out of the pot. When you see the roots in the base you can see why. This is a tree that I'm planning a radical cutback and restyle starting with a reversal of viewing position so I'll set the tree back in the pot with this in mind.

From all that mass of roots back to this, a small tight block of fine feeders. Past experience says that the tree will relish this cutback and launch itself into the new season with a burst of growth.