Jeesh I diddnt mean to wake the bear
Lol! Bear been woke!
Mfr still drowsy though!
@Vance Wood all I mean is eff that colander for it's shape...not its usefulness.
That is actually a well holed container.
But being the well-holed container that it is...
It is going to produce a root Mass the same shape...
Which for me ..... Leads to this situation . (bottom).
Just thinking of the root Mass the colander will leave you, and the tendency for any bonsai pot to be more prone to holding water around the bottom seam...
The colander makes that the very place you won't have roots....which will lead to a lot of unused water there...blah blah...
Eff the colander
Where as the top, with what would be the pond basket, will be a more appropriately shaped rootmass for a Bonsai pot.
I understand you can shave the roots to better fit into a pot....
But for me....
The very best thing about a colander...or more properly defined ...a proper root pruning container, (which all colanders are not.) Is its ability to grow a rootmass that doesn't need trimming.
The way I look at it...
As soon as one gets a tree growing in an appropriately shaped proper root pruning training pot....
Success is (it depends) imminent.
As there will no longer be a need to cut off big roots, Which to me...is the MOST risky operation there is.
This is a 30-50year project.
Everything to be built from those 2 buds closest to the trunk. Above you can see the bud above the one close branch.
Below you can see that bud turned branch peeking out from behind.
This tree responded with as much vigor expected in those 2 small keeper parts...And as much as I try to kill that middle branch...Stripped it and everything...
It still popped a bud I knocked off in the blue circle.
For me .....this long game is ok...where every 4 years or so I can just open up the roots a little, cutting much less than 50%.
Where one may get more rapid growth in a larger basket, they still must reduce the roots significantly to get it in a small pot.
I think EVERYONE underestimates the usefulness of a colander.
IMO...you are the only one to realize their true power for mugos...as the rest of us are merely in the first Basket. Maybe a few of us are onto the second repot, and into years 4-8.
But it's really not going to be till years 8-12, and 12-16...that the choice tending at each repot really really gets that core Unkillable!
For instance....one 1/4in thick root that reaches the edge of a 5in basket with no forking....
When cut back closer to the trunk now has this exponential potential to grow hundreds of feeder tips by the Time it hits the edge.
So lets say you have 7 surface roots that fork to 14...them 14 to 28...and those 28 have the potential to be cut back in a safe manner to be the ones getting root pruned and forked up....
The math ain't exact but that's (it depends) some 2,800 new feeder root tips every repot.
Every "offending" root we manage to find and snip back at repot has the potential to become this health force that we underestimate.
I found this isn't really about patience....
But being reasonable...
Having realistic goals...
A sapling on a 3 year plan to a pot is failure.
Same sapling on a 40 year plan is success.
I have to pay attention to everything, and attempt to read the future to set these realistic goals.
Then it becomes this thing where you have to be real about what you actually achieved.
So far...my predictions/expectations, have been quite accurate. Thanks to you!
This then takes any material into this realm of "obedience", "predictability"...this is the "relationship" they (lol) talk about having with a tree before beginning to work on it.
That's when a tree becomes "good for bonsai" to me.
Mugo surely is!
Gotta go water!
Wow...that was one huh!?
Sorce
