baby bougs

[crab apple]

I have some bougainvillea's in one gallon pots. I love me some bougainvillea bonsais. These have pencil thin trunks and of course I want big thick trunks. My original plan was to let the roots grow thu the pot into the ground to put on girth and when it gets cold I would have to trim off the roots in the ground and bring them inside as necessary, its not quite warm enough where i live to let them stay out all winter. I feel it would take many years to get the trunk where i want and I'm ok with this.
Here's the problem, the more I learn about bonsai the more I believe its probably beneficial to get the roots on the right path first. But these roots get out of control fast and I feel like I'm really gonna prolong everything by messing with the roots every year to try and keep them in check, should I just say to heck with the roots and let them run wild while I'm trying to thicken the trunks and deal with them in a few years? They realy do well when I let the roots run wild or is it really better to be disciplined and train the roots first, I don't mind doing it the rite way, I'm just not sure what the correct way is.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Roots first.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Scarlet Ibis]

I hear ya... I've got the same experiment going. Got some twigs in small pots. After 2 yrs very little girth change. I took some of the one gallon and moved them up to 5 gal and let um' run. These have significantly thickened. Bougainvillea are easy to layer but you need to have the size or it will remain a twig.
I have been developing the bonsai structure near the base while letting as much top growth go and still get it in the greenhouse during cold weather. Bougs are heavy feeders so don't spare the bogain.
Goodluck.
I see you are a panhandler as well... I'm between tally and PC.

 

[LemonBonsai]

Ive been doing this with a lemon tree that I want to grow big as a large indoor tree to produce fruits. This is the first year that ive planted it in the ground in a pond basket and its put on alot of growth and some thickness.

Bougainvilleas are a vine so thickining will take time but this method will help in higher groeth rate of both foliage and roots which will speed things up some

 

[sorce]

what the correct way is.

Since these layer easily and are very small, it makes the most sense to get your growth then layer them later.

@carp says keep them pruned for multiple growing tips which increases trunk thickness more than letting one trunk run.

Toss some eggs around the basket though.

If I had one with a "perfect" nebari, I'd freeze that in an airpruning device and let it develop slow AF.

Sorce