Hinoki Cypress Repot

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I have this Hinoki Cypress that's been in a nursery can for who knows how long. I've not repotted Hinoki before, but my research indicates one should wait until the color returns in spring. Mine goes very deep purple in the winter and in the last few weeks it has slowly greened up. Looks to me to have returned to it's normal color mostly - so is now the time to Repot? I know this tends to be a tree to Repot later in the spring, but spring is happening full on here in TN. All of my trees are almost fully leafed out.

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Jorgens86

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Well i think you can repot it. Do you work on roots as well or just change the soil?
 
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Well i think you can repot it. Do you work on roots as well or just change the soil?

Soil and roots this time around most likely. Not sure how long it's been in this nursery can, and they might be a mess once I get in there.
 

Japonicus

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You'll have to remove the guy wires 😄
I'm holding off on mine yet, but it too is starting to colour back up.
I wired it last Fall, and it took on a terrible Winter colour this year
and mostly on one side, so here, I'm waiting for extension as some of my junipers are now.
Almost repotted one of my Sekka hinoki, but glad I waited. Still mid 30's here and frost this week
despite the warm spells. Should be a prolonged Spring this year here 😎

Your hinoki looks healthy. What type of pot are you shooting for 1st go 'round?
 
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You'll have to remove the guy wires 😄
I'm holding off on mine yet, but it too is starting to colour back up.
I wired it last Fall, and it took on a terrible Winter colour this year
and mostly on one side, so here, I'm waiting for extension as some of my junipers are now.
Almost repotted one of my Sekka hinoki, but glad I waited. Still mid 30's here and frost this week
despite the warm spells. Should be a prolonged Spring this year here 😎

Your hinoki looks healthy. What type of pot are you shooting for 1st go 'round?

Im still very much developing it, will put it in a grow out pot and continue working the foliage.
 

RKatzin

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That's a very nice Hinoki! I have a couple that I'm holding off on repotting still, even though they're showing good color as the days are warming. We're still freezing on the clear nights though and I know it's not unusual for our weather to double back on you and throw a week of freezing and snowy bluster. Hoping by mid to late April I'll feel better doing the Hinokis. I'm working through my junies and cypress now.
 

WNC Bonsai

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I have a couple in pots right now that I repotted this time last year. On my big one I took off about 40% of the lower portion of roots and then cut thin pie shaped wedges out of the remainder. Mine was just a big fibrous mass of roots so doing a traditional HBR seemed of out of the question—I doubt I could have untangled that mass. I have also read that some drill holes down through the root mass and fill with bonsai soil to get more nutrients and water down there. They both responded well and I plan to move the big one out of its cement mixing tub and into a training pot this week. That should give me a chance to see how the roots responded in the last year. At the very least I can attempt another modified HBR and replace more of the fibrous mass with bonsai soil.
 

Japonicus

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Im still very much developing it, will put it in a grow out pot and continue working the foliage.
I'd go ahead and pull out all the brown dead stuff, and remove a bit of shaded undergrowth
while the roots are firm in the old soil if you haven't already potted her up.
If you have potted it up, leave it be.
 

Forsoothe!

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How many out there is bonsailand saw off the bottom half, or third, or quarter, or two-thirds, or whatever?
 

Forsoothe!

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I was hoping for a wordy answer. Like, half
 

Japonicus

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How many out there is bonsailand saw off the bottom half, or third, or quarter, or two-thirds, or whatever?
Sort of..."Fractional amount" depends on a couple things, but this is how I approach root balls that have not been maintained,
with a steak knife and laterally, then I rake the soil out from the centre, and begin adjusting the fractional amount with
root sheers and concave cutters and a root hook until I am comfortable with the amount. The post Summer Solstice folks
might push a little outside of a normal comfort zone, further on such trees and other species, but then again,
it depends on different circumstances with each individual potting task, but I never, start with 30% and end having removed 30%.
I guess I don't put a lot of emphasis on a percentage.
 
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Went ahead and repotted this morning. I'll have to bring it in Thursday and Friday night, but not too worried about the weather. The roots looked good, lots of white tips all over. Nothing big and circling, lots of feeders. I left a good sized root ball and cut the two big roots I found and teased out the rest a bit. Potted it in another tie pot I had laying around, which will supposedly air prune the roots - who knows. It's in my regular bonsai mix with extra organics.

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WNC Bonsai

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I tore into mine yesterday too. I had put it into a large cat littler box last spring when I first chopped the roots. The roots had spread out into the bonsai soil and pretty mich filled the “pot”. I managed to remove some more roots from the bottom, combed out the roots and fit it into a large ceramic pot Almost as big as the litter box. The tree still sits a bit higher than I eventually want it to so in subsequent years I will continue to remove more from the bottom of the rootball. I‘ll post some photos tomorrow once it is light enough.
 

Vance Wood

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How many out there is bonsailand saw off the bottom half, or third, or quarter, or two-thirds, or whatever?
I do it's better than teasing out the soil and roots which stresses out the tree.
 

Brad in GR

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Went ahead and repotted this morning. I'll have to bring it in Thursday and Friday night, but not too worried about the weather. The roots looked good, lots of white tips all over. Nothing big and circling, lots of feeders. I left a good sized root ball and cut the two big roots I found and teased out the rest a bit. Potted it in another tie pot I had laying around, which will supposedly air prune the roots - who knows. It's in my regular bonsai mix with extra organics.

View attachment 294456
Too funny. Got a few tie pots this spring and got a rough (but, a gift from my parents who didn’t know what kind of material to look for) hinoki repotted and pruned a bit last night.

Nice looking Hinoki! Mine has a long way to go.
 

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Got a few tie pots


You know, after having them on the benches awhile, I like the tie pots - I found them pretty gimmicky at first but they are solid, don't flex at all, and have some great drainage. Unfortunately, nothing I have in the tie pots will be repotted again for a couple years - so I'm curious how the roots will develop. I find them to be a little big, but all in all I would buy again if I needed something that size for a tree I know I'm going to guy wire.
 
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On another note, the Hinoki remains nice and healthy - looks just like the last pic I took but a little fuller - haven't messed with it since the repotting. The more I look at it though, the less I have an idea of what to do with it. That angled trunk out of the ground goes very straight to an intersection with some bar branching, and then straight up. I've been keeping the branching fairly open, so there is lots of foliage on each branch you see relatively close to the trunk, so all the branching could definitely be cut back a bit closer. I just don't know how that trunk shape would be potted in the future. Maybe in one of those half moon pots that were popular for a minute? Or I suppose I could do with it what I do with every medium sized tree I have and don't know what to do with - use it as a mother for cuttings and layers (no practice with that with a hinoki as yet - might be interesting) What are your thoughts, fellow bnuts?
 

Vance Wood

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Another thing with Hinokis is that they produce a lot of really fiberous roots that are similar to those produced by Azaleas, similar to those fiberous floor mats set for people to keep from tracking debris into the house. Because of this root nature I have found that it is better to start reducing thew soil mass dow from above so that you can locate decent surface roots. This is not so easy as it sounds. Once you have initially reduced down the originat soil ball by one half, you should on following repots work from the top for the most aggressive work.
 
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