MaciekA
Shohin
If this pine was mine, I would not put it in a larger pot. In the model of pine thinking I have been taught by my teacher, this pot is actually already quite large for the current size of the tree and the amount of foliage it currently has.
So I'd actually keep it in the same volume, or move it to a colander, and focus my energies on heavily working back the roots so that the next repot after that would be the last of the organics and just a quick extraction/cleanup of the core root ball, after which a lot of bonsai development goals become very easy and less risky. This advice may sound a bit unsettling or not in-sync with what you've seen/read elsewhere, but note that this is much closer to a seedling or early pre-field-growing project than a yamadori -- JBP seedlings benefit from a bit of root work in the early years.
Note that if I'm heavily reworking back the roots of a pine, I've just given it a ton of expansion room even in the current container volume. Since this is very early in this pine's development, that is what you want -- expansion and lots of air in the roots to get more foliage, more budding, more healing, more root growth, more of everything.
In a sense, you're not in the bonsai phase yet, you're still growing material, the above strategy is a material-growing vigor-chasing one. Slip potting into a bigger container IMO will set back your timeline overall and generate regret over time. As a person who, such as yourself, also grows in a fairly limited space, I like future-regret-avoidance strategies in bonsai, because in the beginner years it is very hard to get rid of regret-generating trees that are going nowhere due to misguided past actions like slip potting or overpotting pines. I try not to overpot anything these days. Roots don't need a ton of extra room to send a lot of cytokinin upstairs, and you can easily grant that room within the current pot.
Side note: Don't treat the mycorrhiza like some precious resource. Nothing you do to this tree will rid you of the spores anyway, and overgrown fungi in the roots ultimately inhibits the flow of air and water. Pines live and die by the ability of the roots to draw water and respire. They don't urgently require a dense mass of rice krispies, and the mycorrhiza will rapidly bounce back if you have a healthy approach to horticulture. But do realize that many of us have very very healthy and vigorous JBPs that don't have thick mats of fungus either.
Side note 2: Be very very skeptical of anyone whose advice tells you to use a moisture gauge in aggregate soil
Side note 3: I would not drown this thing in Daconil. I'd generally stay away from an "everything is needlecast" mindset. Sometimes it is needlecast, but I think it is also easy to mistake basic pine issues (lack of drainage, lack of airflow in the roots, lack of sun, overworking a pine) with needlecast. Focus on those FIRST, and pay attention to new current-year needles. 3rd year needles will often look like crap and begin to succumb as they go out. Don't let this cause panic or lead to a cycle of tree hypochondria.
So I'd actually keep it in the same volume, or move it to a colander, and focus my energies on heavily working back the roots so that the next repot after that would be the last of the organics and just a quick extraction/cleanup of the core root ball, after which a lot of bonsai development goals become very easy and less risky. This advice may sound a bit unsettling or not in-sync with what you've seen/read elsewhere, but note that this is much closer to a seedling or early pre-field-growing project than a yamadori -- JBP seedlings benefit from a bit of root work in the early years.
Note that if I'm heavily reworking back the roots of a pine, I've just given it a ton of expansion room even in the current container volume. Since this is very early in this pine's development, that is what you want -- expansion and lots of air in the roots to get more foliage, more budding, more healing, more root growth, more of everything.
In a sense, you're not in the bonsai phase yet, you're still growing material, the above strategy is a material-growing vigor-chasing one. Slip potting into a bigger container IMO will set back your timeline overall and generate regret over time. As a person who, such as yourself, also grows in a fairly limited space, I like future-regret-avoidance strategies in bonsai, because in the beginner years it is very hard to get rid of regret-generating trees that are going nowhere due to misguided past actions like slip potting or overpotting pines. I try not to overpot anything these days. Roots don't need a ton of extra room to send a lot of cytokinin upstairs, and you can easily grant that room within the current pot.
Side note: Don't treat the mycorrhiza like some precious resource. Nothing you do to this tree will rid you of the spores anyway, and overgrown fungi in the roots ultimately inhibits the flow of air and water. Pines live and die by the ability of the roots to draw water and respire. They don't urgently require a dense mass of rice krispies, and the mycorrhiza will rapidly bounce back if you have a healthy approach to horticulture. But do realize that many of us have very very healthy and vigorous JBPs that don't have thick mats of fungus either.
Side note 2: Be very very skeptical of anyone whose advice tells you to use a moisture gauge in aggregate soil
Side note 3: I would not drown this thing in Daconil. I'd generally stay away from an "everything is needlecast" mindset. Sometimes it is needlecast, but I think it is also easy to mistake basic pine issues (lack of drainage, lack of airflow in the roots, lack of sun, overworking a pine) with needlecast. Focus on those FIRST, and pay attention to new current-year needles. 3rd year needles will often look like crap and begin to succumb as they go out. Don't let this cause panic or lead to a cycle of tree hypochondria.
