Juniper over rock...?

Bonsai Nut

Nuttier than your average Nut
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Not really a root over rock, more like a tree over rock :) I've had this shimpaku for a while and have been too busy on other projects to transplant it. It remained in the cheap pot that I bought it in. This spring I started seeing yellowish foliage which led me to believe I was having root problems, so today I undertook a four hour repot and cleanup. This first photo shows the tree before any work. It looks small, but the rock is about the size of a bowling ball. I took several more pictures during the process, but I could not seem to get good focus out of my little point and shoot.

rockshimp5_09_1.jpg


Well I loosened the tree in the pot and expected it to be rootbound. Perhaps I should say I HOPED it was rootbound (a sign of a healthy, robust tree). Instead the entire tree popped out easily, and the soil mass started breaking up into large chunks. The soil was almost completely lacking in drainage / aeration, and was borderline anaerobic. The roots were constrained to a small pad along one side of the rock - and worse yet, there was a 3' tap root that someone had wound up in the pot rather than trim. As I started revealing more bad rootage, I shifted my focus from "repot" to "salvage".

rockshimp5_09_2.jpg


Once I washed the muck off the root mass, I revealed some healthy roots (although a small amount), so all is not lost. I repotted with turface and about 25% organic.

rockshimp5_09_3.jpg


I only removed about 50% of the branches that I wanted, and trimmed the tree back only about 50% as far as I planned. I will let it rest and push strong new growth before I trim further. I will be an interesting tree in the future :)

rockshimp5_09_4.jpg
 

irene_b

Omono
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Nice Job Greg!
Did the same with 4 a few weeks ago.....Wore me out!
Irene
 

TheSteve

Chumono
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I like it. Tree over rock is a nice touch. Looked like there were still some healthy feeder roots there. Give it a dose of epsom salts to perk up the foliage and watch it grow. I think it'll be fine.
 

R_F

Chumono
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That's pretty cool BNut!

Keep us updated on this one!
 
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