Starting a jade bonsai

[walawelo]

I saw some interesting jade bonsai on this forum as well as on youtube. I want to start one. I got this jade from a backyard succulent grower out in the country. It looks like it has grown in a very heavy clay top soil (like a little brick). the roots seem to be very fine and this cutting hasn't filled the nursery pot yet. I'm aiming for a thicker trunk.
I have the following questions:
1-Can I rinse off the clay soil from the roots using water or this could give it root rot? I know succulents hate wet feet but the clay is so heavey I'm afraid raking it will just tear all the roots.
2-How long should you wait between repoting and pruning on a jade?
3-How long do you keep sacrificial branches before they become problematic (distort the trunk or leave huge scars)?
4-do you let sprouts at the base of the trunk develop into sacrificial branches to thicken trunk or remove them at the budding stage to divert more energy upward
5-I know how to grow jade as a houseplant in cacti mix and some perlite. Does it do better in a Bonsai mix or is it too wet for it?
6-while trunk thicken faster if it was planter in a big colander rather than a bonsai pot?

 

[sorce]

Root yourself a couple cuttings before tackling the soil. This way, if it goes south, you still have plants!

I'd let it dry all the way out, then club it against a wall like a muddy Boot, well, maybe not that hard. But that seems safer than washing it.

I am though, more familiar with Jade the rock.

Sorce

 

[Arizona bonsai]

If that was grown from a cutting it may not have very many roots yet.

 

[Forsoothe!]

You won't kill it in two days of soaking the clay enough to hose it off the roots. Conversely, if you don't see many roots coming from the underside of the rootball, that may mean that there are enough roots high up and you could saw off the bottom and just leave the clay block on. The nature of the beast is the stalks store a lot of what roots on woody plants store and they don't have big root systems anyway.