Beng
Omono
Have you ever bought a tree from Brent (evergreengardenworks?) I have to say there is a GIANT difference between a nursery grown tree and one he grows. The biggest difference is the roots. If you buy a nursery grown tree it may have a great trunk in a 5 gallon container, but more then likely the roots will consist of 3-5 long thick roots with the majority of the feeder roots at the bottom of the container if it has many at all. You can chop it back hard and hope it grows but that's always a chance. I been repotting bonsai for 10+ years I still put it at a 50% chance a nursery tree lives through a bonsai repot. You essentially have to remove all that old bad soil and get the rootball clean for drainage. You also need to decrease the height of the root mass and by doing this you'll most likely cut off 75% of the feeders. If your patient you can plant the whole root ball in pumice for a year or two to grow new feeders at the top of the root ball.
Brents seedlings, and his larger material is in a very loose reasonable particle size organic mix which falls apart when your repot his trees. You can retain the whole root ball most of the time and still fit the tree in an appropriate bonsai pot. His root balls are mostly feeder roots and most of the time you'll either have no tap root or only one short one to deal with. He treats his roots as you'd treat the roots of your trees which you've cared for over a period of years.
The difference between his stock and a garden variety nurseries is night and day, in my opinion his stock should cost two to three times the price as it's much better to work with and the chance of the tree progressing into a bonsai someday is much greater.
