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Quote:

Originally Posted by Alasdair

Don't just rely on your eyes, your nose can also tell you if roots are rotting. A healthy root ball will smell pleasent (in a weird kinda 'i like bonsai' sort of way) but rotten roots smell really bad, they're an assault on the nostrils.

Another thing to look for is plenty of fine, hair like roots. These are the ones that do the business and are the first to disappear if rot sets in.

Al

I'm calling hose-job on this one - in a polite and somewhat tongue in cheek way. Smell rotted roots? Seriously - I don't think that can be used as a blanket statement applied to all bonsai. I just did some root-work yesterday and had a sand pine with some root rot - no smell at all. Same with a poncirus. I think the smell you mention may be the soil decomposing and smelling bad - not the roots. The soil under the root-ball on the two plants I worked on was way too old, was organic and was very decomposed but still no tell tale smell.