Graydon

Not quite sure what all this *bump* stuff is about...

I doubt I have the answer you are looking for but I will give it a shot. Most healthy plants should have this fibrous root mass you have described and that Brad added a photo to provide and example. It's natural and I can assume only exposed as you were searching for the pot of gold nebari we all seek. If you poke and prod enough you may be lucky to find a true larger root structure below all of this stuff. Chances are that you will find a few and that they will all be wrong (size and placement).

The approach I have taken is just as ElGringo suggested and take my time with shears and tweezers, clipping and pulling what was not needed. Let me clarify "what is not needed". Hopefully all of these roots are alive and providing what the plant needs to survive. What I am doing is searching for roots nearly the same size and radiating from the same plane of the trunk. Everything else above that "is not needed" in the design of the nebari.

I carefully clip and use the tweezers to wiggle the root up a bit and sometimes all the way out. Wet soil helps. If it won't come all the way out and gets tight I stop. Once I am complete I pull the plant from the pot and try to find the roots from the sides and bottom, tugging on the top root stub and working the soil with a chopstick and tweezers.

Once all have been removed I overpot up a size in a reduced height bulb pan. I don't disturb the roots more, just backfill with fresh fast draining soil such as akadama or some other coarse soil. The concept is the pruned roots will quickly colonize the fresh soil with the airspace it provides. I plant it a little high and use hairpins made from wire to help tuck and arrange the future nebari, but I do not cover them. I want them exposed so they begin to show some age as they grow larger. This provides less of a visual transition from nebari to trunk.

Now is the time to water well everyday and super fertilize using pellets and liquid. The roots will begin to increase in size just like a branch would do id others had been removed.

A couple of warnings - the plant should be healthy or this may be the coffin nail. It should also be fairly well established in the pot and the roots should have almost fully colonized the pot and holding the soil firmly.

This works for me, do it all the time. Hopefully it will help you.

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