I did my first real potting today, of a Blue Rug Juniper I've had for about two years. I had intended to wait until the next bonsai club work day to get some help with it, but that's not until late May. So I dove in a bludgeoned my way through the procedure as best I could.
I managed to untangle the worst of the interlocking roots near the surface, which means that a couple of the ones I was afraid I might have to cut may be able to contribute to the nebari right in the front. I cleared out nearly all the the old soil (which was mostly organic, although loose enough with bark that it had done ok until now). Now it's in a mixture of a tiny bit of the old organic, a little bit of orchid bark mix, and mostly Schultz Aquatic Soil (which may or may not be identical to Turface), with a bit of driveway gravel at the bottom.
I ended up cutting only about 1/3 of the roots out, which left probably more than should comfortably fit in the pot, but I was trying to be conservative so give the tree some leeway to stay alive.
Hopefully it will settle in pretty quickly and I can do some cutting (e.g., the sacrifice branch at the very bottom left).
Thoughts? Advice?
