bonsaial1

In the long thread, It was brought up to talk about correcting roots that have become rootbound and look awful in the nursery can.

These are some musings by Al Keppler, and are written with that in mind. Damn, I hate caveats.

There are lots of reasons why nursery stock gets to looking bad. Most of the reasons are just due to neglect and not enough help around the nursery. Plants that don't get repotted up to the next size can will start to show the effects of being rootbound by the end of that season in prolific locales.

The roots of the neglected plant wrap around the can and become a tangled mess. At the end of the first season, this may not be all that bad: if the plant goes on to become neglected, the roots grow in thickness, take up most of the soil, the soil gets washed out of the pot. The roots fatten up even more, pushing the plant further out of the container, till the whole plant looks like it has this huge claw grasping the soil. UGLY!

What can be done about it?
Well, there are as many answers to this as there are about making soil. Most of the techniques, (and these are learned techniques) are mastered with practice. Like the artistry it takes to develop the trunk and branches, so does the artist have to dig deep into his bag of bonsai tricks to help develop healthy roots and interesting looking nebari.

Re-read that again! Notice I said: Healthy roots and interesting looking nebari.

What I mean here is; 'I' think the roots have to be in peak health, and the nebari has to be varied and interesting looking. Read: Look Old.

In my post 'OK let's talk about roots' No one ever answered the question about the root versus nebari question. Just how perfect do roots have to look? We know that nebari has to look perfect or the image we are trying to achieve will be lost.

The techniques!
Practise, this is what makes a good bonsai artist better. When a learning bonsai person reads and study's the books, they get some factual training that goes in the brain somewhere. But getting the hands dirty is the only way to get the practical knoweledge necessary to achieve working a poor root ball into an acceptable one. Will you achieve it on your first try? Probably not. Will you achieve it on your second, maybe, but more likely on your 20th.

How much does talant have to do with it? I think it has alot to do with it. Techniques are something that are learned, but everyone applies them different. Gaining the nerve to cut a 1/4 inch root back to within 2" of the trunk, is not something everyone is capable of doing and keeping the plant alive. Knowing just how the plant will respond to this kind of treatment comes with years in the craft and gaining knowledge of the plants that you work with.

There are no hard and fast rules to correcting roots. Correcting roots is not that much different then working on the top of the tree. The roots down below should mimmick whats going on above ground. Nice ramification is not only healthy on the trees branches, it should also be a part of the plants root system. This is only accomplished with diligent pruning techniques to the roots over a period of a few years in the most severe cases.

Flap cutting, inarch grafting, thread grafting, are all good ways to correct roots. These techniques will help to make good nebari great. In the case of the 'claw' type roots, where the plant looks like its elevated on stilts and there is daylight shining thru the root system, then some techniques are just not going to work short of air layering the tree right off the ugly roots.

Sometimes a plant is so bad that no techniques will work to make the plant attractive. This is where bonsai artistry and expierance will have to show the way. Sometimes a dicision has to be made. What is best for ME. Give the plant away, donate it to a club raffle, sell it at a club function, who knows. What you think may be ugly will send the heart a reeling to some new bonsai guy. The plant was not bad, it just had become stale to you due to your growing bonsai expertise. You have realized that this plant is not worth fiddling with, and it would be better to concentrate on procuring stock with better attributes.

One last note... Roots are subject to the most drastic rigors one could put them thru. Roots were not developed on a plant to be confined in a pot. There are many conditions that make a list of acceptable root developing techniques hard to put down to paper. Soil management is a biggy, as well as proper watering techniques. A person with little expierance culd ruin a plant with the best roots possible in just one growing season. We have all seen the picture essays in Bonsai Today that show the Japanese Master working on a 300-year-old tree, and the tree ends up looking worse then before he started. This can happen in bonsai too. I am not just talkin about the roots here either, I've seen this happen with the top of the tree too.

Root rot can ruin the best roots very fast. Soil and water management are probably the two best things the newbie bonsai artist should learn. It's no wonder they start with these exact things in Japan when undergoing the bonsai apprenticeship. You will water and water till you think you have emptied the whole Sea of Japan.

Regards, Itchy

__________________
I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

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