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Some basic suggestions for repotting, concerning the specifics of why repotting is done, when it is done and why.

PURPOSE
Plants are repotted for a variety of purposes. 1) To refresh the soil and improve drainage - This is done periodically as a maintenance operation. The soil breaks down over time with repeated watering as the organic components decompose and compact. As the soil texture grows finer, drainage is impeded and root rot can result. Repotting will enable you to restore the drainage conditions to maintain the plant's health.

2)To obtain a more compact root system - As the tree grows, its root system will also grow, filling the available container space. This space is important to maintain a porous texture to the soil so that the roots and the complex communities of microorganisms in the soil can obtain air to maintain a healthy environment. Left alone, the tree would eventually fill all the available space with roots, wrap around the container, and begin to push the tree itself out of the container. Repotting enables us to develop a more compact, efficient root system with a higher percentage of fine feeder roots.

3) To change to a larger container - for growth, or to a bonsai pot or intermediate growing container. Plants removed from nursery containers usually need to be repotted to an intermediate size container before being tranferred directly to a bonsai pot. this is because the nursery pot is taller and the root system has not usually developed the compactness and fine branching that is necessary to support the tree in a shallow bonsai pot. The tree is transferred to a "growing container" which is of an intermediate size, perhaps half the depth of the nursery container and twice its width. A year or two in this environment lets the tree recover and eases the transition to the bonsai container.

Collected materials are generally potted in any serviceable container that acommodates the existing root system. Unless the tree is an especially vigorously rooting species (wisteria, bougainvillea, willow, etc) one is usually careful to disturb as little of the original collected roots at the first potting in order to ensure that the tree survives its transition to container life. Two years is considered a basic, minimum recovery period. Look for active growth.

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