Training Pots 101

Vance Wood

You could look at it that way but, with what we know today to call an over sized bonsai pot a training pot is akin to calling rap an assault with a friendly weapon (Water Hole #3). Today a training pot should do more than provide room for the roots to grow. The pot or container should function as an active participant in the process of developing a good root system. An over sized pot only stimulates more of the same kind of root development we are trying to get away from, mainly several largish roots that carry out all of the activity of the tree, as opposed to an abundance of feeder roots.

You have to remember that the goal in bonsai root development is to encourage and cause to form a root system that has only large roots at the surface where they are aesthetically pleasing. The rest of the roots should contribute to the health and well being of the tree. Those roots must therefore be fine feeder roots. There are only two ways to get this type of system. Dig up the tree, or remove it from the pot and carefully prune the roots concentrating on the biggest roots etc., or utilize a planting system that forces the tree to produce those kinds of roots to begin with.

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The only finished bonsai is a dead one; me 1992 MABA Des Moines Iowa