Pine Seedlings 2005

After rewiring the trees to produce better movement, they wintered well. Spring is at hand and the best trees are being repotted into mesh pots. These pots are designed for water plants, but as bonsai pots allow the maximum penetration of air and water without the chance of becoming waterlogged. In addition, they are self-pruning in that as the roots come into contact with the air at the edge of the pot, they dry out at the tip and ramify farther back.

Why use mesh pots? Growing in the ground has always been the benchmark for increasing trunk girth dramatically. Proper ground cultivation is without compare for packing on the inches when taper is needed. However, many of us lack the space for rows of pines growing in the ground. These trees need space, and plenty of it, especially if you desire extremely large trunks. Mesh pots seem to be the next best thing for producing larger trunks more quickly. Of course, one must be satisfied with medium sized bonsai rather than the large ones available from the ground...

This is the mesh pot ready for the tree. These pots are easy to set up your tie-down wires for optimum holding power. The drainage layer is already in place in the bottom of the pot. I bare-root the trees (they are a scant three years old) and improve the nebari as much as possible before tying them into the pot. For all my trees, including young ones in development, I use Boon mix. This soil recipe provides maximum aeration and growing potential while allowing the grower to perfectly control moisture and fertilization.

Here are a few of the trees at rest in their new pots. At the top of the photo is a round nursery pot with a root-over-rock tree produced using one of the seedlings with a less than ideal nebari.

This is a close-up of the base of one of the seedlings after repotting (shown actual size). White New Zealand sphagnum moss, passed through the largest soil screen, is spread on top of the soil to retain moisture and keep the soil in place. Notice the wire marks in the trunk. These were purposely allowed to cut in to swell the trunk and will later simply look like a rougher bark. Also notice how low the adventitious buds are on the trunk. These are within 1-1/4 inches of the nebari and will provide excellent low branching and trunk girth as they grow. Buds this low have been the norm, rather than the exception.

This is an example  of the nebari of one of the trees. The visible roots are outlined in red. The spreading nebari is typical of these trees, almost all of them possessing the beginnings of wonderful radial root spreads. Notice the reverse taper below the first wire scar. This seems to be an early drawback in the process, but I expect it to be reversed within one to two growing seasons.

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