Is this rookie mistake going to cost me an Arakawa/Koto Hime?

[Shogun610]

What about potting up if you have a more stable container than a little nursery pot that won’t stand... if you had a tree in a smaller pot and used similar organic nursery soil to plant the material in a larger pot till spring time , is this something that would be acceptable till proper re pot in spring with inorganic mix

 

[MrWunderful]

What about potting up if you have a more stable container than a little nursery pot that won’t stand... if you had a tree in a smaller pot and used similar organic nursery soil to plant the material in a larger pot till spring time , is this something that would be acceptable till proper re pot in spring with inorganic mix

Most likely, yes.

 

[Bonsai Noodles]

Hmm, just an update on things. Looks like the Koto Hime is fine. But I may have damaged the Arakawa's roots too much. This is what it looks like right now. Anybody know what's going on here with the brown spots? I had really bad powdery mildew, so I sprayed with a general insecticide/fungicide. That helped clear the white mildew, but now I'm not sure what's going on...

 

[Mike Westervelt]

Hmm, just an update on things. Looks like the Koto Hime is fine. But I may have damaged the Arakawa's roots too much. This is what it looks like right now. Anybody know what's going on here with the brown spots? I had really bad powdery mildew, so I sprayed with a general insecticide/fungicide. That helped clear the white mildew, but now I'm not sure what's going on...

They look fine to me, normal for end of season, just been shipped to different climate, slightly beat up leaves. Nothing to worry about.

Leo,

Professionals I have experience with do a type of slip potting to rejuvenate tired trees, almost exclusively for deciduous trees.

Essentially they make a box that is 1"-2" bigger around than the original bonsai pot, but the same depth, then allow tree to regain vigor for a year or two at most before reducing root mass to fit back in bonsai pot.

 

[Bonsai Noodles]

Just wanted to say I did an "emergency" pot check, and I found a spider in the soil! Don't know if that impacts the vigor of the tree, but you bet I'm going to be more careful of bugs now...

 

[thatguy]

I wouldn't worry much about the leaves or the powdery mildew. It is more moist and cooler out now and that is likely to occur. They're going to drop soonish anyway so they've done their job for the year.

 

[SC1989]

This one's definitely staying in MN. I'm at that stage in my life where I haven't really settled down in one place yet — going back and forth for family/professional purposes. With the really low temperatures in MN, I do think Akadama might break down more readily — hence the decision to keep harder inorganics in my soil mix. But I'm still quite a noob and in my experimenting stages of bonsai raising.

In any case, will heed this advice!

I like akadama, in very small amounts. Even the good stuff breaks down right away in my neck of the woods.