My JBP seedlings in UK

[RoadManDenDron]

Thought I would start a thread for my JBP Seedlings they are around a year old now and have really came on a lot this year
I only have these pics from SEP 30 last year but most of them looked pretty similar to this and some roots after seedling cutting technique was applied.


I had one tree (in organic compost) that had trunk and a branch pretty equal in size, all of the others were just trunks with no branching.

I was scared of damaging the new roots and definitely under fertilised these trees.

this year I planned to put that right and with great advice from @cmeg1 I started on my Humic and Fulvic acid learning curve.

The seedlings now get foliar feeding weekly and fertilised with a wide range of fertilisers every other day (british weather permitting)

Now here are examples of a few today



They now have plenty of lower branches and have grew much more

Some have roots coming out the bottoms of the pond baskets already which seem to be escaping air pruning because of the pots sitting in trays,


I am not sure whether to sit these baskets in larger baskets, prune the lower roots to encourage laterals or leave them be. Any advice appreciated

 

[Shibui]

Larger pots/baskets will usually give more growth. Even slipping those pond baskets in larger pots of mix will allow roots to grow out and find more food so increase growth.
I don't think there's any need to prune anything yet. Shoots are still very small and short but it is great to have some low shoots to fall back to when the sacrifice branch goes.
Allow 1 sacrifice branch to grow long for faster basal thickening but prune other shoots if they grow too long so you maintain some structure to make the bonsai eventually. If you notice smaller, lower shoots not looking healthy consider removing the competing sacrifice, even if the trunk is not thick. You can always let another sacrifice grow but can be much harder to get low shoots when they are all gone.