What are the best practices for kusamono repotting?

[Colorado]

What are the generally accepted best practices for kusamono repotting?

I have a couple accent plants that I’ve been keeping for a few years now. I am wondering whether these plants are traditionally repotted regularly like we do with our bonsai trees, OR whether repotting is less necessary for accents since the roots don’t really form woody tissue like a tree.

For example, here is a native Mountain Harebell that has been in this little shohin pot for 4-5 years now. It’s not holding moisture as well as it used to, but also still seems healthy as ever. The moss has grown UP a considerable amount over the years. Perhaps the roots are growing into that, I don’t know. I am thinking about repotting it this spring, but I also am curious to see how long I can keep it going without repotting.



Any advice or insights appreciated!

 

[rockm]

Treat them like regular garden potted plants. Separate or divide the clump when the roots outgrow the container and refresh soil. If you have friends give the divisions to them. I get extra mini hostas and other stuff from bonsai friends all the time

 

[Wood]

Michael Hagedorn doesn't repot his accents. They usually end up growing over the pot at some point

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Im decently confident that Shannon Salyer doesn't. I can't remember if Young Choe has talked about it either way

 

[treeline]

That harebell's looking great! Ditto what Wood said about Hagedorn; in a seasonal I took last summer he emphasized that he very rarely repots accents. I'm also a big fan of Kyuzo Murata's book Four Seasons of Bonsai, which features a lot of herbacious plantings. It doesn't seem like he repotted his accents / kusamono. Alongside a beautiful photo of a violet he wrote, "You do not need to repot bonsai with nonwoody plants except to change the container."

 

[Colorado]

Awesome, thanks guys! If Hagedorn doesn’t repot his, then that is good enough authority for me

I’ll just let them ride and see what happens! Although I do have a couple of pots I made that I kind of want to put the harebell in. So I may change for aesthetic reasons and then just leave it in that container indefinitely.