Willow cutting question

[jwell]

Hello, this is my first post on here and my first bonsai so I appreciate any feedback. I have a few willow cuttings sitting in a bucket of water, and they have strong root growth and branches starting. I have 2 questions. 1.) I was wondering what type of soil would work to move these into. I have Foxfarms Ocean Forest and a mix of peat moss, perlite, and organic fertilizer. Do you think a mix of these would work? 2.) What size nursery pots do these need? I was thinking 14 inch diameter buckets would work well.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Shibui]

There's never one answer for questions like this.
I prefer to use a single potting soil for all species as it is easier to manage watering and care with a single soil type. Willows will be happy in almost any soil provided you can keep them well watered.
Pot size depends more on how much growth you want. Larger gives better growth but be aware that small plants in really large pots can have problems. Safer to start with a pot the roots fit comfortably in then up pot at required but if any species will manage a large pot it would be willow so maybe the 14" would be OK straight up.

 

[jwell]

@Shibui Thanks. So I could pot up when required until I reach the desired size, then pot down gradually into training pots until the root system is small enough to fit in a display pot hopefully, correct? If all goes well haha. Still have a lot to learn.

 

[19Mateo83]

Hello, this is my first post on here and my first bonsai so I appreciate any feedback. I have a few willow cuttings sitting in a bucket of water, and they have strong root growth and branches starting. I have 2 questions. 1.) I was wondering what type of soil would work to move these into. I have Foxfarms Ocean Forest and a mix of peat moss, perlite, and organic fertilizer. Do you think a mix of these would work? 2.) What size nursery pots do these need? I was thinking 14 inch diameter buckets would work well.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Coming out of the water and into soil it helps to keep them really wet at first and then gradually let the soil dry out so the roots get a chance to acclimate to soil. I have had 100% success this way.

 

[Shibui]

So I could pot up when required until I reach the desired size, then pot down gradually into training pots until the root system is small enough to fit in a display pot hopefully, correct?

The nursery industry calls it 'slip potting'. When a plant has grown to the limit of the smaller pot it is simply slipped out of the small pot and the entire root ball is then potted intact into a larger pot. Provided this is done before the roots start to circle and tangle they just keep growing out into new soil and the plant keeps growing. Plants can be slip potted any time of year as we are not interfering with roots. Even if some of the old soil falls off during the transfer there's very little risk.
Not sure what willow you have but the ones I know grow very fast and may need up potting several times each year. You could probably start with a 6" pot and then go to a 10" or maybe straight to the 14" if they are doing real well by then.

At the other end it is not necessary to gradually downsize. Most trees will cope with a relatively large root reduction. I regularly reduce roots by up to 80% and sometimes more to get trees back down to bonsai sized root systems. All the willows I know will laugh at massive root reduction and just keep growing.

You may find you need to reduce the size of the pot before the final stages of branch and structure development to limit internode length so you can build good, dense ramification. Intermediate sized pots can also allow extra growth which will help healing if you've had to make some larger chops after the fast grow phase.
Unfortunately there's never just one clear road to follow when developing bonsai. Different species grow differently. Trees behave slightly different de[pending where and how they are grown and often a range of different approaches will bring us to a similar finishing point.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@jwell - What part of wisconsin are you located in? There are active bonsai clubs in Madison, Green Bay and Milwaukee. Dropping in to a meeting or two, or seeing a show can give one many ideas how to do things and members can give detailed advice on timing of doing different things.

Also, please post pictures as your tree develops and we here can offer advice. Willows are easy to start. They root easily. They are tricky to reduce down to bonsai size once they get going.

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[Crazy Diamond]

Wellcome to crazy!!

Faster than you @sorce

 

[Eckhoffw]

Welcome to spell check. JK!