Root pruning

Hey there everyone

Its officially time to get started. The weather looks good for the next week or so. now my question.

When I repot my trees I always stress about the root pruning. When I rake a third of the soil from the rootball, do I cut of all the roots that is hanging? Most of my trees were potted by friends and professionals. I never thought of asking this question. I know that all thick roots should be cut.

I have some deciduous trees whose buds are already open. Can they be root pruned or should I rather wait for next spring?

Please help.

Hello Hein.
Why only 1/3 of the soil? Normally if you re-pot a tree, the old soil is cleaned away.
What you want to do is clear away as much of the soil as you can and cut any dead or rotting roots. Also get rid of any tap roots.Don't remove more than 1/3 of the roots.
If your trees have already budded I'd wait until next spring to prune the roots.
One more thing. If you own any pines or spruce and are re-potting them, don't cut too much of their roots. They don't like it much

Hi Hein,

Here is a link from the Empire's site:
www.bonsaiempire.com/train/root-flare
Also, if you go to the Main Menu (upper left corner of your page), click on Care and then Repotting...there is some info there as well. Hope this helps as well.

PS ~ Would somebody please tell me how to post more than one link at a time? :S

What do you mean leslie?
testing it bellow

TEST

www.bonsaiempire.com/

www.bonsaiempire.com/grow/blog

www.bonsaiempire.com/train/blog

END TEST

Sorry, I meant a 1/3 of the roots not soil.

I always worry that when the roots get cut I will cut to much and lose the tree. My friend once cut to many roots from a japanese maple and it died. I really don't want this to happen to mine. I guess I will just have to do it with the advice you guys gave me and hope I don't mess it up.

Thanx for the help

My question is off-topic here so I have moved it to the *General* section of the forum under the topic "Forum How To Questions"

Sorry Hein for interrupting your post. :oops:

Hi Hein,

Here is another decent link I found. It is part two of a three part write-up on repotting and root pruning. It may well be worth reading all three parts? Hope this helps.

www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basics_Repotting2.html