How To Slip Pot Bonsai - (2019) FASTER GROWING BONSAI

[@Anth_71]

I love the way you explain the reasoning behind why you do things a certain way. It makes it easy to follow and not just understand, but try at home too. You are an excellent teacher!

[@BonsaiEn]

The only way to truly learn is to understand why you are doing something, not just knowing how to do something.

[@paulwilson2077]

Two of my favourite subjects bonsai and metal glad I found your channel cheers from Sydney

[@davidreid622]

Just found your channel today and have enjoyed the videos I've watched so far, thank you. You explain things much better than some other bonsai channels I follow. As a bonsai novice, I'm looking forward to learning with your help.

[@BonsaiEn]

Thank You very much! We look forward to bringing you more content. We also have our Podcast "Modern Bonsai" if your after some more content.

[@malcolmgray.5913]

This is great! Newly subscribed!

[@pansepot1490]

1:20 the tile or similar is not for keeping the rootball in check, it’s to create a nice flat nebari with all the main roots on the same level. Even in a pot if the roots grow downward they are not visible on the surface.

[@BrockCombs]

I would recommend using an Anderson Flat and setting it on the ground.

[@feixulinx]

me gusta la miniatura y la escenografia e iluminacion del video sigue asi :)

[@DannyVoltaje]

Loved your video. Truly value your time and justification throughout the process.

[@BackGardenBonsai]

Nice video. I will be sure to check out your longer ones when I get time.

[@happyplatform3086]

Your vids are amazing. Just to make sure I have this right - anaeorbic soil leads to thicker roots and good development. Aerobic soil leads to thinner more biforcated roots for refinement.

[@BonsaiEn]

in a nut shell yes, organic soils are denser and retain a higher amount of nutrients which makes everything grow thicker. In-organic soils for the most part have no cation exchange capacity ( akadama does) so they don't hold nutrients, even akadamas CEC is much lower then organic soil. so combine that with a higher amount of oxygen and you get finer root growth which results in the finer top growth. there is a bit more too it then what i have explained but the basic idea you have is correct.

[@timallen2892]

We had a bonsai nursery in Brisbane (they have retired and closed now) that use to plant the trees I polystyrene fruit boxes and only water, liquid feed and fertilise in the fruit boxes. Then once a year go down one side of the fruit box cutting all the roots on the one side so every five years would make the full loop. So it was like it was grown in the ground without the as big drawer backs. The same side that had the roots cut would get like two golf holes cut in them and new mix add in.

[@timallen2892]

Bonsai-en love the channel so glad I found it.

[@steffenbach3580]

Great video, lots of help. Much appreciated.

[@pokemonmagic.]

I think the hardest thing in bonsai is just letting things grow so you actually have something to work with or if you want bigger tree's as you need to let thing's grow and maximum everything for like 2-3 year's before you have nice really nice to work with but it's the first part of deployment and it's want to needs to be done I really appreciate your video's

[@louismilienou5442]

Very nice video

[@joaobalinha3631]

1st time seeing your videos and already subscribed. Very good 😁 congrats from Portugal

[@pokemonmagic.]

You need to do a video on how to develop a good root base and cover the way you would go about it

[@chriswillette8743]

So I’ve listened to your podcast quite a bit. Which I like when you have very knowledgeable people come on. I must say...you do not look like what your voice sounds like lol!

[@mercamg9312]

Thanks for the info. Great video. what % pine bark to coarse river sand ? I'm in Melb. Cheers

[@GoodSamaritan-g2i]

Can we use a fabric pot...like an air pruning pot to develop a healthy root system?

[@mariob.3232]

I do actually use netting pots. You can buy the ones for pond use. It helps to give oxigen to the roots with this kinda soil. However, if you live in a very cold climate, you might need to protect it during winter thought.

[@MrOptik1]

There should not be a downvote for this video.. it was perfectly presented. I not only liked and subbed but reposted it on a bonsai forum for beginners on facebook also to help beginners like myself who are interested and wanting to learn. Thank you very very much from the bonsai community.

[@yoteslaya7296]

ive slip potted quite a few bonsai. Its actually better than tearing the rootball completely apart, you should always leave a little bit of original soil with the tree unless you plan on putting it in a bonsai pot with new substrate then its ok to remove old substrate.

[@frankmanson3]

That was huge, I’ve been wondering if it’s better to go ahead and repot into a bonsai pot now or if you want a thicker trunk if it would be better to let it grow as is. Thanks for answering my question

[@unclesham5507]

all your content is good shit.

[@BonsaiEn]

Thanks Mate!

[@HerbandRoots]

Great info! Thanks!

[@a.l.alexander3668]

Hi there sir, Can you please tell me the ratio of sand to pine bark in your soil mixture? I'm headed out for a slip pot now. Love your channel. Peace!

[@ryanf5894]

I’m going to be doing this same thing to a Dawn Redwood of mine, to develop it. Should I cut the tap root off before doing so, or leave it? Thx!

[@BonsaiEn]

Hi, yes that tap root can come straight off. what you want to keep is the fine feeder roots.

[@jakefromstatefarm3256]

Draining material in the bottom like sand or lava rock jw?

[@jaybolinger2865]

Does the slip pot method work for a too little leaf ficus benjamina? I appreciate what you're doing by making these videos very informative especially as I am still pretty new to the bonsai world. Keep up the great work!

[@greje656]

loved the video. thanks!

[@TheAmazingSpaghetti]

Can you use fabric pots instead to increase oxygen? Can you put a slab in a pot to get the horizontal root growth?

[@BonsaiEn]

People often use colanders to increase oxygen to the roots, or things like cheap baskets from a dollar shop. And yes you can also use things like tiles to put under the tree to encourage horizontal root growth.

[@TheAmazingSpaghetti]

@@BonsaiEn Thank you. Would you mind being more specific about the soil? What type of pine bark? Finely shredded? What percentage of sand and mulch?

[@tzungsiangding3629]

Hi Josh! Great video. What are your thoughts on air pruning e.g. airpots/rocket pots/ colander/pond basket planting for development?

[@BonsaiEn]

they all have their particular uses. for normal development i would stick to a nursery container, but if you are trying to get specific results like a finer root ball or constant root pruning then these options can be good.

[@vonsopas]

Hi, thanks for this video, I am looking forward to slip potting a little juniper next week and this is proving to be very useful. I’ve got only one question. After repotting using this method, when should I start to feed my tree? I use only organic fertilizer like discarded coffee grinds and eggshells and so on. Thanks!

[@lordofwarz2]

Hello Just starting out here found your videos great stuff! had a quick question. If you have a super root bound start from a nursery should I just slip it up like this or do I need to do more root work?

[@jacquesstrange5330]

Hey. I’ve got an azalea bonsai tree that has leaves going yellow/red/brown. I’ve been told that I need to slip pot it/replace the soil to kanuma soil. Is slip pitting the right technique to do this, and how much soil should I be removing? Do I need a new pot, or can I put it back in the same pot with new soil?

[@Wedge53]

Try long fiber sphagnum peat moss instead of soil for sickly deciduous trees and shrubs.

[@jaychet]

I only planted trees in the garden this year, and the roots were spread out before I put them in. would a growing season do more harm than good? should I dig them out and repot them before spring gets here. thanks

[@BonsaiEn]

Hi Jay, Growing in the ground is a perfectly effective way to acheive size. The difference will come down to when it's time to pot up the tree. The root work will be easier with a slip potted tree and you just have more control. I myself have trees in the ground as well but majority are slip potted. You also have the advantage of more control in a nursery pot over nutrients and being able to position the tree in the optimal spot year round and protect it in natural disaster situations. But for now u would leave what you have in the ground. Maybe even get something similar and slip pot so you can get a feel for both.

[@jaychet]

@@BonsaiEn thanks for the reply. think I'll leave them for a couple years then. and yes, I may get a few more and try the slip potting method for comparison as u suggested👍🏼

[@JohnThomas-gb5zg]

@@BonsaiEn this is a good question. What about chopping a tree in the ground of considerable size to achieve size/shape.

[@elenamalone7678]

Hi, I loved your video and I have a question. I started a new bonsai project in April from an old bougainvillea tree that I had but after a few weeks of putting the tree in its new bonsai pot, the roots started growing out of the pot from the bottom. What should I do? The tree was doing great at the beginning but it starts losing flowers and leaves and now it doesn't have any flowers and its leaves turned kind of yellow and they are falling. Thank you for sharing.

[@JonGPxl]

What are the disadvantages to starting in large pot instead of progressing in sizes?

[@BonsaiEn]

there's a few things from not having a tight root ball, to not being able to control nutrient delivery as well. Also all the empty soil stays wet for a long time. it also makes it harder straight away to move your tree around as it will be un necessarily heavy.

[@cathyplantlover2862]

have you done any wisteria bonsai videos? I have a seedling that is almost a year old 😳 and need some advice from you about how to thicken it when it comes out of dormancy.

[@helland11]

Hey! Thanks for this idea, I want to try it for the next season (as it's a winter here already). I am a new to bonsai thing, growing plants from seeds now, and want to develop them fast... I just wonder if you have seen the idea with growing seedlings in collanders, could you comment what is better? I have tried it with akadama + kirio, but for some reason, it did not give me a grows I was kind of expected for. To be honest the grows was not good at all :(. So will try slip potting next spring... Btw, how do you know if the roots are already occupied the container so it's time to make a move?

[@natemitch7941]

None of the course river sand I look up looks anything like that. I'm in the US, do you have any clue about a source for reliable soil for development?

[@BonsaiEn]

any organic mix will do, this is just what is available to me. as long as you can get your organic mix to drain well you'll be ok with anything in development really. Soils get more complicated in refinement.

[@Matt6644]

I have a couple of maples which I want to slip pot this year and it is now early March which is early Autumn for us in NZ. Would it be best to wait until late winter for this before the growing season to do this or could I do this now. These are 4-5 year old trees from the nursery and are in development and have not had their initial prune to size yet.

[@BonsaiEn]

Hi matt. You can slip pot now as you won't be disturbing the root system. Get the trees slipped up and feed them well through autumn and they should come out of the gates strong in spring.

[@Matt6644]

@@BonsaiEn Thank you so much!

[@a.l.alexander3668]

Does it need to actually say Riversand? On Amazon I see Course Silica Sand and Course Sand for Succulent, Bonsai Tree and Carnivorous plant soil mix. Will either of these do? Peace!

[@ogsxl]

you could use regular sand. its about understanding the roles and purpose of the type of substrate or organic matter you are using for your individual circumstance including microclimate and tree specie

[@caitlinwright8335]

If you have a really small tree to develop for many years, is there a problem with split potting from a small pot right to a large pot? or should one incrementally go from small to medium, large, XL etc? By the way your channel is one of the best on KZbin?

[@firstlast-xn6ul]

Generally you want to incrementally increase the pot. If you size up too quick, the plant could fall over in the wind because the roots don't anchor it into the soil and the pot well enough.

[@nujxad]

What kind of soil is that?

[@BonsaiEn]

Coarse river sand, pine bark and fly ash.

[@nujxad]

@@BonsaiEn thanks for the reply! Any specific ratio or equal parts?

[@BonsaiEn]

50-50 on the riversand and pinebark and about 20% drainage material added. This depends on your area though, where I am we don't get a real lot of rain ( this year we have but it's been an anomaly ). If you have lots of rain falling up your drainage a little bit more.

[@davidrobertsson4535]

What happens if I just plant a little tree in a big pot?

[@BonsaiEn]

it will be similar to growing in the ground, you will get rapid growth. The only thing you will miss out on is keeping the root ball tight and compact the whole time as the roots will spread them selves right out and it will take a few years to fill a massive pot. Over these few years that particular tree will be a pain to move around as it will be unnecessarily heavy.

[@JonGPxl]

@@BonsaiEn thank you. Was also wanting to know this. I already potted my little trees in big pots :( more like large shallow bowls than your standard vertical pots. In the centre, under the main trunk placed a raised pillar to try to drive thicker starter roots to the surface. Definitely heavy! Fortunately I’m ok with waiting a few years, will be quite an effort when the time comes. Is there a way to know when the pot is full? Or is there an approximate way to calculate?

[@chriswillette8743]

I would at this point start using a coarser soil. You need to start getting diner roots at this point or you’ll be working backwards. When you first start I agree with a less coarse soil. But at this point I would start using a coarser soil.

[@BonsaiEn]

It all comes down to what you are trying to acheive. With this particular tree it is still trying to gain thickness and thicker first branching. This is achieved by elongating shoots. If we changed to coarse soil now we won't get elongating shoots, we will instead get finer ramifing shoots before we want them. We all wouldn't want soil that is too course in a pot that tall as it would drain far too quickly and watering would be a nightmare. I do understand what your saying but it all comes down to what the tree needs. That's why we try teach the "why" rather then just the "how". People can make an educated decision then rather then following a single pattern for all trees

[@chriswillette8743]

Maybe it’s because Australia’s climate is different than here but I still get plenty of long elongating shoots in a coarse soil mix. Obviously when I’m trying to thicken a trunk I’ll put it in a big pot with less coarse soil but I always have at least a third part pumice even at that point. Without doing that your going to have extremely thick roots that you’ll then have to work on decreasing which in turn will take just as much more time as if you had just started with a coarser mix.

[@jhengzraztamanlapitan4634]

Nice one i got it 😂😂😂

[@mattbrennan647]

How about cutting out the bottom of the pot and burying it? The tree could benefit from both root control and free root growth.

[@Asmusei]

Because the roots would then grown down and not out, the opposite to what we normally want.

[@1Mutton1]

If you leave the pot on soil the roots can grow out the holes which helps development. You can then cut them off without losing root ball control.

[@reforest4fertility]

Wow, can't you bonsai a tree in the ground, setting its roots free but paring back it's aerial limbs?

[@BonsaiEn]

you can certainly plant a tree in the ground for development but you run into a lot of issues and risk killing the tree or making it extremely weak when you dig it back up. you can get the same results slip potting and you keep a nice tight healthy root ball ready for a bonsai pot.

[@reforest4fertility]

@@BonsaiEn I wasn't meaning to dig it back up, only sculpt & stunt it enough to keep it lower than our suspended power/telephone lines. Thank for your reply, even so.

[@firstlast-xn6ul]

Yes, you certainly can prune and wire the limbs to make interesting trees, but this isn't bonsai in its most fundamental form, as bonsai requires the pot. It would probably best be described as a "garden tree".

[@brucedeacon28]

👍🍎

[@jansenyong4307]

Don't u have to start shaping those branches otherwise will become too big to bend

[@KOTalk]

Just plant the ting in the ground!

[@BonsaiEn]

its not that straight forward...

[@howardmckeown7187]

ok, problems all solved