This tiny citrus tree has been trying to tell me something lately. It is one of the few proper bonsai trees I have, since it breaks no rules. This older picture shows the slant style or shakan that I am trying out. Its home is an upcycled disposable container, which may not sound proper but it allows me to frequently check the root system without doing any invasive sort of work to the tree.
Here you can see the roots were growing in that nice radial pattern, fanning out from the center. This is what we want. Criss-crossing is bad (this rule also applies to branches). Some roots may also be disproportionately more vigorous than others, such as the several roots beginning to grow along the circumference of the pot. These will be addressed, however I do not want to overly stress out this plant.
The best thing I thought to do was to "slip" repot the plant. Slip potting is when you pull the plant out of its old home, roots, soil, and all, and simply slip it into a new pot. All you really have to do is add minimal soil on the bottom of the new pot and some more around the edges I've you slip the plant in.
That's exactly what I did except I pruned the long potbound roots as well. By skipping the step in which you completely break apart the root ball, the tree has less damage to repair and, therefore, less stress and downtime. Even if you are extremely careful, some fine roots are bound to be damaged in a normal repotting, not to mention the fine root hairs/fungus that grow on the surface of roots themselves.
Almost immediately after its healthy repotting (and some homebrewed fertilizer), the tree started showing signs of growth!
New young leaves developing! So tender, so precious.
This is what the tree looks like today. I got scared because when I came home from 4 days away taking care of my sisters' cat (placement of that apostrophe is not a mistake, I know my grammar!) I found the newest leaves drooping and at the point of falling off! I flooded it with water. Twice! As you can see it's doing fine now, though I may have lost one growing tip or two. That's what happens when you leave your babies in someone else's charge.
With the fresh soil added to the bottom (and top) I can no longer see the roots. They'll show soon enough though. I'm glad I didn't have to do a full repotting on this tree. It's time consuming but that's not even the issue. I probably get as stressed out as the plant I'm working on and by the end of the job, I feel drained. And I can only work in natural sunlight! That's the only light source capable of charging my batteries.
I'm a big nitpicker and always try to keep my trees in tip top bonsai shape but I'm trying to do this less and let my children grow feral for longer periods of time. After all, that's the only way they'll grow (and develop a nice thick trunk that we all like). I'm going to try to prune this tree's foliage as little a possible (within reason) and see how it develops.
Thanks for visiting a little part of my indoor garden today!
