Hello my name is Mark D'Cruz of Ma-Ke Bonsai
and with me is Jonny Gires. Today we're going to demonstrate how to repot a bonsai (Ligistrum sinense)
We have chosen a Turquoise blue pot to replace the last pot.
I'm going to talk a bit about the tools we are going to use. To start off with we have a spatula to help firm down the bonsai soil
we then have a jin plier and wire cutter
the wire cutter is to help with remove wires that bind the tree into the pot
and to replace it with new wire ties
finally tie the bonsai into the pot...
the sickle is very important tool because more often than not you have to
the bonsai out of the pot
then we have two little brushes or rather three little brushes
that help us with the tidiness and cleanliness of the pot.
the the plastic brushes used to
clean the bark, the metal brush is use to clean the pot
the coco brush is used to tidy up the surface of the pot
once we have repotting it
and here we have two set of scissors to help us with cutting the roots
We have a root cutter
this one to cut the finer roots
they are very, very sharp and very strong
umm..
here we have a root cutter to cut off heavier roots
within the bonsai
and one of the most important tools as far as we are concerned is...
what we call a bidder, its just a piece of metal some thing like a metal chopstick
the chopstick that helps us with the
clearing the top of the root surface
the pot has a curved surface
surface so it the site has got in between the
the soil has got under the lip of the pot so we cannot just pull it out off the pot
so we are going to going to do is cut off the bonsai from the pot
this requires a bit of strenght
and we are using a sickle to
help us with the cutting of the soil
if the root-ball is not coming out use a chop stick
to help prise it out
you can see the roots are massed up
and it definitely needs to be repotted.
as you can see there's a substantial amount of roots, some we have already removed
from the root-ball but we still have a bit more to remove
cut away the roots
that were removed by the sickle
so first of all Johnny is going to start by clearing of the soil
Johnny is going to clean the moss that is on the bark
the soft nylon brush
ensures the bark is not damaged
but it removes all the moss that may have collected
Johnny is going to remove half to 1 cm of soils
from the bottom
so any excessively long root
are removed and cut away
so we have a clean root ball at the bottom
Next thing Johnny is going to do is cut out the excess root ball
to fit the new pot
Use the dibber to mark all round the root-ball, making sure it is centered in the pot
and make sure the
bonsai is centered in the pot
and now
its fits absolutely comfortably in the pot with
enough room to accommodate the new soil
For the repotting we use a special bonsai mix
which in this case is a mixture of Akadama and Pumice
the grain size is between 3mm and 6mm
and as you can see it is a very granular mixture
Place a thin layer of mix at the bottom of the pot
place the bonsai on it and jiggle around
till you get it in the centre of the pot
the trunk has to be absolutely
vertical
in all directions
vertical from the front
and vertical from the side
fill more soil in to the pot
and use a rubber mallet to settle the soil into the pot
this is a rubber mallet that has been
softened by boiling in water
we need to ensure that the tree is firmly in the pot
we test by moving the trunk,
if the pot and trunk move together we know the tree is firmly in the pot.
the next step is to use the spatula to firm the soil in
moving all around the the pot
The final step is to
bind the tree into the pot
with the wire is bound from one end to the other end
and tightened with the jin pliers
twisting it clockwise
while binding the wires ensure that
that they are not tied in the middle of the pot
but on the far extremes of the pot as we we've done
these two, you then cut of any excess
what making sure that
there is not much of a tail left
Johnny then water the pot by giving it a dunking in
a tub of water
pot rim stays just above the surface of the water
and the water rises into the pot from below
and you should soon see it at the top of the pot
lift the pot up and let excess water drain out
Last step in
in repotting is to cover the surface with
with a thin layer of dried sphagnum moss
the sphagnum moss protects surface root of the bonsai
by not letting the pot do it too fast
the last bit to do, is to ensure that the pot is cleaned up
and polished
Here we have Camellia Oil and an emery rubber
that helps with cleaning up and finishing off the pot
and that's how we
Repot A Bonsai Tree