So I always like to show trees that we Sold many years ago and here Morris uh Has brought this tree back for repotting But the history of this tree is that you Told me that it was purchased 25 years Ago from Harris for around 400 pounds so In those days and it's hardly changed But it's in very good condition just one Brown Deer but apart from that beautiful Twin Stone style unusual style one part Is done we can gin nut So it's like children coming back you Know I like seeing trees that we sold Many years ago and you've kept it well So thank you some people are very good At keeping trees other people kill a Three to six months but you've had it 25 Years look at it it's Pitch Perfect well What we call but of course the last time You repotted you did you cut any Roots Out no I didn't so you just put it in a Bigger pot no I'll take the same I see I Didn't buy the set didn't have the same Part I bought a bigger pot at the time And then it's been left in the same pot And it's rising us so what we need is a Slightly bigger pot this one well what I'm worried about is putting into a Bigger pot Peter is Can you not reduce it inside and keep The same pot difficult because it's Rising after though I'll try and keep it If you don't mind it Rising I'll do that I'll try and keep the same I don't mind
It Rising okay all right then I'll look At the roofs so you can reduce it yes I Understand it becomes hard to lift even I can but a belly well I had to get a Friend to lift it this is about 30 kilos Now and it's not that big but it weighs 30 kilograms okay so I'll try and get it Back in the same pot although ideally it Needs a bigger pot but we'll see how it Goes this tree if we home in close It is crafted very low there that's the Graph there but you can't see the graph So it's a very good quality tree because The graft is almost invisible and it's Got this trend strong twin trunk style Which is quite unusual so you just keep Feeding it that's all yes yeah all right So tomorrow the way I feel it is I bore Down in there with a drill yeah perfect So there you are both sides are nice Okay so we'll do it for you so here is The white pine that my customer brought In He's prepared to leave it with me And as you can see it's quite a massive Tree It is every bit I would say in from the Base of the pot It must be about 70 centimeter tall and it weighs a lot I Reckon it weighs about 20 to 30 Kilograms So we are going to take it out the pot And look at the roots
We we've taken the wires off so let's Lift it out a pot and examine the Condition of the roots okay so let's Remove it And if we tilt the tree up Again one of the first signs you always Look for is the mycelium and this white Stuff the mycelium that we keep talking About is a sign that the roots are Healthy so healthy absolutely healthy And the tips of the roots are also white So all these are good size so whatever This gentleman has been doing He has been doing right so the only Problem now is to put down and the tree Is rising on the pot I did suggest a Larger pot but he doesn't want a larger Pot because he's getting on in age he Can't lift a heavy tree so he wants it Back in the same pot so unfortunately We'll have to continue to keep it rising Out of the pot but what we'll do is We'll tease the roots from the perimeter And get back to about one inch of the Perimeter all around and see how it goes So here we go we will start teasing the Roots and see what happens all right So if someone holds the tree see trees Like this are what we call two person Jobs One person will be hard put to get it Done By themselves so Two people needed one two whole one to
Tease You'll find that it's usually very Compacted And the soil as you can see is quite Gritty As long as the soil is gritty that's Fine Just because you don't have Japanese Soils like akadama that's not the end of The world you can use sand grit all Sorts of things if You observe in nature A lot of the Pines grow along the shore Where it's very Sandy on beaches even And they grow some of them in pure sand There we are teasing away I'll show you Some more as we get deeper into the root Ball so This is where we've got to We have teased around the perimeter And again look at these healthy roots So we're going to Cut some of these off because I think we Can easily cut it off and then we'll go Deeper into the soil So we can put some fresh soil in and Reduce the height of the tree a bit okay Let's cut away This is the part that people are afraid Of doing they think that it will kill The tree no way even Very good horticulturals I remember Doing television programs with some of These BBC presenters and when they used To see me doing this they used to say oh
You'll kill the tree Okay And that is the massive route that we Got out Now we're not going to throw all this Root away because we're going to mix Some of this mycelium back in the soil Sure we can get a get up two inches Don't you think huh Yeah there's a nice loose layer now add More and then we will Just put about half an inch or an inch This compost hasn't deteriorated it's Still in good condition so just shows That you have a good friable compost With a lot of drainage And wet and damp So this was the mix we used to use about Five years ago We're forever experimenting with Different mixes And this mix Certainly seems to have worked well Because the tree is an X excellent Health Of course I should Congratulate the grower because He has kept it in good condition [Music] Have you taken some off from the edges Steve uh we'll try and test it here okay Take some and then we'll test it and see How low we can get it Okay we'll show you some more when we've
Got further into the root ball So we've got The root poured down Quite a lot so we're going to take the Thick Roots out Roots like that so with the root cutter We'll just cut it there So that it doesn't stop the Tree going lower And then there's another thick root here Tech Roots can be taken out Quite safely It's the 10 roots of fine roots that you Don't want to disturbish let's see the Thick Roots can you hold it up So there you see what it looks like That's the technical grade cutout so There's another These thick ones we can also take out Even with Sizzle or Cutter It leaves all the fine Roots behind What's the bunches Put it back in the pot Okay we're now ready to put it back so We prepare the pot together yeah take That out So we're going to prepare the pot and I'll show how we're going to mix this Compost preparing the spots so we're Putting a tiny bit of sphagnum moss so That it will encourage any roots that Touch the Moss it'll get flattened and Compressed anyway Okay that's enough and then we're going
To mix the salt out I don't often use spent soil but this Soil is in such good condition that I'll Use most of it again this was our Original soil which has akadama in it You can see the brown bits some type of Organic grit and we used to use very Fine pine bark and because it doesn't Smell at all it's in perfect condition The other reason why I like to use the Same salt especially with binds is for The mycelium you can see that little White Trace there not only that we will Crush some of the mycelium from the all Roots and mix it in there so We are putting something which is almost Like the spores of mushroom Or fungi in the soil to breed more Mycelium so that is the trick not many People realize that and now we will mix Some akadama in it To open the soil up a little more so It's still going to just mix some That's going to be our compost for this New tree Okay So you can see we put this Okay that seems a perfect mix Let's spread a little bit in this spot Nice Fine So we will now put the tree back in a Spot Put it on the turntable so I get a good
View oh we've certainly dropped the Height quite a bit so it's not so Mounded So it's looking good so if you can Compare it with the original photograph You'll see that we've reduced the mount Quite a bit so all that we now need to Do is put soil around it and the tree is Done I don't need to show you everything So that's it So here's the finished tree repotted and You see how we tied the tree in with the Wires crisscrossed it because of the Mount We've made sure that it won't fall out And this is the amount of root we cut Out about an inch of the bit all around The perimeter and we must have taken at Least two inches from the bottom two or Three inches to make it look less of a Mounded up tree So we've got it back in the same pot And that pot is just right for this tree It's a good choice of pot what I'm now Waiting for is to Bring a drill because the insides we Didn't penetrate the insides because It's quite Mattered in the middle and I'm going to Bring a masonry drill And drill through the compacted root Ball this is something I often do people May laugh at me but it is a thing that Works even a lot of tree surgeons
They drill holes Around the trunks of large trees that They prune and feed it with fertilizer That's the only way fertilizer can get Into the soil so what we are doing is Certainly not a novel thing that I Invented it's a common practice in Ordinary tree care of large trees that Grow in steadily homes and steadily Grounds that's what keeps trees healthy So I'll show you that in a minute so We've got a drill With a long bit of masonry bit and we Are now going to drills about six holes At strategic points to let air in so Drill away Avoid the roots as much as possible So that's what we're doing maybe over Here but do 26 rounds yeah yes so I can Get one yeah in there that's it Foreign Or drilling for gold we're just letting Air in okay maybe here So if you have a very pot Round Tree It's quite safe to do this There you go you see All right so that's what we do so there You go I hope you learned something from That Foreign [Music]
Creativity in writing is becoming a scarcity.
Between the constant temptation to dance for the algorithm and the staggering advance of artificial intelligence, our world is spiraling into what I believe to be a creative crisis.
For us to remain an emotionally-aware race, while at the same time pushing humanity forward, we must cultivate and champion creativity both in ourselves and in the generations to come and write as we feel.
This is why I’m dedicating the next decade of my life to exploring the subject of creativity as both an artist and teacher.
I hope you enjoy my content
Best
James
My Bonsai Journey
