Healthy Bonsai Roots

See if you detect a rotting sour or sweet smell.

Healthy bonsai roots. If any root tips are visible they should be white. Replanting is a bonsai health check every few years let s make a good diagnosis and health. You can try to smell the top of the soil but make sure you smell the bottom. Gently slip these back into their pots and leave them alone until a favorable time for repotting.

Healthy roots should be white or tan succulent and numerous and long enough to hold the soil in the shape of the pot. Very often there will be a quite positive foul smell as opposed to the earthy smell of healthy roots. Healthy root tips are typically thicker in diameter and lighter in color. If the roots are brown and crumbly that means the plant is unhealthy.

Root density is greater near the bottom of the rootball. You don t want to untangle and trace them back right now. Over watering is a common cause here. Bonsai soil is critical to ensuring the health of your bonsai tree.

When severe root pruning is required to get a nursery plant into a bonsai pot do not remove more than two thirds of the roots of a container plant if root pruning during the dormant season. Each smell can be an indicator of different problems all relating to root rot. If the black roots are firm they are not dead they may wind around and around and end in a white tip. This may be true but there are no white tips visible.

These smaller roots are much more efficient at absorbing water the immediate necessary factor following root pruning. On the dwarf sawara cypress below the roots are healthy but not particularly vigorous. That is the roots are responsible for supplying the plant with moisture and minerals not carbohydrates during the growing season. The lively and beautiful bonsai roots are very beautiful.

Major roots will be found to have bark that covers a soft and decaying inner layer. Adding chelated iron to the water and taking proper care of your tree s roots will help treat chlorosis. Severe root pruning should only be done during dormancy. If it s moves around freely that indicates poor root growth and bad roots can suffocate a tree.

Please take a look. Plants can also be root pruned and repotted at times of the year other than the foliage dormant periods. If not try adding bonsai fertilizer to the soil. In these cases particular attention must be paid to the transpiration root capacity equation.

The roots will fall apart easily and will be soft and mushy. The roots should be trimmed all around so that the root ball will fit into its new container without having to fold or tuck long. They can grow densely especially near the bottom of the pot. This removes the tap root and starts the shallow root system so desired in bonsai.

Affected roots must be pruned away and the bonsai transplanted into fresh soil. Leaves will also become discolored branches may weaken and break off and growth will be stunted.