My potting troubles!

[cuwire]

First post.
Live and learn is a great motto but at my age "quickly" needs to be added.
This chain of events may be of help to new entrants, like me and draw comments from the more experienced.
OK - I purchased a Juniper $25 size from a Bonsai nursery and got stuck into it with my new bonsai branch cutters like Edward Scissor hands and just like those guys on Utube, first pic after cutting a shape still in original pot. Second picture I decided to place it in a small pot and then I found an even smaller pot - OK cut of heaps of root probably gave it a shake - put some bonsai soil in the bottom of the pot and squashed it in forced soil around the edges and down on top of it and I mean forced and then put moss all over to hold it together.
Well it looked pretty good for first effort but then -
The moss felt dry so was the plant dry? I would put the plant in a tub of water soak and swish the water over the sides.
Some 4 weeks later signs of yellowing and loss of small branches and I figured nothing to loose so lets pull it out and have a look.
The roots were a super tight mass they had not gone any where except within their own mass the areas with no roots was the sides of the pot and the bottom which were pretty much solid soil I had to dig it out.
Every step I took was a step to disaster except that now I have bare rooted the Juniper put it in a much more gritty mix and into a plastic pot no forcing just chop stick jiggling - we shall see.
Wish I could have had better and more pics to document but of course I did not Know then.

Juniper_001.jpg

Juniper_002.jpg

Juniper_003.jpg

Cheers David

[Gary Bee]

Ah! David,

You did everything right mate, but only on the second time round!

The idea is to have a free oxygenated soil hence the sharp sand and gravel and humous mix which very few bonsai artists agree upon. It is really a matter of choice.

I suggest you buy a bag of bopnsai soil fropm your Bonsai nursery and please dont compact it in the pot.

Us a chopstick to settle the soil around the tree roots.

Gary

[Graeme]

Couldn't agree more Gary. When new Students asked me what tools they should buy to get started my first answer was always, "A Chinese Meal", after looking at me strangely I would tell them, "because you will get a set of Chopsticks with it." (Always advised them I had Branch cutters on sale shortly after tho' )
Your suggestion to buy a bag of potting medium from the Bonsai Nursery is also a very good one. Nurseries usually bag up the medium they use themselves to sell to customers. This has a few benifits for the new comer. First off the mix obviously works to grow trees in, it also works in the general location of the Nursery (not a lot of help if the purchaser lives 100's on miles away I guess) and thirdly, there will be less Transplant shock for the tree if it is repotted into the same medium type as it was previously growing in.
All those points help in assisting the newbie to maintain the health of his/her trees as they are learning. It is only after we repot our first tree that we realise we already know it all and start changing everything to do it our way.