AusBonsai

My juniper doesnt feel very secure in its pot, i get a lot of movement when i tug on the trunk. normal for a young plant?

Have you repotted it recently? All my plants are "loose" because i didn't bother to wire them into the pots when i was repotting, thinking that the roots would hold them down. Ive had to wire them in place externally. I dont think its weak roots, probably just not enough to keep it steady in the soil.

A little more info would help Lupus - has it been re potted recently and what kind of mix is it in ? A photo with something for scale would help too.

Depends on a number of things. Personally I don't pull on the trunks of my trees. If it is struggling and has new roots, tugging on the trunk could damage new roots and set it back further.
1. How long since it was last re potted.
2. When you say young, how old is it?
3. Did you pot it or was it in the pot already?
4. What is it potted in to?
5. When it was potted, was it pressed down properly around the roots?

A picture might help better understand what's going on too.

Josh

Josh,

any movement of the trunk you run the risk of breaking the fine feeder roots, which will slow the development or recovery of a tree. When I re-pot or plant a newly layered tree or slip pot into a larger pot ( I always do so into a well draining mix) I always tie the tree into the pot until such time as the root systems is sufficiently developed to support the tree without aid. I generally do this with either wire or even brickies string by forming a diagonal bracing system around the trunk and secured back to the pot therefore preventing any relative movement between trunk an pot.

cheers,

Jeff

Hey, it hasnt been repotted as far as I know of, and its only a year old. As for photos, you can find them in this thread - viewtopic.php?f=131&t=17102

I might try tying it to the pot...

Lupus wrote:Hey, it hasnt been repotted as far as I know of, and its only a year old. As for photos, you can find them in this thread - viewtopic.php?f=131&t=17102

I might try tying it to the pot...

As the other guys have said, I wouldn't move it around too much if you can help it, as damaging the roots is one thing you want to avoid.

Normally we wire the bonsai to the pot when its potted up. This keeps it nice and secure, and prevents any movement which could damage the roots. In the meantime though, I'm sure tying it down would be fine

So, next question, how do you tie down bonsai?
Just literally grab some string and tie it under the pot to keep the trunk secure?

People tend to use wire rather than string-it's stiffer and doesn't have as much give to stop the plant from loving around. Loop around base of trunk-but not too right, and bring the wire out through the drainage holes (some pots will have specific wire holes) then secure the wire to itself.

Hi Lupus, apart from securing the tree to the pot I would also thin out some of the foliage. As from the photos it looks a bit too top heavy for the trunk which will cause added stress (instability) to the root ball.
Cheers Cindy