I got this tree in Andy Smith’s 2010 “Burlap Bonanza” last year. It had been collected in March 2010; I received it in mid-April, and potted it within two days in this growing box. The mix is 50% lava, 30% bark, and 20% Turface, all sifted to remove fines. Very little of the native soil was removed, and I did very little root pruning; not much more than cleaning up the stubs of some broken roots. The nebari was never exposed, which figures in my question.

After about six weeks in shade I moved the tree to our deck, which is the sunniest spot I can offer it. Thruout the summer I fertilized it along with everything else, using both fert cakes (from North Star Bonsai) and supplemental liquid fertilizers. I had read that fertilizing in the first part of the year results in lo-o-ong needles, but I didn’t mind that right now: more important was to make sure the tree was able to re-establish itself well. Sure enough, the needles produced in the latter part of the year were twice as long as the needles with which it came!

In early-to-mid fall, I removed the terminal buds on several branches; the tree replaced them by winter. It has spent the winter in our sheltered side yard, with plenty of snow and cold but very little wind.

The first picture shows the tree as received from Andy, the second just after potting-up. The third pic is from last September. The fourth was taken after the one genuine blizzard (all 10-12 hours of it) that we got this winter.

Wait a year. then clean off 1/2, dont wash just clean with tweezers/chopstick. I would omit the bark, but you know that. You have to get the roots out of the muck, but redoing it this year could be real trouble.

Why you want it to bloom?

A few days ago I scooped aside the lava mix and took out a little more of the native soil with my fingers. If memory serves, that native soil was fairly compacted when I got the tree, tho that may have just been from being wrapped for shipping. In any event, the native soil is much more crumbly now, easy to remove a bit at a time.

I'm sure the native soil is gradually being dislodged by rain percolating down. Just so it washes all the way out of the box, I'm happy!

Sounds good over there Treebeard    I repotted a couple of Ponderosas this spring that I've had for a couple of years, and noticed that the remaining native soil fell off pretty easily.  Was nice to see because the first ponderosa I repotted a couple of years ago took me hours to get a bunch of that native soil out.

One other tip that Larry Jackel gave us in a workshop - he aerates the soil using scissors or a something similar and backfills the holes with bonsai mix.  That helps break up the native soil over time.  I don't remember how often he did it, but I would think that you could do it twice a year as long as you didn't go too crazy popping holes all over the place.

The soil mass could be holding in some rocks too, which might explain some of the resistance.  Could also be a very thick root that was cut.

Took a few pics today of the bud and candle progress.

Candles are elongating nicely, and now I wonder about something else. I've given Larry Jackel's book a pretty good going over, but so far have not found an answer to this.

Pines are (generally) apically dominant, some very strongly so. I don't know strong that dominance is in ponderosas, but I'd hate to lose some healthy inner buds due to apical dominance run amok. So I'm considering breaking the apical candles in half, sometime within the next couple of weeks, to keep them from starving out their brethren.

But is this something that is much of a concern on a ponderosa? Thoughts?