Soil & Repotting

Bonsai soil is not soil. It is a drainage medium, and understanding why changes how you water, feed and repot for the rest of the tree's life.

What's inside

• Why the compost your tree came in is slowly suffocating its roots
• Akadama, pumice and lava rock — what each component does, and workable substitutes if you cannot get them locally
• Three mixes by tree type: conifer, deciduous, tropical — with ratios
• When to repot: reading the roots rather than the calendar, and the early-spring window before the buds move
• Root pruning step by step, including how much is safe to remove and the point at which you have taken too much
• Wiring the tree into the pot so it cannot rock — the step most beginners skip and the reason their tree fails to establish
• Aftercare: the six weeks that decide whether the repot worked
• Fix-it: repotted at the wrong time, took off too much root, tree wilting afterwards

Format & delivery

1 PDF, 16 pages, A4, printable. Instant download on the order confirmation page and by email. Written in plain language for people who have never kept a bonsai before — no Japanese terminology used without explaining it first.