Ryan,iwould repot the tree into better soil.first the white on the rock is probley salt deposits from watering.. mix dish soap and water and with a toothbrush clean it best you can.i would trim the small roots from the rock leave all the large ones they are your feeder roots.where is the tree located inside or out??? put it outside let it get use to the sun.hope this helps john

Um.. actually the newer, smaller and highly placed roots are the 'feeders'. The older, longer ones may have new feeders on their bottoms, but you don't want to encourage those, but the ones higher up. You can't obviously just cut away all the older long ones, but find a better balance.

I won't cut anything just yet. I did repot this today. Here are the pictures:

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Ryan

You did well not to cut anything off. Soil looks a lot better too, hope you didn't mess around wit dish soap though. Now leaf the tree on a shady place where there's no wind for at least a month and DO NOT FERTILIZE. Only fertilize trees that are healthy. Good Luck!

Why would you say "DO NOT FERTILIZE. Only fertilize trees that are healthy."

Many trees are 'sick' because of nutritional deficiencies. To adhere to the above advice and not fertilize them is to condemn them all to death. Trees that are not growing are dying (Dr Alex Shigo), and trees need a full compliment of nutrients to grow. Bonsai soils are generally an extremely poor source of nutrition, requiring frequent and regular supplementation. It's not as though the scheff shown has a vast amount of energy reserves to make roots. The tree is already running on empty, and to deprive it of the building blocks required for the tree to make food and grow doesn't seem like a very good idea to me.

Al

A tree needs nutritions to grow, that's true. But a shortage of fertilizer will only make it grow less figurous. It will take a very long time before the tree really starts to dimish due to a lack of nutritions.
Trees become sick because of damaged rootsystems. Damaged rootsystems may be caused by many things like too much water, too less water, a buildup of toxins from excessive fertilizing etc. Etc. But definitely not by a shortage of nutritions.

Fertilizer is NOT a medicine! In order for a tree to recover, it needs to revive it's rootsystem. Therefore a good clean soil is necessary. Adding fertilizer to the mix burns any new forming roots right from the start giving the tree no chance to recover it's rootsystem. This will only make things worse!

Let the tree recover for a mont or two. Just like you would never fertilize a tree after repotting, one should never fertilize a stressed tree. You could however add some vitamins and hormones like superthrive or rainbow to stimulate rootforming.
http://www.gardenguides.com/100377-save-sick-tree-weed-killer.html

"Adding fertilizer to the mix burns any new forming roots right from the start giving the tree no chance to recover it's root system. This will only make things worse!"

You seem so sure. ;o) Sorry - but you'll have much difficulty supporting this idea. There is no scientific basis for it. You CAN over-fertilize, and induce plasmolysis (fertilizer burn) but that is unrelated to this discussion because it affects plants in the same manner, whether they are newly repotted or not. Fertilizing at normal rates (normal TDS/EC levels) will not burn even the tenderest newly emerging roots.

I'm very familiar with what fertilizer is/isn't, and that it is not medicine or plant food, but thanks for the primer. ;o) The simple fact is that if adequate nutrition is not available to the plant, it cannot grow (do a search for "Liebig's Law of the Minimum"). YOU may think it's growing because it is translocating (only the) mobile nutrients from plant parts it is shedding to make new leaves and extend branches, but growth is measured in the increase in biomass, and biomass cannot increase unless all the nutrients are available.

Trees become 'sick' for a wide variety of reasons - not just a compromised root system. Disease, insects, drought, heat stress, nutritional deficiencies/toxicities, pollutants, herbicides .... are a few causes, making it too simplistic to simply announce that trees become sick because of damaged root systems - as if it's the only cause. You can also be assured that nutritional stress (deficiencies) affects all organs of the plant, including the roots.
You might try explaining how plants that are 'sick' due to nutritional deficiencies are expected to miraculously revive if you don't fertilize them? There are a lot of inaccuracies in your suppositions.

Al

""and DO NOT FERTILIZE. Only fertilize trees that are healthy.""

I can't belive I'm reading this.
You can't expect any living thing, in a poor state, to grow and do well without proper nutrition!

JoJo

You both seem to misunderstand the difference between nutritions and fertilizer. Fresh soil (even bonsai soil) contains more then enough nutritions for a tree to grow (Although minimum growth Liebig confirms). But it does not contain fertilizer. Fertilizer, either produced chemically or organic contains chemicals that produce nutritions for the tree. It does not contain nutrition itself! These chemicals are harmful for newly formed roots. That's why the most respected advice is not to fertilize trees after repotting, and never fertilize stressed trees.

A sick tree can be caused by many things as is mentioned before. But it always, always affects the trees root system. A tree does not become sick if it has a healthy root system. Therefore restoring the root system is vital for recovering the trees health.

google: fertilize stressed bonsai trees. Result:
http://www.bonsaitreesupport.com/bonsai-fertilizer-tips/
http://entwoodbonsai.com/faqs/fertilizer-faqs.php
http://www.mishobonsai.com/bonsai_tree_care.html
http://www.kaizenbonsai.com/shop/repotting_guide.php

Oh, and most importantly:
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/bonsai/1998105703019297.html

Go ahead, go against the advise of the greatest bonsai masters like, Graham Potter, Lindsay Farr, Masahiko Kimura, Walter Pall and gardenwebs own FAQ page. I don't know who wrote it, but he's surely more experienced than you two.

P.S. Liebig is Only about healthy trees and about nutritions, not about fertilizer.

Sigh.

"Fertilizer, either produced chemically or organic contains chemicals that produce nutritions [sic] for the tree. It does not contain nutrition itself! These chemicals are harmful for newly formed roots."

Fertilizer contains nutrients the plant uses as building blocks to make its food and to keep its systems orderly. If fertilizer doesn't contain nutrients, where do they come from? Why are N,P,K,Ca,Mg,Fe,S,Mn,Z, and others (contained in fertilizers) listed EVERYWHERE as nutrients? .... and since when are nutrients harmful to newly formed roots?

Who says Liebig's law only pertains to healthy plants? I've never seen that exclusion or qualification, so if you want us to believe your theory, you'll want to link us to something that supports your idea.

Read the link below. Brent is well respected in the bonsai community for his expertise. You'll see you are at odds with not only me, but with him as well. Perhaps you should let him know he's misguided, too. ;o)

Take care.

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: Read this

Al... you put it so well, some things should appear above the forum as permanent FAQ's!

larke,
I totally agree with you!

I recently moved trees that were going down hill fast into new soil and used fertilizer. Now they are green and happy!
Who wants to go tell them they shouldn't be?? I don't want to break the bad news to them.

dsdevries,
If what you say is true, and I shouldn't have used it on a unhealthy tree, then they would have died for sure!

Al~great article!
JoJo