Regardless of your chosen developmental process, quite confidently one can conclude, the more space a tree has to grow in the larger it will get. Link this to our developmental goals it becomes clear that we need to maximise this.

I like to use pond baskets where possible for trees in development and that’s for a few reasons. One of these reasons is that up-potting a tree in a pond basket is simply done by placing the existing container into a larger pond basket. There is no stress to the tree and it allows you to react quickly to the need to up-pot at any stage.

Pond baskets have the advantage of providing more oxygen into the root ball. The allowance of more oxygen and increased drainage capacity allows for more frequent watering and fertilisation which in turn can result in accelerated growth. This is all while maintaining a ‘bonsai manageable’ rootball and not something you would typically find in a nursery container or field grown material.

Identifying the need to up-pot and acting on it timeously can drastically reduce development time, as this allows the root ball to increase in size and in turn support greater top growth.