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Hi all

I just got a japanese maple "skeeters broom", about 1.5 meter tall from a nursery plant, in a plastic pot with pure soil. I live in (cold) Sweden and my first thought is how to keep it alive over the winter. I have never worked with a outdoor bonsai before. I learned that a soilmix with good drainage is important for bonsais. Is that only important once it?s placed in a bonsai pot?
My plan is to keep it in a shed, isolated from frost with a frost guard, embedded in a styrofoam box but still not to warm to enable to dormancy. So I need a few tips of how to make it survive.
1. When do I know when it?s time to take it to the shed? When leaves are falling? When frost is coming? A certain temperature?
2. Can I let it stay in the nursery pot with pure soil (assuming that the roots are not overgrown in the pot)?
3. Which time in the years is best for cutting branches and start a rough shaping? Is it to late for that now in late september?
Lots of questions, but my primary goal is first of all to have the maple survive the winter. Then i can start wondering of how to shape it.

BR CTW

CTW wrote: Hi all
I learned that a soilmix with good drainage is important for bonsais. Is that only important once it?s placed in a bonsai pot?

It is to enable good control of watering, fertilizer and stimulate fine root development. In general, trees in pots do well in this mixture. All my pre-bonsai are in coarse substrate.

CTW wrote: Hi all
1. When do I know when it?s time to take it to the shed? When leaves are falling? When frost is coming? A certain temperature?

Only when it gets really cold. Up to a few degrees frost I would leave it outside. It helps with dormancy.

CTW wrote: Hi all
2. Can I let it stay in the nursery pot with pure soil (assuming that the roots are not overgrown in the pot)?
3. Which time in the years is best for cutting branches and start a rough shaping? Is it to late for that now in late september?

Yes. Do not repot untill spring.
Rough shaping for maple I find easiest in spring, once the first set of leaves has hardened off. Then defoliate, trim & wire. Others do this in winter. I find the branches to be too brittle to do a lot of work on maple then. THat being said.. I do not have many maples, and none of them are very good.

Thats good info, thank you.
You said some cut branches in the winter. So it will not harm the tree doing that in winter (and perhaps autumn)?
I have an idea of how to cut it and would very much like to get into it, but only if it?s not risky to the health.
And of course keep in in the nursery pot until spring as you mentioned.