Black pine repotting...omg!

Well I started to repot my Japanese black pine today. I have had the tree since the fall of 10' and this was my first undertaking. The tree seems healthy enough, lots of buds shooting up. The color has been good, but, I always suspected something was up because the green seemed always to be on the yellowish side of green.

I carefully got the tree out and was rather shocked to not see alot of roots. There were some long roots gathering along the base up against the pot but there were very little roots that would qualify as strong nebari. There were also tips of new shoots here and there around the root ball.

After getting some of the old soil loose and working towards the trunk and finding very fine root shoots and a rather tight rootball closer to the trunk I thought it best to trim some of the long roots and then get it repotted in a potting soil labeled for pines that I purchased at New England Bonsai.

The other concern I have is there was no white fungus that I could see growing anywhere on the rootball. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated. and thanks in advance!!!

The lack of the fungus is not fatal to the tree, but it does grow better with it. It can be purchased as a supplement, but needs the right conditions to grow in the root ball. City water might not be the best thing to use because it is treated. If you use city water let it sit in an open container for 24 hours.
Frequently trees are grown in smaller pots for many years and will have a compact root ball, if this is not broken up when they are first transplanted it can make for the situation you described.

Thank you for the reasurance and the advice. I will most definately find and use a supplement.

Soil drainage is essential to the survival of Pinus , the best one for me is a mix pomice / kiryu 80/20 or pomice/akadama 50/50.

Seems to me that pumice and Akadama are fairly simular; the pumice ingredient perhaps less dense than the akadama. I may be wrong since I have not used the pumice. At any rate I was curious what your reasoning in for this combination.
In this last repotting I am using a mixture of smallish medium that I purchased from a Bonsai store here in MA. I was a little apprehensive about there not being any organics at all; so I added some of the mixture from the original potting throughout the repotting.
Any thoughts on that; although its already done. At least I have an idea of what to expect or not. Thanks for your input.
jb

why dont you take the tree to either NE bonsai or Bonsai West (i think those are the names of the nurseries near you) and give them a look. They can prescribe exactly what the tree needs in terms of soil mix, pot size, Mycorrhizae additive, sun exposure, pinching/pruning, wiring, etc. And since you already pulled it out of the pot, I'd make it a point to do it SOON.

pumice and akadama don't have the same characteristics: the akadama retains less water than pumice , and especially pumice, pumice does not disintegrate over time, it is reusable indefinitely.
Italian bonsaika have long used the pumice, a volcanic rock islands of Lipari, their pinus are wonderful.
With pumice, you can use chemical fertilizer , tamahi or agonokoro ( Japanese organic fertilizer ) , organics fertilizers should be watered with chimical fertilizer , NPK 15 10 15 for example , and humic acid used as the month of June, the assilmiliation off fertilizers, chimical or organic will be better , just try it on a small tree , the results will be spectacular

Not sure I agree with that last post statement "the akadama retains less water than pumice." Perhaps it came out wrong or I read it wrong.
I would say it's the opposite. The akadama is a clay that holds quite a bit of water. It's the non-organic organic in your substrate. The pumice is a porous rock like lava but lighter. If you want a free draining substrate you could go almost all pumice (say 80:20 with akadama.) If you want it to hold more water (if you live somewhere dry in the summer and can't keep up with watering) then I'd add more akadama and go 50:50. But I definitely wouldn't add anything to the mix that's smaller than 1/8 inch and certainly not soil. If your substrate is too water retentive you're in danger of having the roots moist all the time and they won't grow well and at the next repotting it will look exactly the same.
But I agree with you abcd on this statement: "Soil drainage is essential to the survival of Pinus"
Ian

In agreement with IanT above the black pine does not want to be moist all the time and akadama is used in the mix as the water holding ingredient.
pumice is pourous, so will hold some water where kiryu is not pourous so holds no moisture internally.

your exact garden climate chooses your soil mix rather than the country or bonsai world - we are mild and wet here so large particle kiryu is the main ingredient 10-20mm @ 50%. large akadama - 10-12mm @ 20%, pine bark @ 10% as it gets good results and black furnace grit @ 20% to bring down weight and cost.

If i lived in a very dry climate i would be using more akadama as it holds moisture for longer. Feeding is the key with soils like this - fish emulsion is good to keep a tree healthy but not make huge needles, used in addition to cakes or chemicals and you will get lots of buds after summer candle removal

cheers Marcus