I have never heard of Canary Island Jade. I have many different ones, but that's one I don't have. =0( I would love to see pics if you can. Jades are interesting. They like to be root bound and snug in their pot. It's probably quite happy as is, but it won't quite work well for bonsai. I don't know if you are putting it in a bonsai pot yet if you are still trying to get it where you want it. This will happen a lot faster if you grow it in a larger growing pot or even in ground. If you are putting it in a bonsai pot, just know that it will take a lot longer to get the stem to fatten up. As far as the roots go, jades are pretty forgiving. You will have to use a rake or root pick to loosen them the best you can. I might even try to do it with my fingers. Hold the roots at the base and wiggle your fingers until the roots start to losen. Kind of pull down slightly while you are doing this. I would trim them by at least half (maybe even 2/3) and then plant them in a LIGHTLY moistened VERY WELL draining soil with lots of non organic aggregate to keep the soil free draining and allow lots of space for the roots to "breath". Do not water for at least a week. The leaves of jade hold a lot of water. I have some that went the entire winter with only two waterings. They withered terribly, but when I watered them, they plumped right back up. Mind you, I had to soak them for quite some time to get the organic matter in my soil to moisten again. These were not bonsai, though. If you water immediately it will cause the roots to rot with the open cuts on the roots. Because jades root so easily, it would be very difficult to cause irreparable damage. You could actually chop it at the soil line, put it in fast draining soil or pure fired clay, and still root it. I doubt you want to go that route. =0) Good luck.

It sort of depends on how much of the root system you delete when you prune. I think I'd bite the bullet on my first root pruning & remove the fruit to ensure a faster recovery. Blooms and fruit are a plant's strongest energy sinks, so other organs will get short shrift insofar as energy allocation is concerned when the plant is blooming/fruiting. The pecking order of energy sinks is flowers - fruits - leaves - stems - roots. I even debloom and disbud the flowering plants that go into my mixed display containers to ensure faster root establishment. Al

Al: Oh, I do indeed have more trees! I am a bit overwhelmed by the number of pots both in and outside of my home. I am an incurable collector. I could ask you questions about them all day. . . Back in March, you answered several of my questions about making the gritty mix when I was just embarking upon that adventure. I put a few plants that were on death's doorstep in the mix then. A few didn't make it (a draceana among them), a few are thriving (the aloe and spider plant love the mix!), most have held steady and are starting to show signs of growth (shefflera, swiss cheese philodendron). So I do have a sense of the patience required when repotting before the optimal time. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of undertaking things at the right time. It's been nice to practice with the mix, learn about it's water retention, and begin to tweak it for my needs before I moved my most-beloveds into it. This week I chopped an enormous floppy jade back to it's thick base and put it in the mix. Looking forward to that development. Also a favorite cactus whose name I don't know; it's about four feet tall, main stalk about 3-4" diameter with five stalks coming off the main, so maneuvering it was an exciting project. I was nervous about that one, but glad I did it when I got in there and saw how cemented the roots were in the hardest soil I've ever dealt with. I have a ficus lyrata (fiddle fig) that also reaches the ceiling, so I'm using your advice to give it a new shape. I'm planning on following roughly the same timing for it as for the elastica. I have a very big Bloodgood maple in a pot that's too big to move. I'd love to get that back to a manageable size, but it has just leafed out beautifully and I'm thinking that it is not the right time for that. Your comments are welcome. My other big question involves conifers. I have a very sick Wilma Goldcrest Cypress, and some kind of arborvitae (I think). I've noted that you don't recommend bare-rooting these, but cutting wedges. Is that correct? What about timing? Okay, I've rambled enough. As you can probably tell now, I'm addicted (like many folks I've read on this site). Thanks again for your help. I'm really enjoying learning about the plants, seeing their roots, and giving them conditions to thrive. blessings, brenda

The original poster simply asked for the BEST way to loosen root bound plants. I've done my best to describe the best way, based on plant physiology. Injuring roots by tearing, crushing, etc. causes a different reaction from the plant than the simple creation of new roots at a sharp cut. There are many other methods, obviously. And plants will typically recover from a certain amount of harsh handling. The 'standard', however, and the one that follows the guidelines for BMPs (best management practices) is to use a sharp tool of some kind to cleanly sever the roots, rather than mangle them. Why should we do something that causes injury to the plant, instead of accomplishing something beneficial? All of this reminds me of a landscape worker who was in charge of installing several hundred 1 to 7 gallon container plants at a commercial project. His method was pretty unique: He removed the plants from their pots, laid them on the ground and proceeded to smash the root ball with his foot. Ay-yi-yi