Hello all,

I've air layered my maple tree in the hopes of creating bonsai from it, and the two I've started have both grown lots of roots in the sphagnum now which is promising.

When I transfer the branches into a pot, shall I use a good bonsai mix around the sphagnum ball straight away or normal potting soil/compost/earth (?) until the roots have established further?

Whichever you want. I use my regular bonsai mix because I do not want to change media. And for maple, normal soil can hale lots f diseases that maples do not know how to deal with.

Ahh I see, thanks for the info.

What would you suggest for pot size? The branches are around 1.5cm wide. Did a bit of reading and it's either big(ish) pot and just let it grow to work on branch structure, or increasing size pots / slip potting to reduce potential soil saturation build up in a big pot. Are there general pros and cons to either?