I bought this juniper from nursery stock and thought that there might be a potential given its large base trunk at first.

After cleaning and brushing the soil surface i can see some more of the trunk but i’m not sure if i reached low enough to find its base root.

What’s my next steps here and should i cleaned up more of the trunk? If yes how best to proceed.

I tried taking pictures of the base. I do have a video imgur.com/gallery/Mk0qlJJ

it is difficult to see what you have done to this plant. I hop it is not out of the pot. It is not the time of year to be touching the roots I do not look at videos off site

i have not done anything major to the plant aside from clipping dead leafs(yellow and crispy ones). took it out of the pot to remove excess dead leaves and try to brush away some of the dirt/soil to expose more roots. after which i put it back into the 3gal nursery pot it came from.

so,to answer your question: your next step is to keep it alive for at least a year. Seems strange but that is already a major task for most people. Water it, some fertiliser, and look at it from all sides. Bonsai is a marathon, not a sprint. too many actions in the wrong period of the year has killed many plants.First make sure its healthy and vigorous