I recently bought a sequoia tree It's about a foot tall and the roots are another 8 to 10 inches long. I have it in a large pot and I want to repot it in a smaller bonsai pot and I'm wondering how much of the roots can I cut back without hurting it?

At the moment you should not repot. It is winter, so let the tree sleep. Once you have it in good shape in early spring you can cut up to 50% of the roots. However, think why you would want to do this. This tree is very far from being a bonsai, and will need a few years of solid growth. Chucking it in a bonsai pot is not the best strategy towards getting your tree to be a bonsai. .

yes i would agree if anything it needs to go into a bigger pot .i realize that you are exited and want to have a "bonsai" tree but this is a very young tree that needs to grow and cutting the roots this early will only stunt the growth that is needed. sequoia grow quite rapidly and like water,but i dont think they are well suited for indoor survival

I have a few sequoias that look just like that . I planted them out by my barn and I'm excited to watch them grow. Have you heard about planting trees in the ground so their roots are spread out on tiles? I rad that its supposed to help with the nebari and when spring comes around I'm going to try that. We are moving so I have to dig them up anyway. Nice choice of tree!

Also, where did you get it from? I found mine on eBay.

Vnolan wrote: Have you heard about planting trees in the ground so their roots are spread out on tiles? I rad that its supposed to help with the nebari and when spring comes around I'm going to try that.

See the pictures here:

www.bonsaiempire.nl/forum/gevorderde-tec...ortelproblemen#14976

L.B. uless you are registered in the dutch forum you can not see the pics. my u name and password wasnt recognized

yes "plating" it a technique to develope nebari and a shallow root system by stopping downward root growth while still having the unresticive growth of growing in the ground

A great site for info on sequoia's is www.giant-sequoia.com and go to there bonsai section it tells you everything you need to know from topping to root pruning/repotting.

hm. OK, that was not su usefull. Some pics:

much better