I'll try to be quick and to the point.

Always have been interested in Bonsai, just recently diagnosed with an illness which will give me significantly more free time. I have always admired a specific Willow tree in my town, so I took some cuttings and left them in water for about 3-4 weeks. Two of them rooted pretty well.

I have a mixture of 1/3 Akadama, 1/3 Pumice, 1/3 Black Lava and a small amount of Horticultural Charcoal. Something I bought on Amazon and is definitely too expensive to be filling multi-gallon pots with but I believe I have some time before I have to re-pot. I am aware that I may have been better off starting them off in the ground but this is the route I have chosen.

As a random experiment, I decided to wire the one Willow. The roots grew into the water from the shoot in a very odd way. Long story short, that tree actually goes about 4 inches under the substrate horizontally and the roots are right underneath the substrate, actually above the stalk(?) Not sure if I'm making any sense.. I imagine the roots will grow down an do something odd, possible strangling itself? Possible becoming the strange above ground roots that I am hoping for?

Anyway, try to go easy on me. I'm sure I'm breaking all kinds of cardinal rules haha.

It looks fine to.me.
Willows are easy to root from cuttings, so now it's waiting time!

Not sure if I have written this before but: bonsai are not created by kerping young plants small in small pots.

I don't have a place to put them in the ground and I don't have $$ for nice substrate to fill 5 gallon pots. What do you suggest? From what I've read, these things grow pretty vigorously and I'll be re-potting soon anyway so I figure I have a little time to figure it out. These were taken from water and placed into these pots only yesterday, the roots are not anywhere near the sides or bottom.

I hope this is a more welcoming place than you make it seem, Auk. Reading through your comment history, it seems you are just commenting on threads asking for help from noobs saying "I'm not sure if I've said this before but: (something negative)"

May be the wrong place for me.

You do not need bonsai pots nor do you need bonsai soil. I never put young plants in relatively expensive substrate, i use that for bonsai only.

If my answers look repetitive that is because the questions are.
The cardinal rule you broke is not reading and researching this forum and website first.

Fair enough. I think it's also fair to mention that I just posted in the progressions sub-forum with the intent to update every now and then.

Let criticism be constructive, please. Although being on a public forum I suppose I open myself up for comment so, eh.

Point noted.

The point is that you don't grow bonsai by letting a cutting grow in a small pot. You need to get girth on the trunk first, some branches to work with at the right places and then you will have a tree that is still not a bonsai but you will be able to work on.

This cutting will take ages to reach that level of development. Of course you can wait, but you will get bored in the meantime.

Read articles and books, there are plenty of them mentioned on this forum. Collect some mature material that you can work and practice on and in the meantime you can let your willow grow wild preferably in a bigger container if you don't own a garden.

A plastic container is cheap I also use fruit baskets and you can always build your own wooden box for a very low amount of money. Bonsai substrates are expensive but most of the time you don't need it and there are far better solutions. Read the forum. Some of us use kitty litter, pine bark chips, coarse river sand, crushed zeolite or fired diatomaceous earth. These are all cheap and there are other options as well.