Graham Poter () explained that all you need to do is to modify your watering regime - you don't need to repot even if the soil is clay - so just water less... if the time is not the best for repoting or the tree is not ready.

Doesn't make sense to me either. And what's more - the instructions in the text vs. the instructions in the diagram seem to reverse steps.

It's giving examples of things you can do, not telling you a method.

I am a beginner also. I am on here a lot because I learn from others questions and if it doesn't apply to me now it may someday. There is so much information out there. I started purchasing some of the books recommended on this site and I do a lot of cross referencing. I read it one book that a Japanese maple was fine outside to way below freezi just maybe protect the roots with burlap. Another book said to put it in an unheated garage and not outside. This is a concern for me because I live in Michigan only about two miles from Lake Michigan where we get a lot of snow and strong winds. So I come to this site and ask those with more experience than I. I'm learning a lot of this is going to be trial and error. I hate that because these trees feel like children to me. I don't want them to fail, but I think it's part of learning.
Graham Potter has been a big help to me and also Aqbal Khan.

I went through whole Blog by Walter Pall and some others and I decided that the best way to go is planting bonsai in pure zeolite with a little bonsai soil of any kind sold in supermarket just to hold water longer because zeolite can get dry outside quite fast. 80-20% To prevent it from getting dry fast, I also put moss on top of every pot.
I root pruned every mallsai I bought last year and planted it into this nearly right away, with washing away all of the transport soil from the roots.
Some of them I then took out of it few days later, because I wanted to plant them in the landscapes that weren´t ready yet when repotting.
It is very easy to take the tree out of this because all of the substrate just falls off the roots - without damaging any of them I think.
All of the trees were perfectly fine after this procedures.
I lost 2 mallsai so far but it was due to spider mites. (I am not counting few carmona trees that I bought at the beginning of my bonsai journey that were very sick and completelly ridden by insects that killed them eventually).
So I think it is safe to move mallsai to another soil mix as long as you do not damage any roots. It should be happy that you save it from that transport mess it was growing in up till then.
Disclaimer: I am a beginner too and my comments are based on my experiences for the last 1 and a half year.

I should add that I do this to every mallsai ANY time of the year - here are the pics of my elms repotted in winter in january I guess.
In pure zeolite:



Few days later I took them out and planted them in the landscape and here are tey now:

Keefer wrote:

Doesn't make sense to me either. And what's more - the instructions in the text vs. the instructions in the diagram seem to reverse steps.

"you notice that water pools up rather than soaking in"

I'd say that is about hydrophobic soil , in this case caused by dryness, not about compact soil.

Krištof wrote:

Disclaimer: I am a beginner too and my comments are based on my experiences for the last 1 and a half year.

Someone said that people should not look at the number of posts or status of the regular posters, but at the number of "thank you's".
I think you're a winner.

My advice as "beginner", try not to do what people are telling you to do. Make your best judgment based on the information that you've acquired from contradicting post, research, and actual hands on experience. That's how you're going to gain experience. Someone telling you NOT to do something because you're too inexperienced and not to base peoples advice on their forum status is contradicting themselves.
Do your best and see what works for you and your situation. That's how we all learn. Then come here and make suggestions based on your own experiences. I don't think many people who are serious about Bonsai, want someone to tell them that they don't know what they're doing and do this and do that, when they themselves barely know that much about the hobby/art.
People can fool you... but results will tell the truth.

Krištof wrote:

I should add that I do this to every mallsai ANY time of the year - here are the pics of my elms repotted in winter in january I guess.
In pure zeolite:



Few days later I took them out and planted them in the landscape and here are tey now:

Kristof. The mallsai slayer.