It became apparent that this tree needed a new home after surviving the emergency repot. Needles had hardened off, I started seeing brand new juvenile foliage come out, and it had been over 6 months since it had been rehomed. After combing through a bit of the sawdust I just decided I needed to see the root growth on the bottom.
![california juniper sawdust bed recovery bonsai](https://mlea512ps8gw.i.optimole.com/w:1024/h:768/q:mauto/f:best/ig:avif/https://www.natesnursery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_6825-scaled-e1586288242133.jpg)
As you can see some of the roots grew through the weed barrier cloth that I put down. Good news.
![california juniper sawdust bed roots growing through weed barrier](https://mlea512ps8gw.i.optimole.com/w:1024/h:768/q:mauto/f:best/ig:avif/https://www.natesnursery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/california-juniper-rescue-roots.jpg)
While great for recovery, it isn’t as easy to manage a giant heap of wet sawdust, so I just drug it out on the weed barrier cloth and started right next to my bench.
![california juniper bonsai yamadori collected recovery sawdust bed](https://mlea512ps8gw.i.optimole.com/w:768/h:1024/q:mauto/f:best/ig:avif/https://www.natesnursery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_6827.jpg)
Once I got this up on the bench I got a good look at the bottom side of the root ball.
![cal juniper yamadori roots](https://mlea512ps8gw.i.optimole.com/w:768/h:1024/q:mauto/f:best/ig:avif/https://www.natesnursery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/california-juniper-root-mass.jpg)
I did my best at not completely bare rooting the California Juniper, as they don’t like it much, but also removing as much of the sawdust as possible.
![california juniper roots after emergency repot](https://mlea512ps8gw.i.optimole.com/w:768/h:1024/q:mauto/f:best/ig:avif/https://www.natesnursery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/natesnursery-california-juniper-roots.jpg)
My hands were messy from there on out so I got this last photo. I was pleased with the results of the sawdust bed and how well it can help recovering trees to stabilize their conditions.
![](https://highdesertbonsai.natesnursery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_6846-768x1024.jpg)