Healthy tree shouldn't have any problems with repotting. And you are right, a tree placed in a small pot will grow slower. Maybe not that much slower, but placing your tree into a bonsai pot should be the last step, after your work on branches, trunk and roots is done.

Thabks you very much I just didn't know if it would stress it out to much just wanted some knowledge lol thank you

You can repot now with little worry, but don't delay...... and it looks like a better soil would produce superior results.

You have an issue that needs immediate attention, unless you plan on chopping the plant back later to just above the graft union. The tree will develop a very large & unsightly bulge where all those branches originate from the same point on the trunk. I would remove 1 side of the slingshot formed by the heavier branches and ALL the small branches. Hopefully, the hard pruning will stimulate some back-budding below that heavy bifurcation ('Y') so you can train up a new leader and maybe the first branch and treat everything above it/those as a sacrifice branch. That will help with the tree's taper and get rid of the bulge/reverse taper.

If you look at this maple, you can see it was just like yours. It had a slingshot bifurcation and I removed 1 side. A bud popped and a new branch was wired into place as the new leader. This tree will be chopped just above the small branch with wire on it. Note how this will improve the tree's taper. I'll do this chopping exercise several times before I start building the tree, though the lower branches will already be in place before I start working on building the top.

Just an aside: Note the potential for a really great set of roots on this tree. The roots were produced by layering the tree above a set of spectacularly ugly roots. You can still see the wire tourniquet used for the layer 2 pictures up.

Note the soil the plant is in.

Al

Ok what soil do you suggest that us a bonsai mix I got from my local nursery it is suppose to be the biggest bonsai nursery in ohio thank you

And would I 1 gallon nursery pot be good to put it in

Punctuation and some capitalization would make things easier for those reading your postings.

Plants in shallow pots can ill afford soils that support much in the way of perched water. The reason is:

From 'big nursery' to 'best soil' isn't a logical leap. You are in the business of raising healthy trees. Nurseries are in the business of selling stuff for a profit as large as they can get away with. The medium I use

doesn't support perched water - or supports minuscule amounts. That's not a clarion call to follow my lead - just something to consider. My plants don't suffer the cyclic death and regeneration of fine rootage that plants in more water-retentive media experience. That means they have much better opportunity to realize their genetic potential in the areas of growth and vitality, and are better able to resist diseases and insect marauders.

More Information on Soils Here

How large the nursery can you use depends on your soil choice. Using the soil your plant is currently in, you'll need to be wary of over-potting. Using a soil that doesn't support perched water, you can put your plant in a 55 gallon drum if you like, and not have to worry about whether or not it's over-potted.

Growth and vitality begin to be negatively affected about the time the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact. At that point, the plant needs repotting. If you want to maximize growth rate you need to maximize soil mass, but you can't do that w/o suffering limitations associated with soil saturation of your soil is too water-retentive - sort of shooting yourself in the foot.

Al

How did you come up with the mix of soil. Is there any actual dirt in it. It looks like a bunch of small different types of rocks and sorry about the punctuation

What happens to 99% of the growers who feel like they want to try their hand at bonsai is, they get frustrated by the fact they can't keep their trees alive or even healthy enough to work on, so they quit. By far, the largest part of the blame for that frustration should be assigned to the fact the grower is unable to maintain a healthy environment for the root system. A healthy plant is just a dream if you can't keep the root system healthy.

I left a link in a post above. If you're serious about bonsai, you'll need an understanding of the information that link takes you to. The conversation has been active/ongoing since 2005 - so feel free to join in the conversation or ask questions. There are 2 major hurdles you'll need to get over. The information I linked you to will get you over one of them. The other hurdle is a sufficient understanding of how plants work. For that, you'll need to understand some basics about plant physiology. You can try "Botany for Bonsai" by Enrique Castano de la Serna, and/or Brian Capon's book "Botany for Gardeners". Both will be helpful. One book that REALLY helped me understand HOW trees grow is "The Growing Tree" by Brayton Wilson. You'll need to look to used book sellers, Ebay, or similar to find it, but it's worth the effort.

Al

That bonsai pot wouldn't slow down your tree at all It's a small tree. By volume that's bigger thaN a one gallon can which is really just 3 quarts. But you did plant it in crappy container mix. I use 1/3 turface 1/3 floor dry and 1/3 flora max aquarium substrate, sometimes a small amount of pine bark or crushed pecan shells you can see the soil in this one I did yesterday

Japanese maples need to be outside to do well and need a dormancy period.

Lots of people go to Napa auto parts and buy their floor dry, pn#8822 I believe and mix in some organic material. They say its simple and works great. Sadly where I live its not available. But thats probably a good place to start. I use gravel and some finer organic material including old rotted wood chips. Bonsai stuff doesnt exist near me, so I improvised and so far so good. I water every other day and use colanders to grow trees out because they dry out well and make nice roots for a pot in the future. They make root rot much less likely than a pot. Others use pond baskets for the same reasons. Im glad I found out about them!