Receiving and Repotting Imports, Upside Down

When the bonsai material leaves Japan, it takes a direct flight to Montreal via Air Canada Cargo... whose logo I may or may not have been inspired by when working on the CB logo

The entire process is very time sensitive, high risk, and expensive enough to make you want throw up while helplessly watching the flight tracker.

A quick intro on the CB van:  Despite our volume of snow in Quebec, finding a cargo van to suit my needs was surprisingly difficult.   I needed something that would be reliable and 4WD, to accommodate both long distance deliveries and off-road work (think yamadori, but heavier and shaped like moose).

It turns out that importing a 1998 Toyota Hiace from Japan not only met those criteria, but it could also accommodate 2 palettes AND the van suited the brand in a way that I was not necessarily pursuing (I was always a German-car guy...)

The famous ford transit was challenging to find in 4WD, and the Mercedes Sprinter was just totally out of the budget.

For reference, this van cost $14,000 CAD (~10k USD) plus $4,000 CAD in transport and other fees.  And as with many cars in Japan, it's in meticulous shape and has very little mileage.   That's somewhere around the third of the price for an equal alternative available in North America.

Once the plants have gone through not 1, or 2 or even 3... but 4 inspections, they are finally cleared and I can pot them up!

3 out of 4 inspections involve examining whether or not the plants have been thoroughly bare rooted.

...and I mean BARE rooted, because any trace of soil would entail the destruction of the whole shipment (and my business!)

Yes, that means finding people in Japan that you can trust is primordial.

No matter how well prepared you are, the importation process inevitably gets your heart racing for those 2-3 intense days filled with paperwork and logistics.  Driving back from the airport in a historic ice storm certainly doesn't do much to counter the stress.

So with hands shaking, an audible pulse, and a few thousand trees staring at you, it's time to somehow calmly give every tree the attention that it deserves.

In terms of more advanced trees with dense root masses, this involves flipping the trees upside down and carefully working fine-grain substrate into the underside of the trees ensuring that all air gaps are removed.

Doing this properly is critical, and a tree of this size might take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to do well, depending on the roots (Magnolia like this one, for example, are easier to work with than Callicarpa or Euonymus).

An air gap under the tree could lead to mold and rot, which is something I've seen first hand with (non-imported) trees I have purchased that had been barerooted and improperly repotted several years prior.