BONSAI CARE
General Care and Maintenance of Bonsai
 A well cared for Bonsai can become a very rare and valuable
friend. Some become, like fine works of art, priceless commodities. In recent
times some of the older Japanese Bonsai have sold for millions of dollars. And,
of course, these trees must be properly cared for. Such care should include the
correct soil mixture, watering, fertilizing and repotting when needed.
Where to Keep Bonsai
Where to keep your Bonsai depends on several factors. Namely, what species of
Bonsai tree do you have and how is your house designed? Bonsai should be kept in a well-lighted place, sheltered
from the direct rays of the summer sun the majority of the time. Such diverse
locations as a garden, an open balcony, a patio, by a pool, a roof garden, or
nestled comfortably on a ledge near an open window in a home can allow your tree
to be exposed to the sun, wind, and rain that it needs in order to thrive.
An ideal place for almost all types of Bonsai would simulate a shaded greenhouse. Such a setting would be a
Bonsai tree placed under a big shade-tree and an automatic sprinkling system that would come on as the
Bonsai tree needed it.
Bonsai may be brought inside the house as a decoration for
a few days at a time. However, one should not hope to keep Bonsai indoors at all
times. The best scheme for a Bonsai location is to keep the Bonsai outside
Monday through Friday where it gets good exposure to nature, then on Saturday
and Sunday bring your Bonsai inside and place it wherever you like as long as it
is not placed directly in the path of a heating or air conditioning vent.
Common interior Bonsai trees include the Sago Palm, Serissa, Fukien Tea, Ficus, Schefflera, Aralias, Money Tree, and Gardenia
which easily adapt to most homes. The Japanese Juniper, Chinese Elm, Chinese Fringe Flower, Azalea, Japanese Red Maple, Blue Moss Cypress, Star Cypress, Soft Touch Holly, and Flowering Ixora are
common exterior Bonsai and excellent for the outdoors. We recommend keeping
exterior Bonsai in a semi-shaded environment with direct sunlight only during the morning hours. With both interior and exterior
Bonsai, we recommend the use of plastic humidity trays with a layer of pebbles kept in water. This provides the necessary humidity that
Bonsai trees love between waterings.
Watering Bonsai
Probably more trees die as a result of improper watering
than any other single cause. The best way to determine when to water your tree
is to stick your finger through the moss into the soil. If the soil is damp and
cold, do not water the tree that day.
Only water the tree when your finger stays dry and the top
of the soil is starting to dry. The lower roots will still be moist but this is
a good signal to water your tree. When the soil becomes watered properly, water
will just begin to drip through the drainage holes. A garden hose with a sprayer
attachment or a water container with a similar attachment are the most effective
and expedient methods for watering Bonsai. Always water through the foliage. The
spray in any case should be fine enough so the surrounding soil is not eroded
away.
Trimming Bonsai
A well-shaped Bonsai tree needs to have its small branches, buds, and new shoots removed in order to keep its proper shape. Before you begin trimming, make a mental picture of what you want your
Bonsai tree to look like. It is important that you are comfortably seated at eye level with your
Bonsai tree. Then using Bonsai trimming sheers, slowly begin to trim your Bonsai tree into the shape you desire.
Basically, what we do, if two branches are growing opposite one another, remove one of them directly at the trunk. Likewise, do the same if two branches are growing forwards, directly above one another or at the same height. Make sure that your cuts are smooth or slightly concave to help the wound heal quickly. Add pruning paint to the surfaces you cut if they are brown in color, a sign of a mature branch of the
Bonsai tree.
We recommend trimming deciduous trees, such as maples and elms, throughout the growing season. Whereas, the junipers, cypress and palms may be finger-nipped throughout the year.
Repotting Bonsai
Bonsai trees should be transplanted when the roots in the Bonsai container have grown clumped together in a condition known as root-bound. In the root-bound condition the roots have extended themselves to the point where they are no longer able to take sustenance from the soil. This becomes apparent when the roots are seen growing out the sides of the
Bonsai container. We recommend pushing your finger down along the inside of the bonsai container to examine if the roots have reached the sides of the bonsai container. For the majority of
Bonsai this occurs every two years.
Repotting the Bonsai and trimming the roots is not a hazardous operation, if done at the right time of the year. And, if one is careful not to take away too much soil from the tree providing it is done just before the new growth begins in the spring.
Procedure for repotting Bonsai:
- Pick a day that is cool, if repotting outdoors.
- The soil should be moderately dry. Carefully take the tree out of the container without disrupting the soil around the roots. The plant's placement back in the pot after you are finished is important so before removing the tree from the container take a good look at it's placement.
- Untangle the roots from the root-ball mass. Using an unsharpened, pointed stick, like chopsticks, pick away the soil from the sides and bottom o the root-ball mass. Remove approximately one-third of the root-ball mass being careful not to disrupt the soil from around the trunk of the tree. Carefully trim off the roots that have now been exposed with a sharp pair of trimming sheers, leaving one-inch of roots still extending beyond the root-ball mass. Add a layer of 3/8ths-inch of
Bonsai pebbles until it covers the entire bottom of the bonsai container one-inch high. This will be used as the drainage field for your tree. Using a good grade of special bonsai potting soil mixture, such as the mix we sell at our nursery, containing 40% Canadian Peat, 40% Pine Bark, and the remainder a mixture of sand, clay, perlite, and dolomite. You need to place enough soil in the bonsai container so that when the tree is replaced within the
Bonsai container, the top surface of the Bonsai soil is even with or slightly below the edge of the container.
- Place the bonsai tree back into the bonsai container and locate it where it was prior to its removal from the
Bonsai container and fill the sides of the Bonsai container with the special Bonsai soil mixture.
- Mix up a container of Bonsai Master Fertilizer, according to the label recommendations and water the entire surface of the soil.
- Using your hands, pack the bonsai soil firmly into the
Bonsai container to ensure that there are no air pockets around the roots.
- After the Bonsai soil has been packed properly, water the bonsai soil with the fertilizer mixture until it is saturated. Mist and water the
Bonsai tree soil with the special fertilizer mixture often to ensure that the bonsai tree does not dry out until new roots are formed.
Wiring Bonsai
The wiring of Bonsai trees to attain desired shaping is used in association with your long-term trimming plans. The use of good wiring techniques permits us to train
Bonsai trees in virtually any shape or style.
For example, it is used if you want to make a Bonsai tree look older by means of low-hanging branches, or if you want to keep a bend in the trunk or want one eliminated.
 The best material to use is copper anodized wire. It is always advisable to use the thinnest training wire that will hold a branch in the desired position.
We do not wire our Bonsai trees that have just after they have been repotted. Always give your
Bonsai tree adequate time to recover from one technique before you start another. Always wind the training wire in the direction the branch is bent in order to prevent loosening of the wire. Do not put the wire on too tightly because it will cause physical scarring to the branch. Wrap the training wire around the branch just tightly enough to get the job of styling done properly. Begin to wire your
Bonsai tree at the base of the main trunk and slowly rap the training wire around the trunk so that it becomes the anchor of the training wire. Continue wrapping the training wire along the branch you are planning to train. Repeat this process with each branch until you are finished.
The wiring process takes approximately six weeks to six months before the shape will be complete. This depends on the thickness of the branches and the variety of
Bonsai tree being shaped. In any case, the training wiring process, as the Bonsai tree process, is an ongoing process throughout the life of the
Bonsai tree.
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