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howard | February 21, 2010
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How to Grow a Bonsai Tree – Train Your Bonsai in the Way it Should Grow

Whether you want to start from the beginning, or buy a tree already potted in your desired style, you need to know the correct ways to grow a bonsai tree. This is one gardening endeavor that requires a lot of time, patience and not to mention an appreciation for the difficult task you are about to undertake. A bonsai grower can take years for their skills to reach perfection. Some experienced cultivators say it takes at least a few years just to learn the basics so with that in mind, you can at least be informed about, if not practiced in, the basics.

First of all, when growing a bonsai tree you need to know the right soil to use and the best fertilizer for your breed of tree. Also, you should take note of whether it’s an indoor or outdoor tree as there will be different advice, methods and instructions on how to grow a bonsai tree depending on which type you have. Watering is another important aspect to take note of as bonsais need to be watered of course, but it should be done sparingly for the most part, too much or too little could kill it. Proper pruning is key, and for most species it is done in the Spring time. Finally, another basic rule that you should live by when growing your bonsai tree requires knowing how often to repot your small tree. Depending on what type of tree you have, you may want to repot it every year or every two years.

Now, if you are thinking of how to grow bonsai trees you need to think of starting from the beginning. What do I mean by this? Well, when you buy a bonsai tree at the store that is already in its bonsai pot or tray, you are missing out on it’s creation, from germination to it’s first leaf. To truly learn the craft of growing a bonsai, you should try and cultivate a plant from its infancy. It could take years before you need to pay any attention to the trunk in the bonsai way. Only once it is ready will you even want to pot it in a bonsai tray and this could take years of patience.

So, there are a lot of factors in knowing how to grow a bonsai tree, and you should think about what’s right for you. While you may not have the years of patience to train a bonsai from the beginning, you should at least understand the care that went in to the bonsai tree you bought ready for your use at the nursery.

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howard | January 31, 2010
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Choosing the Right Soil and Choosing the Right Pots for Your Bonsai Tree

When it comes to bonsai growing, two of the most important things to consider are choosing the right soil and choosing the right pots for your bonsai tree. Bonsai cultivation requires a unique kind of soil different from what you might already use with your regular house plant and the pots need to be as compact as possible to keep your bonsai tree small and contained.

There are a few things to consider when choosing the right soil for your bonsai tree. You do not want soil that will be wet all the time, for one, as the trees do not do well and it could lead to rotting of the core which nearly always ends in game over for your bonsai tree. Your roots also need to be able to breathe and not get saturated with water. Therefore, choose soil specifically for bonsai growing that lets the water pass through the soil easily and does not soak up too much water. Many specialist stores now let you buy specific bonsai soil, but the true fun lies in coming up with your own compositions!

When it comes to choosing the right pots for your bonsai tree, it’s vital to understand the entire process of choosing a specimen to become a bonsai styled tree. While you may buy a bonsai tree that already lives in its final pot, you should know how it begins and ends. Bonsai seeds are a rare thing, and usually the bonsai trainer takes a plant specimen that they want to train to be a bonsai, and put it in a large pot, allowing its roots to grow large and wild. The reason for this is to let the roots grow free and in great numbers, giving them plenty of room to grow and get strong. After this, the expert bonsai grower will repot the plant in a smaller training pot or box, and allow the roots to grow closer together and even from together to give them greater strength and get used to the smaller space. Finally, when the roots have reaches the desired density and thickness, the plant can be moved in to a bonsai pot where we can then truly begin to call this mass a “bonsai tree.”

So, knowing this, important aspects to consider are the current size of your tree and its root mass. But really, the point of bonsai is to keep the tree small and compact, so you need to get a pot that is as small as possible. Other than that, the choosing the right pot for your bonsai is up to you in regards to the style of pot to use, but make sure your pot is specifically for bonsai trees, as they are engineered specifically for this unique art of plant dwarfing.

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howard | January 17, 2010
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Improving the Health of Your Bonsai Tree – 3 Top Tips

As you probably realize or have experienced, improving the health of your bonsai tree can be difficult. If you have let your bonsai get a bit sick, it can be an arduous task to bring it back to full health. But as your bonsai tree is an investment in not only money but time and patience, you should not give up when you encounter a problem.

First of all, how are you watering your tree? Are you giving it too much or not enough water? While it’s true that you need to be sparing with your water for the most part, you can also cause ill health or even kill it by not giving it enough water. As with all plants, your bonsai tree needs water to help it grow however, if you give it too much water you could be in danger of allowing the core to rot. If this happens then you could be in real trouble and have very little hope of reviving your bonsai tree. Similarly, if you give it too little water there is no improving the health of a bonsai tree that has been dried out at its main roots.

Secondly, at what temperature should your tree be placed? Take note because if it’s a tropical tree or a deciduous tree then it will require a temperate climate. A simple change of environment may be all that’s needed to improve the health of your bonsai tree. Outdoor trees that are not tropical need to winter for at least a couple of months, during which time you should do as little as possible with them. They will start to revive themselves in the spring and be ready for pruning so you can shape how it grows. If your tree is tropical, however, you need to keep it inside and receiving artificial sunlight for it to stay alive. If the weather starts to get cold and you have your bonsai outside, you will definitely want to bring it indoors so it can receive proper care. Even some outdoor trees need to be protected in the winter from extreme conditions like frost and ice – even if they are meant to be outdoor trees. To protect your outdoor bonsai trees you can protect them by covering them during the night hours – even something as simple as tarp or a cardboard box will be suitable.

Finally, are you using the correct fertilizer and soil for your tree? This step, like all, means you need to know what’s best for your specific tree. Also take note of how to prune your particular species of tree.

Basically, improving the health of your bonsai tree consists of educating yourself about its unique needs and understanding that what works for one species of bonsai tree may not necessarily work with another species.

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