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Bonsai – How to Take Care of This Miniature Tree? Advice Based on Personal Experience

Everybody has seen these tiny masterpieces called bonsai. They are cherries, maples, oaks, but in miniature. People bring them to the apartment for a couple of days, but their permanent place is outdoors – on the balcony, terrace or in the greenhouse. Personally I use them for room decoration on big holidays and great events. They make the house more vivid and stylish.

Why Is Bonsai Plant So Attractive?

The tradition to grow bonsai plants was born in Chinese many thousands years ago. Today, it is popular in Japan, Korea and China. Moreover, people from other countries of the world are interested in this art and wonder how to plant bonsai at home. They want to know all the secrets of caring for these amazing plants.

The value of the tree should not be material, but spiritual, as it always was and still is in China and Japan. Nevertheless, the price of it is high, sometimes extremely high. Some people become collectors and breed tiny trees at home. It needs time to make it look like an old and beautiful tree. The process of taking care is long-lasting and painstaking. Several hours per day are spent year by year. If you want to have this marvelous decoration at home, it isn’t a problem today. You can start right now!

Important Info about Bonsai Care

It is necessary to read as much as possible before buying a bonsai tree. Learn more how to grow and how to care, how to water and cut, read opinions of professionals about bonsai care. You should know that everything depends on species. There are more than 15 types of bonsai. Before buying one of them, look at bonsai images and choose what you like:

- ficus bonsai
- money tree bonsai
- azalea bonsai
- bonsai japanese maple
- gardenia bonsai

The list can be longer as people invent new interesting varieties and hybrids of bonsai. Some of them can amaze you with their flowers, others - with unusual leaves. Each of them is unique in its own way.

Watering. It is not recommended to water them in rainy days.

Do not water the plants with a wet clod of the ground. The soil surface in the container should be dry before next watering. Trees cannot stand long-lasting rains in autumn and spring. Perhaps, you have to keep your “kids” on the balcony or indoors.

How to Provide for Bonsai Growth?

We all know that a plant needs light, air and ground to bloom and bear fruit. But these components are not enough for some plants. Therefore, people nourish them with useful stuffs. You will be surprised to see how many kinds of fertilizers are sold in shops. They come in the form of powder, pellets or liquid.

Fertilizers for bonsai consist of high-quality and valuable organic substances, such as rapeseed meal, blood meal, bone meal or fish meal. Earlier in Japan it was decided to use dry fish as a fertilizer. The fish was placed in a bowl between the drainage layer and soil. Deciduous trees are fertilized from April to August, coniferous trees - at the end of October, as they especially need nutrients in winter.

How to Combat Diseases and Pests

To prevent the damage of bonsai by pests and diseases it is very important to inspect the plant from all sides regularly, remove them from the container and monitor the status of the root system. The next important thing is to place the trees in the area that is not accessible for slugs and insects.

Root mealybug is an insect of white or pale-blue color that affects the root system of plants. You can combat this plague by watering plants with an insecticidal solution.

Aphids are the most common parasites in our garden which can also attack your bonsai. I advise you to use special solutions in order to kill wreckers. If you don’t pay attention to it, you will see drooping leaves and darkening branches.

Bonsai can also be damaged by fungal diseases. Spray your trees with fungicidal drugs and place them in a dry and sunny place. Powdery mildew usually infects oaks. Star-shaped fungus is a sooty black coating on the upper side of leaves and is most common on different kinds of maple. The cause of the sooty fungus is primary lesion of plants by aphids on sticky sugary secretions that settles agent of this disease. Therefore, preventive action in the fight against soot mushrooms is to fight aphids.

Consult the seller about your problems, when you buy plant protection chemicals in a specialty store. Chemical pesticides are highly toxic in some cases, so they shouldn't be used within reasonable limits.

However, most bonsai do not suffer from damage by pests or diseases, but due to errors in care and cultivation, such as waterlogging earthen clod, excessive fertilization or improper location.

Useful Tips on Bonsai Planting

To tell the truth, it isn’t hard to perform transplanting and propagation of young trees. First of all, remember when to transplant them. It can be done in spring only (from March to late April).

Pine can be transplanted from September to October. Plants with a strong and healthy root system only are planted in special containers (bowls).

Trees with sick roots are planted in the open ground and protected from wind and direct sunlight, and should be left for as long as they develop a healthy, strong root system. It is important to use mixtures of grounds to supply the tree with essential minerals and elements.

It is needed to re-plant bonsai every 2-4 years. You can nourish your trees with fertilizers only when new roots appear.

You will see that planting bonsai takes less time.

How to Grow New Trees from Bonsai Seeds

The best source material for the formation of bonsai is seeds as you can influence the shape of the plant from the early days of its life. “Future plants” with a soft shell can be partially sown in the fall, immediately after collection. Pine seeds are collected in August and sown immediately.

They germinate in 3-4 weeks. Place the container with the emerging seedlings in a safe place to protect tiny trees from the weather.

Special Care for Leaves

1. Leaves don’t need special care but you should do the following things regularly:
2. Water leaves while watering. There should be no dust on them.
3. Pay attention to their color and appearance. They shouldn’t be pale. If you notice it, you should know that your plant needs a fertilizer.
4. If you notice strange spots, something like spider web on the fir or bugs on leaves, use chemical solution to get rid of the problem. If you hesitate, your tree may die.

The Process of Cutting Bonsai – Do it Correctly

One of the most important things in growing tiny trees is to follow care instructions and tips on cutting bonsai. Pruning of shoots and branches is that main thing to turn a common tree into bonsai. As a rule, people start to prune bonsai deciduous trees with small leaves. In order to develop a sense of form, at the beginning of an arc, there is cutting of the tree crown. One needs some experience in order to determine excess or inappropriate branches to be cut. Important things:

- Overlapping branches should be removed.
- One of the located opposite each other branches should be cut.
- Too thin and weak branches on the trunk must be removed.

All these measures are necessary in order to get a bonsai with clear and natural distribution of branches.

You will need the following instruments:

- special narrow scissors for cutting thin branches and young shoots;
- nippers for cutting the branches of medium thickness;
- folding nail file to cut thick branches;
- special concave shape cutter to cut out the irregularities in the trunk,
- remaining after removal of thick branches.

There are pictures how to take care of bonsai and how to perform all the procedures in books dedicated to this theme. You can buy one of them. Beginners commonly need reference books and manuals.

P.S. Also You can look amazing infographic about Prices Of Bonsai Tree

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