Bonsai Care
Beautiful yet precise.
It's a common misconception that bonsai trees are meant to be kept indoors. Majority of bonsai owners proclaim that the growth of a bonsai tree can only occur outdoors, and they’re right. However, they are wrong to think that the desired intention of owning a bonsai tree is to nurture it to its maximum size. In most cases, bonsais are grown to their desired size and shape, then transferred into a smaller pot and brought indoors as decoration.
Trunk Weight
Water
Fertilizer
Potting
Pruning
Spider Mites
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There are two things that are directly proportional to the growth of a bonsai tree. Direct sunlight and size of the pot. These are the two main variables you can control that play the most significant role in the growth and development of the tree. Most importantly, the thickness of the trunk. Simple, the larger the pot, the more solid a foundation the roots can build, and therefore the more mass its trunk can hold.
Trunk thickness is the most important foundational detail of any good looking bonsai. You only get one shot to get it right; trunk thickness can never be decreased, and once the tree is repotted into a smaller, decorative pot, the trunk will no longer expand.
Note: branches and shrubbery will always grow, and you can always trim them back.
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From overwatering sickness to drying out my poor branches, I’ve done it all. And so will you! That's okay. The same way I might drink 8 plastic water bottles a day, my brother might only drink 2. Everyone is different and this applies to your tree as well. You need to learn the boundaries that your plant can withstand. A Juniper is a tough breed, don’t be shy.
Keep a plastic water bottle and poke a pen sized hole in the cap. Water your tree thoroughly and consistently every day (fully soak all of the soil in the entire pot till water starts appearing on the undertray), once a day, until you start noticing the tips of the branches either develop a small white fuzz or the tree will start to lose its color. These are signs of overwatering. The moment you notice this, stop! Give the tree around two to three days to relax, then start again but on a slightly less frequent schedule.
If the tree continues to fall apart and worsen its condition, this could be a sign that your tree requires more water than usual. Bring the rain twice a day.
Note: make sure to lightly cover the branches in water before continuing to soak the soil. It’s important to keep the surface around the tree moist and humid as it prevents certain illnesses and pests.
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Sunlight is your timescale. The more sunlight your tree has, the quicker it will develop new branches, the quicker it’ll thicken its trunk, the quicker it'll recover from illnesses and over/under watering. Everything will be sped up. The less sunlight it has, the slower its processes.
Fertilizer is a great way to boost your tree’s growth period. Most bonsai’s begin their growing period from the end of April to the beginning of September. Specifically conifers like the Juniper, it can start growing a little earlier and end a little later.
The moment you start to see vibrantly green tips of the branches, the tree has begun its growth period and you can start fertilizing it. Fertilizers come with a 3 number value attached to them (first nitrogen, then phosphorus, then potassium, ex. 10-6-7). When you first fertilize your tree in the beginning of the growth period, use a fertilizer that is richer in Nitrogen (ex. 10-6-7). Then as you approach the fall, start to slowly interchange fertilizers and eventually fully switch to a fertilizer that is a lot higher in potassium and way more dormant in nitrogen (ex. 3-9-12).
Note: try to use organic granular fertilizer as opposed to liquid fertilizer. Also stay away from tomato feed!
A higher nitrogen value in fertilizer increases the quantity of chlorophylls in the tree. This allows for it to produce more sugars through photosynthesis. However, nitrogen also increases the overall stress on the tree’s protective system. The tree becomes heavier and unstable, it becomes a more desirable target for pests, and all of this happening before the cold heavy winter is bad. So the switch from nitrogen to potassium signals the tree to slow end its vulnerability. Potassium toughens up the tree by opening up its waterways and encouraging it to produce more proteins which then strengthen any weaknesses the tree has.
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You should repot your bonsai tree once every 2-4 years. This allows the tree to activate some of its more forgotten roots. Each new pot should be slightly wider but still remain relatively shallow to maintain the proper bonsai appearance.
When repotting, gently remove the tree from the original pot, then brush off some old soil from the bottom of the roots and prep the new pot with new soil (Use bonsai soil and not regular soil). About the same amount that you brushed off, maybe more.
Note: when the tree is held in the air, take the time to clip away any large roots that are long and thick as they take away precious space and surface area away from other roots.
Use a wire connected to the bottom holes that’ll travel through the center of the tree’s roots in order for the tree to appear stable. That way your tree will have less structural stress when standing and will be able to conform to cooler shapes and ideas.
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When trimming the bonsai tree, everyone rushes to get the look they are going for. Almost every single time, they miss. The art of bonsai is the practice of patience. Every day, piece by piece, time becomes your best friend.
For the health of the tree, only prune the tree during the growing period. You can safely prune away up to one third of all the foliage. Still start small and stay small. It's not an everyday experience you get to trim the tree. To benefit the tree’s health even more, use a pruning paste on the branches that you snipped.
Don’t rush to style your tree either. Use bonsai styling wires to bend your tree to the shape that you want slowly and steadily. One wire should be used for every two branches that stem out of the trunk. Start with the wire at the trunk and wrap it around once for stability, then wrap the wires down and around the lengths of the branches you want to shape.
Note: The wire at any given time should be about ½ to ⅓ the thickness of the branch it is currently wrapping.
In order to prevent scars from forming on your tree, rewire the branches in a different direction every 1-2 weeks. After a couple months the branches will remain in their new place.
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Spider Mites are a common pest that infests your tree and slowly sucks the life out of all of the branches. The issue is, spider mites are tiny! You can hardly tell they are there, until it's too late. The most noticeable sign of a spider mite infestation is a very thin, short webbing around and in between the branches of the tree. Spider mites start on one section of a branch and then slowly spread to the rest of the tree. Another sign of spider mites is a sudden loss of color, like dead grass. If you look closely you might even notice tiny black spots moving around the branches of the tree.
I was unfortunate enough to experience a spider mite infestation on my first tree… twice. But the tree is well, and I’ve learned a lot. Spider Mites can’t survive in cold, humid environments. Temperatures below 10° celcius rapidly slow down spider mite reproduction. Humidity is also important which emphasizes the importance of regularly misting the branches themselves.
Spider mites roughly have a 30 day life cycle, and can start producing eggs after about 7 days. Eggs can hatch hundreds of mites as early as 3 days later. Eggs are white and are slightly smaller than the head of a pin. These eggs are usually hidden in between branches deep within the tree.
The best method of getting rid of an infestation is to drown the tree. Fill up a plastic tub or any container full of water, enough to be able to fully submerge the entire tree underwater. Then let it sit for about 8 days. Once a day dip your hands in the water and gently massage the branches of the tree to clear up any webbing and air bubble where mites can find refuge. Yes this isn’t the healthiest option for the tree, but it's far better than letting the infestation thrive.