One thing bonsai enthusiasts must be aware of is that bonsai care regimens must also be modified with the changing seasons. As seasons change, bonsai plants are subjected to varying situations, which might affect its ability to survive. This is especially true during the summer months where the high temperatures drastically alter your bonsai’s environment, creating problems for your plant.
To make sure your bonsai withstands these changes, there are three basic considerations you must make: the amount of water your plant receives, how much sunlight it gets, and the conditions of the place you keep it in.
First, since the high temperatures of summer can cause water to dry-out quickly, your plant will require more frequent watering. However, good bonsai care still requires that you check the plant’s soil and drainage conditions to avoid over-watering.
Second, when exposing your plant to sunlight, you should take care to limit its exposure to about 3-5 hours, making sure it’s keep in a shade during afternoons.
And third, you should make sure that your plant is kept in a cool place at night. So if you keep your plant indoors, ensure that the interior of your house is well-ventilated for bonsai care.
In the end, good bonsai care during summer requires keeping climate conditions controlled, and avoiding the extremes like heat, wind, and light – especially if you live in a place where summer months can be cruel for bonsai care.
When you inspect your bonsai, make sure you keep an eye on the compost and the quality of drainage.
The soil you use affects rooting, feeding, watering and transpiration; it is where half your tree lives so this is our second biggest consideration in maintaining your bonsai. While the needs of individual species vary greatly a good rule of thumb is 30% grit, 70% humus for deciduous trees, and 70% grit, 30% humus for evergreen needled plants, but these are just general guidelines.
Good soil composition equals good drainage and healthy roots.
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Here are some good tips to keep your Bonsai healthy all year round.
If you live near the ocean, make sure you take care to avoid sea breezes directly on you bonsai, with some species as the salty air can kill the tree.
Also if your Bonsai is placed against a wall make sure you turn it around
every two weeks. If you don’t turn your bonsai every two weeks it may grow out of shape as it
grows towards the light.
Another overlooked point is to make sure you don’t place a bonsai pot directly onto concrete if it will be
subject to direct sunlight for long periods. The heat generated off the concrete coupled
with the small amount of soil in a bonsai pot can bake the roots of the tree and kill it.
Read more here:
Many of my Bonsai Mastery subscribers have asked for a guide on Indoor Bonsai Care.
So rather than just put up an article I have made a new video for you that details some of the Crucial aspects of growing Bonsai indoors
Enjoy:-)
As I mention in the video, make sure you apply comon sense when it comes to your enviroment etc.
Every bonsai enthusiast needs a complete set of tools to care for their bonsai tree. Costing somewhere from a few dollars to even a few hundred dollars, choosing the best basic tools to complete your bonsai tree kit is an essential for anyone interested in growing and shaping their tree.
If you’re in the process of completing your bonsai tree kit, here are 3 must haves every bonsai lover needs:
- A pair of bonsai shears for trimming your bonsai. Investing in a good pair bonsai shears customised for bonsai trees is a must-have for every bonsai tree kit. Their razor-sharp blades, which produce clean cuts, are perfect for trimming roots, twigs, and branches off your trees since they will not crush your bonsai unlike regular scissors. However, since bonsai shears can be quite expensive, you can begin your bonsai gardening with a pair of pruning shears, provided they are sharp enough to prevent damaging your trees and small enough to perform detailed work on smaller trees and twiggy growths.
- Concave cutters to leave concave wounds in your tree branches. Concave cutters are essential to cut branches that are close to the trunk, and style bonsai trees and nursery stock. Unlike regular cutters that leaves a straight cut in your trees, concave cutters leave a smoother surface that will not only heal faster, but will also look aesthetically pleasing after the wound heals. A good pair of concave cutters is therefore an essential part of your bonsai tree kit.
- Wire cutters to remove the wires you put on. You will also need a special pair of cutters in your bonsai tree kit to remove the wires you used to shape your bonsai tree. Unlike hardware cutters that might damage your trees, bonsai wire cutters have rounded heads and shorter blades, which let you cut right up to the tree’s bark without hurting or damaging your bonsai.
Remember good tools will make a big difference to your ability to maintain your Bonsai properly.
Here is a new Bonsai care video I have made to help bust some of the myths going around on the internet!
Many Bonsai mastery readers have asked about Misting Bonsai and what is the right way to approach it.
Enjoy:-)
Never water bonsai trees by a strict schedule, because bonsai trees are really outdoors plants. Outdoors, rain is not so predictable. Bonsai trees may need water even twice daily in hot weather. However, routine daily watering can result in permanent wet compost that grows harmful molds, fungus, and bacteria.
Bonsai trees should be checked daily and watered when needed. The surface of bonsai composts changes color when it dries, becoming lighter. This can take 12 hours to over a week, depending on a many factors, so inspect daily.
Do not assume that when it has rained on your outdoor bonsai tree, that it has had enough water. Many times, rains wet only the upper layers of compost, which is not enough – it will evaporate before it gets to the roots. Provide water when the top half inch of compost has started to dry, and this will vary according to bonsai trees’ individual differences..
Here is a good reminder to keep an eye on your ground cover like MOSS for example and make sure your bonsai does not suffer from a tightly packed surface. If not checked, moss can make it difficult for water to properly penetrate the surface and thus giving your bonsai adequate watering.
Make it a practice to check that the water is flowing out the bottom of the tray, also try using the technique of poking a pencil into the soil to allow for good airation (be very careful not to damage roots by doing it gently and if you feel resistance, move over a bit).
I cover this in detail in Mastering the Art of Bonsai HERE
Bonsai Positioning or Placement
So you’ve purchased the bonsai you’ve long been dreaming to take. Now, start thinking about its placement. This task simply involves knowing where in your home your bonsai will thrive best, whether indoor or outdoor. How To grow Bonsai teaches you the fundamentals of positioning in the simplest way.
Indoor bonsais are grown and marketed anywhere in Asia and the rest of world nowadays. You can find them at the local garden or nursery near you, or somewhere online. The real glitch involved here though is that some marketers label their bonsais as indoor plants regardless of their species and survival requirements. They consider the plants “indoor’ without them knowing that bonsai, regardless of species and styles, needs some light. So, instead of being kept for long hours inside a home, the bonsai should be sent out to see the sun.