Bonsai Care

One of the most important aspects of bonsai care is the watering. The amount of watering your pant requires will vary from tree to tree. Generally they will need watering little and often. It usually is good to imitate rainfall by using a small watering can with a fine sprinkler on the end. This moistens the roots and compost at the same time as cleaning the tree itself.

In the winter months plants will need watering less than in the hotter summer months when they should be watered more often, sometimes watering will be required daily. In general you should keep the soil moist but not too much and the roots should never be left to stand in water.

Your Bonsai tree will need to be re-potted about once every two to five years depending on the variety you own and how old it is. Younger plants will need re-potting more often. Older trees as they grow will use all of the goodness in the soil and will need to have it replaced. The tree should be put back in the pot in exactly the same position as it was before, you may have to trim and thin out the roots so as to stop the plant from becoming pot-bound and growing a mass of roots using up all of the water and nutrients too soon.

It is very important that you use only dedicated bonsai potting soil or compost.

Bonsai plants can be trained by using special wire to shape and form the branches as they are growing to give you the most pleasing shape to the eye. This is usually done in the spring or early summer months, just after the opening of the buds when the foliage is new. This is the time when the branches are at their softest. The wire should remain in place for about nine to twelve months.

Another great part of the art of bonsai growing is the pruning. In the case of flowering trees the leaf buds need to be cut after the plant has flowered and any unnecessary twigs taken off leaving only that which will benefit the form of the tree.
For pine and other cone bearing trees these need only be pruned in the spring when the buds appear. They need to be pruned back to just behind the new growth. This will help avoid excessive growth and will help the branching out process. Trees of the Juniper family will continue to grow throughout most of the year and so will need pruning more often.