Month: April 2010

Categories
Bonsai Pots

Should We Go for Glazed or Unglazed Bonsai Pot?

Bonsai pots come either unglazed or glazed. While some bonsai lovers like glazed bonsai pots, some others prefer the unglazed ones. There are different opinions on whether we should go for a glazed bonsai pot or an unglazed one, and ultimately, it comes down to personal choice. Yet, before we purchase our bonsai pots, here are a few points that we should first consider.

  • Unglazed bonsai pots allow the roots of the bonsai tree to breathe better. And by the same token, unglazed bonsai pots lose moisture through their walls faster than glazed bonsai pots.
  • Glazed bonsai pots retain more moisture; hence we probably don’t need to water as often. However, air cannot move through a glazed bonsai pot as well as an unglazed one. If it is a tropical bonsai tree we have, we may want to consider using a glazed bonsai pot since tropical trees live in humid regions love moist soil.
  • In general, a dark colored unglazed bonsai pot can give a classic bonsai tree a stronger sense of age.
  • A glazed bonsai pot may be more appropriate for a flowering bonsai tree.
  • Never ever use a bonsai pot that is glazed on the inside. Without an unglazed surface, the root of the bonsai tree cannot get a firm grip on the inside surface of the bonsai pot.

Bonsai-tree-Podocarpus Bonsai-tree-Murraya Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

There are many bonsai pots for us to choose from. Besides glazed and unglazed, there are also many different sizes and shapes, large variety of colors and materials. As said, it all comes down to personal choice. Just remember to pick a bonsai pot that not only compliments with the bonsai tree, but also provide a suitable environment for the roots.

Categories
Style

CBS – The Growing Fascination with Bonsai

In this program, CBS Sunday Morning explains what bonsai is, the difference between Japanese bonsai and Chinese penjing, as well as how the art of bonsai is introduced to the United States. This program of bonsai is a short, yet, well explained one, giving the viewers a quick and clear idea of what bonsai really is.

I hope there will be more programs, like this one, introducing the art of bonsai to more people. One may get hooked onto a lifetime fascination by merely a short TV program, or a few words of a friend, or even just a whimsy idea while shopping in a mall. Who knows. A program like this one or a website like Happy Bonsai may get a few more people fall in love and get addicted to these small wonders of nature.

Categories
Journal

My Bonsai Land

On top of my bonsai rack, I have also rented a piece of land to grow more bonsai trees.  Teacher Wong always says that one is truly  a bonsai artist only when she knows how to cultivate a seedling or a cutting into a beautiful bonsai tree from ground zero.  And the best way to acquire this knowledge is by doing it herself.

While I have a very packed schedule and know that this is a long-time commitment, I couldn’t resist but rented a piece of land in the bonsai workshop and turned a new page in my bonsai world.

Trees grow much faster when they are rooted in the ground.  By growing the trees in the ground, not only can I  grow my bonsai trees faster, but I can also grow my trees into whatever styles I want them to be in a much shorter time.  And once the tree has grown large enough (around 80% of the size I intend to grow the tree into)  and more or less into the bonsai style I want, I can then pot the bonsai tree into a bonsai pot, and work on the pruning and training of the smaller branches, foliage, and details.

bonsai-land bonsai-land

This is how my 10 ft x 10 ft land looked like before I started.  It is covered with a piece of black cloth to prevent weeds from growing.

bonsai-land bonsai-land bonsai-land

Plowing is tough, laborious work, and I am very happy that I have got Yik to help.

bonsai-land bonsai-land bonsai-land

After all the lifting, turning over, and pulverizing the soil, we add a big block of peat moss and sand for good water retention, high air capacity, and good drainage.

bonsai-land bonsai-land bonsai-land

After more plowing and mixing, we stored the extra soil mix in bags and covered up the land with the black cloth again.

Categories
Pruning & Defoliating Wiring

Prune-and-Grow or Wiring?

Before, bonsai care and design skill was limited to the much revered Lingnan prune-and-grow method developed by the ancient Chinese philosophers responsible for the Literati school of landscape painting and design. It was not until the turn of the 20th century that the Japanese, in an attempt to achieve natural shapes in an expedient amount of time, developed wiring as another training technique suitable for bonsai. And these two schools of thought persist today.

Prune-and-Grow Method

Prune-and-Grow is the recommended bonsai training method. This method increases branch ramification, encourages growth in non-pruned branches, and reduces leaf size (Defoliating is another effective method for reducing leaf size). As new shoots erupt from almost everywhere, especially around old latent bud scars and the bases of the removed branches, the bonsai artist carefully selects buds that will grow in the desired direction, and prune off the unwanted ones. If no such bud is found, then, all one can do is… be patient. A bud that grows in the direction you desire will appear eventually.

Bonsai Pruning & Wiring

Lingnan penjing (Southern Style bonsai) artists use mainly the prune-and-grow method.

Wiring Method

Wrapping wire around branches and trunks allows the bonsai artist to create the desired general form and make detailed branch and leaf placements. When wire is used on new branches or shoots, it holds the branches in place until they lignify (become woody), which usually takes more or less one growing season. Some species do not lignify strongly, and branches of some trees are too stiff or brittle. In these cases, we cannot shape the bonsai trees by wiring, but only through pruning.

So… Prune-and-Grow or Wiring?

There appears to be a great philosophical difference between these two training techniques. As for me, I believe wire should only be used in the development stage. While I shape the new branches and shoots of my bonsai trees with wires, I remove the wires as soon as the desired shape has once developed.

Bonsai Pruning & Wiring
I use wire on my bonsai trees as well, yet only during the development stage, and will remove the wire as soon as the shape has formed.

Today, most bonsai hobbyists apply a combination of the two methods, often without giving the decision much thought. While the prune-and-grow method can help to create a bonsai tree with more branches, smaller leaves, and greater details, using this method alone would take decades; a time schedule of no interest to most bonsai enthusiasts nowadays.

Categories
Pruning & Defoliating

Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees

Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees
Most of us use bonsai pruning compound (or bonsai cut sealer) to seal the wound of the trunk or branch after we prune our bonsai tree with shears or cutters. Bonsai pruning sealer helps the cut area to retain the valuable moisture required to heal the cut properly and minimize the scar. And moreover, it prevents diseases and insects from affecting our bonsai tree after pruning. So, bonsai pruning sealer is great, a must-have for all bonsai growers.

Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees
Continue reading “Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees”
Categories
Pruning & Defoliating

Defoliating – Picking Leaves off a Bonsai Tree

Defoliating Bonsai Tree
Another defoliated bonsai tree

A few days ago, my bonsai teacher asked me to pick off all the leaves from a bonsai tree. This is called defoliating, a way to stimulate the tree to grow new branches and smaller leaves.

Defoliating Bonsai Tree
The bonsai tree before defoliation

Defoliating Bonsai Tree
Defoliating the bonsai tree
Continue reading “Defoliating – Picking Leaves off a Bonsai Tree”
Categories
Bonsai How To

Soil Mix and Fertilizer for Mini Bonsai

Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

The correct potting mixture is vital for the survival of our bonsai tree. The mix should be very fine, especially for our mini bonsai since everything of these bonsai trees is so small and refined.

Repot our Mini Bonsai

Because the size of the bonsai pot for mini bonsai is very small, the amount of soil is also very little. In this case, our mini bonsai exhaust their soil rather quickly, and the soil will lose its fertility very early, much earlier than those bigger bonsai. Therefore, we should repot our mini bonsai more frequently than we do repotting for our normal bonsai trees.

When we repot our mini bonsai, we should prune the roots of our mini bonsai tree by a third. We should also prune off about half of the leaves of the bonsai tree so to reduce the water demand of the tree from its newly trimmed root system.

Check this article for more details on Training & Pruning Small Bonsai Trees.

Fertilizer for our Mini Bonsai

Since bonsai trees as small as shohin bonsai and mame bonsai do not have a lot of growth to support, fertilizer should be used carefully. We should use dilute fertilizers for our mini bonsai trees, and should apply fertilizer sparingly. Diluted liquid fertilizer is the best for mini bonsai trees like mame bonsai and shohin bonsai, and should be applied once per week, from late spring to autumn, just like our normal bonsai trees.

Categories
Bonsai Trees

Bonsai Tree Species for Mini Bonsai

Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

Many of us wonder what tree species we should use for our mame bonsai and shohin bonsai. While some species are more difficult to train as mame bonsai or shohin bonsai than others, I would say that most type of tree that are used for regular bonsai is also suitable for mame and shohin bonsai.

Ideally, we should go for a plant with naturally small leaves. This will make it easier for us to train the bonsai tree as it grows. Deciduous (such as maples, quince, azaleas, elms) and Conifers (such as junipers, pine, and cypress) make good shohin bonsai trees. I would also recommend tropical and semi-tropical trees (such as Ficus, Portulacaria, and Australian Brush Cherry). All these tree species just mentioned are good choices for shohin bonsai and mame bonsai.

As our shohin bonsai grows, we will need to do leaves and root ramifications. This can be quite difficult, as the leaves and roots of our shohin bonsai tree are so small in size. Yet, if necessary, we can use a magnifying lens to help us when carrying out these activities on our shohin bonsai trees and mame bonsai trees. For more details, check this article – Training & Pruning Small Bonsai Trees.

Categories
Pruning & Defoliating

Training & Pruning Small Bonsai Trees

Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

Small bonsai such as shohin bonsai and mame bonsai are small enough to be held comfortably in the palm of the hand. Mame bonsai should not exceed 8-15cm in height, while shohin bonsai should not exceed 15-20cm. While the size is much smaller, the care and shaping of these small bonsai trees are the same as for their larger counterparts.

Check this post for more details on Classification of Bonsai Tree Based on Size.

Pruning a bonsai tree as small as shohin bonsai and mame bonsai can be a challenging task. We can use finger pruning techniques to train our bonsai. Since shears and cutters of normal size would be too big for a mame or shohin bonsai, it will require special tools for training our small bonsai trees.

Because our mame bonsai and shohin bonsai are too small to allow much training through wiring, pruning is probably the most important technique to master in the shaping of our mini bonsai trees. To start, we can prune back our small bonsai trees to one or two buds, and repeat this step till the bonsai trees begin to look more interesting. We can also cut off some dominant branches, or nip them off with our fingers to encourage the growth of some new tiny branches.

And similar to our bigger bonsai trees, to create some descending branches for our mame bonsai and shohin bonsai, we can bind the branches with bonsai wire or pull the branches down as far as possible with some wire and tie it to the container.

Lastly, because mame bonsai and shohin bonsai are so small, they are very light in weight and can be toppled off easily. Hence, it would be wise to secure the bonsai on the table, on the rack, or wherever it is put by fixing the small bonsai tree and its container with twine or wire.

Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

Categories
Bonsai Pots

Bonsai Pots for Mini Bonsai Trees

Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

It is important to select the right kind of pot for your shohin bonsai and mame bonsai. To give our mini bonsai tree the effect of miniaturization, we would need to get an equally small pot for our mini bonsai tree. However, the size of the bonsai pot is important only for shows and exhibitions. During the training period, it is totally acceptable to let the small trees grow in bigger containers. This will give our mini bonsai tree the time to regain strength. Potted in bigger containers, our bonsai trees have more space for root development, as well as more moist and fertilizer retain in the soil for better growth. Hence, it is definitely advisable to use oversized containers in the development stage for our shohin bonsai and mame bonsai.

Before a competition or bonsai exhibition, we can prepare our mini bonsai tree by repotting it from the big container into a smaller bonsai pot. The bonsai pot must have the dimension as specified by the organization of the bonsai exhibition or competition. In addition, we should repot our mini bonsai tree in spring, to secure the bonsai tree from suffering after repotting.

The choice of bonsai pot is often a matter of taste. We want to choose a bonsai pot that is in well balance with the mini bonsai tree. And while we should find a bonsai pot equally as small as our mini bonsai tree, another important feature we need to be aware of is drainage hole. Despite the small size of the bonsai pot, there should be a large drainage hole at the bottom of the bonsai pot.