Category: Bonsai How To

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Bonsai How To

Watering Our Mini Bonsai Trees

Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

Watering bonsai trees as small as shohin bonsai or mame bonsai can be a challenging task. We can easily overwater our bonsai trees, as well as underwater them. Because the bonsai pot sizes are so small, it often becomes difficult to gauge the exact amount of water required by these bonsai trees. In places of dry climate, mini bonsai trees should be watered as much as three times daily, if not more on some hot summer days, since the two or three tablespoons of soil can dry out very quickly. Just like our normal-size bonsai trees, the water requirement depends on the temperature, humidity, and air current.

To create a moist atmosphere for our mini bonsai trees, we can keep the bonsai pot buried in damp sand. This will help our bonsai trees from completely lacking of water. Another easy way to water our mini bonsai trees is to immerse our bonsai trees in water until no more air bubble rises to the top.

In addition, all foliage of our min bonsai trees should be sprayed daily. When we first have our mini bonsai tree potted, we should place our mini bonsai tree somewhere in the shade for about a week. After that, we can introduce our mini bonsai tree to the sun. Mini bonsai can be placed both indoors as well as outdoors. But we should never keep these mini bonsai trees in a confined and shaded location. Mame bonsai and shohin bonsai needs sunlight to grow properly just like normal bonsai do.

The location we choose for our mini bonsai tree is the same as for normal bonsai tree and the instructions regarding the care and cultivation are no different as well.

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Bonsai How To

Finding Trees for Mini Bonsai

Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

We can obtain mini bonsai by collecting trees from the wild, by growing them from off-shoots, by cultivating them from seeds and cuttings, or by buying them from bonsai nurseries.

Mame bonsai trees and shohin bonsai trees need to be grown for between three and five years to shape the tree sufficiently to be called as bonsai. We can start with seedlings of 3-5 cm tall. These seedlings can be found in woods and parks at the foot of some large trees, and many of these little off-shoots are already in an interesting shape at this early stage. Nevertheless, mini bonsai should be miniature versions of the original tree in the nature, but not some weird looking, deformed trees.

When we go to the mountainous areas to collect trees for our mini bonsai, we should take shovels, picks, newspaper to wrap our collection in and rope to secure the soil until we get home. We want to make sure the tree that we bring home is kept fresh in the best condition it can be.Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

Our local nursery is another place where we can find good shohin potentials. We do not need to start off with anything expensive or fancy. What we are looking for is a tree that has potential for shohin bonsai. It must be well balanced a miniature in size, or at least, capable of being trained miniature. We may not find what we want right away, but take several trips to different nurseries. With some patience and luck, we may find some excellent potential of mini bonsai tree at our nursery.

As for starting time, spring is the best time of the year to go looking for suitable bonsai tree material. We should dig the little tree out carefully without damaging the roots. We then remove the taproot, leave some earth on the roots, and wrap the plant in damp moss or moistened newspaper to avoid the mini bonsai tree from drying out.

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Wiring

Best Time to Wire Our Bonsai Trees (by Tree Types)

Bonsai Wire

Wiring Deciduous Trees

Deciduous trees can be wired anytime through the growing season. With leaves, it is a bit harder to study the bonsai tree structure and wire the branches at this time. Yet, nevertheless, I prefer to wire my bonsai trees at this time because branches wired in its growing season, particularly new shoots, will heal very quickly. In fact, for fast growing species, we should keep checking every week to make sure the wire hasn’t yet started to dig in.

Many bonsai gardeners like to wire their bonsai trees in the autumn when the branches are bare. Without any leaf on the branches, one can have a complete view of the bonsai tree and wire the branches easily. The branches should heal all cracks, but the most severe, before the tree goes completely dormant for the winter.

Another favorite time for wring deciduous trees is at the midsummer after defoliating our bonsai trees. Again, with the branches bare, the view is clear and wiring is easy. The branches of our bonsai trees should take to their new positions by early winter.

Bonsai Wire

Wiring Coniferous Trees

Since coniferous trees will continue to heal over winter, we can wire our coniferous bonsai trees at anytime from spring till early winter. As it often takes longer for the branches of coniferous bonsai trees to be trained, the branches may often be wired throughout the winter. If temperature drops below -10°C, frost protection is needed.

Spring is a good season to wire our coniferous bonsai trees since the branches will set into their new positions relatively quickly, and cracks can heal in a faster pace as well. Yet, due to the fast growing rate, if any wire is still kept on our coniferous bonsai tree by midsummer, we need to keep checking the wiring regularly to ensure the wires haven’t yet dug into the branches. Some species, such as Pines, may swell suddenly around this time.

The best time to wire our coniferous bonsai trees is from midsummer to early autumn. In this time of the year, new growth will need wiring. Cracks will heal faster than most other times of the year as well. In addition, many species such as Pines, will have made most of their annual growth in branch thickness by midsummer, wiring after this time will allow the wires to stay on the tree till the following year without digging in and scarring the branches.

Wiring Tropical Trees

Since tropical species are protected from frost and have no dormant period, they can be wired at anytime of the year. Yet, due to the vigorous growth of tropical species, the wire can cut in fast, hence, must be checked very often.

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Wiring

Best Time to Wire Our Bonsai Trees (Cold Climate vs Warm Climate)

Bonsai Wire

The best time to wire our bonsai trees is when the branch of the bonsai tree that we want to wire is still young and flexible.  New shoots are not only easier to wire, but also quicker to recover from wounds.  As soon as the branch has grown strong and long enough to let a thin wire wind around it, we can start training the branch by wiring.  Of course, with these young branches, we should be extra careful and gentle when wiring our bonsai trees. Very old branches, on the other hand, can be very thick and stubborn, and may need other bonsai training techniques.

Wiring Bonsai in Colder Climate

As climate concern, theoretically, most species of bonsai trees can be wired almost all year round, though bonsai trees wired during winter in areas where temperatures regularly drop below -10°C (~15°F) will need frost protection.  In such cold weather, fractures that have not yet healed will be exposed to the cold and may possibly cause further dieback of the branches.  Hence, if your bonsai tree is still wired in the winter, give it frost protection when temperature drops below -10°C.

Wiring Bonsai in Warmer Climate

While I wire my bonsai trees almost all year round, from spring till early winter, many bonsai gardeners like to wire their bonsai trees in the autumn when the branches are bare. Without any leaf on the branches, it is much easier to wire and has a complete view of the bonsai tree.  The branches should heal all cracks, but the most severe, before the tree goes completely dormant for the winter.

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Featured Articles Pruning & Defoliating

Bonsai Care: Why Don’t We Want the Flowers to Bloom?

Bonsai Care - Prune & Trim Flower Buds

The time it takes to develop the shapes and train the branches of our bonsai trees is often painfully long. And it will be worse if we make a wrong cut after months of waiting for the bonsai tree to finally has its branches developed as trained.

During the developing and training stage, we surely want our bonsai trees to grow as fast as possible, if not overnight.   There are several things we can do to help our bonsai trees to grow and develop it branches faster, and one of these is cutting away all flower buds before they start to bloom.
Bonsai Care - Prune & Trim Flower Buds
Yes, I know this is not easy. It is just too cruel to cut away all the buds that will blossom into beautiful flowers. But if you really want your bonsai tree to grow as fast as possible, then you better cut away all the flower buds, so to avoid your tree from spending most of its energy and nutrients on the blossoms.

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Pruning & Defoliating

Bonsai Care – Problems of Overgrown Branches

My bonsai teacher, Mr Wong, always says, “I don’t worry that my trees won’t grow, but worry only that they become overgrown.”

I had never really known how bad of a problem an overgrown bonsai tree could be until I saw a real-life example last week when I was working with Teacher Wong in the bonsai workshop.

When we grow a bonsai tree, most likely, we have to prune and wire the branches to style the tree in the early stage of its training. And after each round of pruning and wiring, we will just leave the tree alone until its branches have grown thick enough or the tree has developed into the shape we want before we move on to more pruning and wiring.

But sometimes, we may get too busy in life that we have forgotten our bonsai tree until it’s too late…

Bonsai Care - Overgrown Branches

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