How to grow bonsai at home. Tips for beginner bonsaiists

Bonsai is a gardening art whose task is to grow an ornamental miniature tree. Imagine that pine, cedar or maple will grow in a small pot on the windowsill!

This art appeared in Japan more than 2 thousand years ago, then migrated to China, and about a century ago it became popular all over the world. Let’s talk about how to grow a bonsai, how to choose a plant, soil, pot, how to form a crown, etc.

How to choose a plant for bonsai

You can grow bonsai of any kind: all deciduous and coniferous trees, flowering or decorative deciduous. Any of them will (and should) repeat the natural cycle. The best choice is plants with small leaves and lots of branches.

There are specific types recommended for bonsai:

• quince Japanese, wild, Chinese;
• hawthorn;
• small-leaved elm, squat;
• Canadian spruce, ordinary;
• common larch;
• juniper Chinese;
• aspen;
• ficuses (almost all, but the best is Benjamin);
• small-fruited apple tree (may be with red or green leaves), wild;

You can keep bonsai both in the house and in the garden. Choose a location for each individually. It is not recommended to change it.

Keep in mind that deciduous plants will change color and drop leaves in the fall, and bud and bloom in the spring. If you don’t want to see bare branches in winter, choose something evergreen. For example, conifers or other evergreen species.

For beginners, the best choice is Benjamin’s ficus. It grows quickly, has small shiny leaves and a trunk that grows fat by itself. Already at 5 years old it will look like an old tree.

In parallel, you can try to grow a coniferous or deciduous seedling. At the same time you will understand the difference.

Bonsai styles

This art is more than two millennia old, so there are more than two dozen main styles alone. The very first thing to do is to choose the style in which you will form your miniature tree.

Please note that styles differ not only in the presence or absence of a slope, the number of trunks, but also in the location of the main branches. If you like this or that style, find its detailed description and some photos. All this will be required when forming the trunk and crown.

There is also a division of bonsai trees by size. There are five main classes, and three of them also have gradations. Bonsai tree sizes are shown in the table below. There are also Russified analogues of Japanese / Chinese names.

Techniques (methods) for their cultivation

Next, we decide on the start. There are three techniques for growing bonsai trees:

1. from seeds (it will take 12-15 years to form a plant similar to a bonsai);
2. from seedlings (minimum period – 5-7 years);
3. cuttings (some species will look like bonsai in 4-5 years).

With any method of growing, the plant in the “starter” pot is grown to the desired height. The formation of the crown and the bending of the trunk occurs while the “blank” grows. A ready-made mini-tree that has completed growth is transferred to the “adult” pot.

What to do with seeds

If you decide to germinate from seeds, put them in a container with moss for the cold season and put them on the bottom shelf in the refrigerator. Until spring. At low temperatures, the seed prepares for growth when warmed. This process is called stratification. In the spring, plant the seeds in the ground, keep the soil slightly moist, but do not let it turn sour. Sprouts will appear quickly and immediately go to growth.

Stratification is needed for plants in our climate zone. Sprout tropical tree seeds after soaking in water for 24 hours.

Sprouted seeds are watered and left to grow. When they are more than 10 cm high, you can transfer each to your own pot, wait a couple of months until they take root, and start forming.

Choose seedlings

It is faster to grow a bonsai from a seedling. They are planted in autumn. It will be much easier if you buy a selected and prepared plant in a specialty store or garden center.

In general, seedlings can be found in the forest, but it is better on the roof, on a rock or a fence. Where there is not enough soil. The plant should be no more than 15-20 cm high. It is desirable that it already has enough side branches.

If you dig, grab some “native” land – adaptation will be easier. Until spring, let the plant take root in a pot.

Bonsai cuttings

You will have to take cuttings for exotic plants such as ficuses, figs, tea trees, etc. They are cut off in the spring from adult plants (before the appearance of young buds) from the trunk itself. The length of the cutting is about 25 cm. Ideally, there should be several side branches. The upper, too soft part of the handle, cut off parallel to the ground. The bottom, too hard, is also cut off, but obliquely. We remove the lower leaves, if there are large ones, cut off most of them, leave half a sheet each.

Dip the bottom cut into the rooter.

Cuttings can be soaked in water until roots appear, or immediately planted in a clay pot (regular) with ordinary garden soil. It is necessary to deepen the cut by 5-7 cm. Place the pot / jar with cuttings in the shade and water regularly. When new leaves appear, gradually move the pot to a more lit place, but not into the open sun. Feed once a month. Grow the seedling for a year or two until it reaches the desired height.

bonsai pot

If you look at different photos, all mini-trees grow in wide and flat pots. And this is no coincidence. It is by limiting the growth of the root system in depth that the growth of the aerial part is inhibited. You need to find such a bowl – wide, with sides of a small height. Best of all – ceramic. Ideally, in general, stone. Approximate pot sizes for each class of bonsai tree are given in the table above.

A bonsai pot should have several drainage holes. Ideally, if they are located two on each side. A wire is threaded through them, with which the plant is screwed.

Please note that when transplanting, the pot is not changed. When growing (overclocking), a “starter” pot is used. This is still not a bonsai, but only a preparation for it. The mini-tree will spend the rest of its life in the same pot.

Since there is little space for the root system, the roots grow into holes for water to drain. To prevent this from becoming a problem, attach a piece of garden netting over the hole. It can be glued with silicone or fixed with a piece of wire, as shown in the photo above.

soil

The soil for growing a bonsai tree will have to be made by yourself. The recipe depends on the type of plant. For tropical species take the following ingredients:

• river sand (coarse) – 40%;
• garden land – 30%;
• organic fertilizer – 20%;
• crushed peat – 10%.

For plants our climate zone, we take 3 parts of garden soil, 1 part of sand and peat. These are approximate proportions that can be adjusted. For example, for those plants that grow best in sandy soils, use more sand than garden soil.

Bending and shaping

To give the tree the desired shape or slope, use thick aluminum or copper wire. It is wound around the trunk and branches. All that are currently available or only those that need to be “moved” or bent.

They usually start from the trunk. Start from the roots, moving to the top. Then move on to the branches. If you don’t want wire marks, don’t wind it too tight. When the wire is laid, slowly and smoothly bend the plant, giving the desired shape. Sometimes, to keep the barrel, you have to wind a double helix.

Especially carefully bend coniferous plants. For them, it is necessary to start forming already in the first / second year. Therefore, take young seedlings or two-year-old cuttings. When growing bonsai from spruce, cedar, larch and pine, shape the branches immediately after the growth of young shoots stops. Partially cut them off, wrap the rest with wire and direct in the right direction.

With wire, you can withstand plants from six months or more. At this time, regularly water it, feed it with fertilizers for the species grown. Then you can remove the wire and transfer the plant to the “main” pot.

Trimming

Pruning a bonsai tree is an ongoing process. The primary is done before the wire is applied. Cut off all the extra branches, wait until the cuts are tightened (the juice stops flowing and the bark grows). Now you can wind the wire. In the future, with the help of pruning, maintain the crown of the desired shape and size, cutting off all unnecessary. During the growing season, it may be necessary to cut off the excess once a month.

To cut branches to prevent infection, use sterilized pruners or scissors. Lubricate the cut with a garden fungicide to prevent rotting.

When cropping, keep in mind (or in front of you) a picture of what you want to get. And shape the crown exactly the way you want to see it. You can cut both at the base (be it a trunk or a larger branch), and leaving a “stump” in several buds.

Transplanting: rules, root pruning, pot preparation

A bonsai transplant is needed to replace depleted soil and trim the roots, remove rotten and diseased fragments. It is required every 2-3 years. At the same time, we change the pot only once – when we transfer the tree from the “children’s” pot to a permanent one. It will not be changed later.

When transplanting, the pot is washed inside and disinfected. It is heated up to 90-95°C with boiled water, changing it several times. To keep a tree with almost flat rhizomes, a wire is threaded through the holes to drain excess moisture. It will also hold the grid.

Take out the plant, shake off the soil and cut off the roots. When transplanting from a baby pot, remove up to 2/3 of the roots. Cut off those that are directed downwards, leaving those that run horizontally. An example of such root pruning is shown in the figure above.

If the root system is more like a washcloth and there is no way to highlight the roots, take a thin wooden stick (skewer) and pierce a lump from top to bottom. In this case, part of the roots breaks off, part straightens. When you can already understand what and where, stretch with your fingers and start trimming.

Place the prepared plant in a pot, thread the wire through the roots and fix the bonsai. Fill 3/4 of the pot with prepared potting soil. After transplanting, keep in the shade for a couple of weeks, water regularly, but make sure that the soil does not acidify. Gradually move the pot to the place where it should be.

This is a short guide to growing bonsai. The formed plant requires top dressing and care, which this species needs. The difference from the “ordinary” counterparts is pruning and transplanting.