How to grow bonsai at home

To grow bonsai, you need to be patient: the process of growing a miniature tree will take many years. First you need to acquire planting material. The easiest way to buy a ready bonsai in a nurseryor a store, and then just take care of it, controlling the growth. However, it is also possible to grow bonsai from seeds, by cuttings or airlifting, finally, to dig and transplant the wild plant.

Most often bonsai grows coniferousplants (larch, pine, juniper), and from the deciduous choose those that look attractive even when they fall leaves (hawthorn, willow, alder, hornbeam, beech, elm, birch, oak). We recommend that you first try to grow bonsai from a tree (bought or dug on their own), and only then, after gaining experience, go to growing from seeds.

It should be remembered that bonsai is not a special varietytree. When growing bonsai artificially inhibited the growth of ordinary wood, due to which it turns out so miniature. To inhibit growth, different methods are used, for example, frequent pruning of roots and young shoots, use of a scarce substrate and minimal fertilizer, compression of the barrel with wire (to reduce the flow of juices in the tree).

The roots of the future bonsai are cut off when planted with scissors. After pruning, they must branch out andstick out in the sides in a horizontal plane. For planting bonsai it is better not to take a pot, but a bowl with a depth of 5-6 cm and a diameter of 10-12 cm. In the day there must necessarily be drainage holes.

At the bottom of the plate is put a plastic grid, then the substrate is filled from the mixture of humus garden soil (3 parts), sand (1 part) and peat (1 part). After planting how to tamp the earth and pour a plant well, and then take it out to fresh air (for example, to the balcony), only not in the sun.

The bonsai code is well rooted, and its main trunk reaches a height of about 30 cm, you can start forming. For this purpose, the apex is removed, and the branchesneed to be cut off and wrapped with wire to give the trunk and crown the desired shape. It is best to start doing this in the summer, when the branches are more flexible. At the first pruning, you need to remove the extra kidneys with scissors. Be careful when pruning the coniferous trees: if the branch is damaged, it will turn yellow.

Then you can start gently bending the trunk and branches and wrap them with wire. It is desirable to purchase a special softwire for bonsai. Places of inflection should be wrapped around with a bast beetle so that branches or bark are not cracked. The ends of the wire must be well fixed, screwed to the pegs jammed into the ground. To remove a wire it is possible only when the trunk or a branch will keep the form independently.

In the second year it is necessary to take out the sapling, and then again put in the same pot, cutting off the roots for a third of the length. The land for transplantation should be taken fresh. You need to plant the tree so that part of the roots is exposed. Well weaken the earth. You can also make light cuts on the trunk with a graft knife to artificially age it. Every two years the transplant is repeated. Do not forget to cut off excess kidneys and shoots during the growth period to give the tree the desired shape.

Spring and summer bonsai feed with liquidmullein every other week. Two hours before the application of fertilizers, bonsai should be poured with clean water. In the warm season, the plant should be kept in the shade and provide him with a good daily watering (the land should always be a little wet). Bonsai also loves moist air, so spray it every day. Keep the plant away from batteries and protect it from drafts.

To grow bonsai, you need to be able to feel the needs of plants (not without reason, the Japanese consider the art of growing bonsai art to understand nature). In time, you will learn to notice, Which kidneys and branches should be cut to give the plant the desired shape.

We very briefly talked about how to grow bonsai, focusing on the formation of plants. On the care of bonsai we will dwell in more detail in one of our next articles.