Bonsai pots
The shape of the bonsai container may be rectangular, oval, round, or polyhedral. Deep or almost flat - focused on the style that will form. All styles that have a barrel slope require a more stable container for landing, which means that the container must be made of heavy material (clay plates) or be deep enough. The container should not be too bright or colorful, on the contrary, the simplicity of color and shape only emphasizes the style.
In addition, the bonsai container should not disturb the proportion of the grown composition in its shape.
For example, a too flat and wide plate is used for bonsai with a wide thick crown or multi-trunk forms, and for styles with a single tree, in which the lower part of the trunk is exposed, it will look good if only a piece of landscape or terrain is simulated on it (moss, stones, figurines or miniature houses, etc.). The large area of the plate creates a sense of space.
Small, but deep enough areas are suitable for styles where plants have tall and open roots.
Very narrow and deep containers, resembling, in the shape of a vase for flowers are used for cascading styles, with a hanging crown of wood .
In any case, try to observe the following proportions - the height of the walls of the plate should be no less than the thickness of the barrel. And the length of the plate should correspond to about 2/3 of the height of the plant.
Before planting, containers require additional preparation. First, some of them do not have drainage holes. They will have to be made by themselves, since most often the bonsai plates are made of clay or ceramic, then for the holes you need to use a regular drill with a drill for tiles and glass (with which holes are drilled in the bathrooms).
Do not forget that before transferring to any container, it is not enough just to rinse it, it is more reliable to additionally scald it with boiling water .
Bonsai soil
As a rule, a special substrate is used to grow bonsai. These are akadama - clay granules, in nature it is land from the territory of the province of Kanto, in Japan. Used in traditional Japanese bonsai. The earth is heavy, nutritious, waterproof and breathable. It has various fractions, small and larger, on average about 3-5 mm, has a pH = 6-6.5. They rarely put in pure acadama.
The bonsai mixture contains components - sand, clay, humus. For deciduous trees, it is better to prepare a substrate from 7 parts of turf and 3 parts of sand. For blooming and fruiting bonsai - 6 parts of turf, 3 parts of sand and 1 part of leaf humus. For conifers, you need to prepare a mixture of 6 parts of turf and 4 parts of sand .
River sand before use is properly washed and thoroughly calcined in the oven, its main task is to provide the soil with sufficient friability. Some of the sand can be replaced with vermiculite .
Clay-turf earthen has nutritional value, but should also absorb moisture and allow air to pass through.
It is possible to use purchased soil mixtures, but the choice should be made with great care. The fact is that most earth mixtures consist of peat with the addition of garden fertilizers. But there are special substrates for growing bonsai, such as Auriki Gardens for Bonsai.
If you want to prepare the soil yourself, then find a green meadow, remove the layer of turf, and dig into the upper 20cm of land. It must be sifted through a large grate to remove stones, sticks and roots of meadow grasses.
The soil also requires preliminary disinfection. To do this, you need a metal bucket and a sieve, so wide that placed in the bucket it fits tightly about the middle of its height. Water is poured into a bucket, a sieve is lowered and a layer of earth is filled, no more than the height of the sieve. Put the structure on fire, which is reduced after boiling. The duration of the procedure is about 30 minutes. You can also just warm the ground in the oven on a baking sheet.
Bonsai transplant
To maintain the miniature size of the plant, you have to cut it. But in order to maintain the balance of proportions, it is necessary to cut the caviar. This is done during the transplant. The time of transplantation depends on the type of plant. As a rule, a sign of the need for a transplant is the appearance of new kidneys. For ornamental deciduous plants, this occurs in spring, late winter. For blooming bonsai, transplantation, pruning of the crown and roots is carried out at the end of flowering, usually in autumn.
The need to transplant and trim appears only in the event that the roots filled the entire container. If this did not happen, and the plant was taken out of the container, then the roots are not cut off, but only change the old soil. The main indicator of the need for bonsai transplantation, as for all room plants, is the germination of roots into the drainage hole of the container.
You need to get the plant out of the container after wetting the ground well. The roots need to be examined, removed with a secateur those that are too thick. The main force is a wide fibrous root system. Therefore, the main bundle of fibrous roots is touched, i.e. there is no need to uncover it and try to remove the remnants of the earth from it. But the existing root root is completely removed.
If you transplant not a purchased ready-made bonsai, but previously grown in an ordinary pot, and upon examination it is found that the root root is well developed and the system is poorly developed, then it is too early to form bonsai from it. You can cut 1/3 or 1/2 of the taproot and leave in the same pot until the development of the urinary roots.
It is believed that thickened roots protruding above the surface of the container earths are one of the main signs of a real bonsai. Therefore, when transplanting, thickened roots are brought to the surface - this gives the composition a more natural look. The soil in the container can be covered with a layer of green moss. This also maintains a natural appearance and prevents water from evaporating too quickly. After transplantation, the bonsai is watered more moderately to avoid decay of the undercut roots, shaded from direct sunlight and protected from the wind. It takes about 3-4 weeks to adapt.
Watering bonsai
In view of the peculiarity of planting bonsai, the soil in the container dries out much faster than in ordinary pots with houseplants. Therefore, bonsai is watered much more often. When planting bonsai, the soil is compacted, and water can be poorly absorbed during watering, therefore, bonsai is often watered by immersion in a basin filled with water.
The frequency of watering depends on the time of year and, accordingly, on the temperature, in summer this usually happens daily, and on hot days in the morning and evening. In winter, watering is much less frequent - about once a week, and more scarce. Raw soil cannot be cooled .
The frequency of watering is a very controversial issue and it makes no sense to give recommendations like when growing other plants - to touch the soil at a depth with your finger. Yes, it should have time to dry from above, but it is impossible to check it at a depth, so it is more of a matter of experience. There are plants that tolerate drying out quite easily, it is worth watering and the subverted leaves and twigs become elastic again. For some, too long drying can be disastrous. The less land in the container and the more roots, the faster the water in the soil absorbs and dries out. Therefore, an important point - water during watering should moisten the entire earthen lump, and not just the top layer of the soil. I.e. it is necessary to water so that the water appears from the drainage holes. Water should not stay in the stand! Containers for high legs serve as a safety net.
In addition, the irrigation regime and water consumption depend on the type of plants, it should be borne in mind that plants with fleshy parts (stems or leaves - succulents), as well as conifers, require less water for irrigation. The former because they are able to store it in fabrics, the latter due to the smaller surface of water evaporation. Accordingly, deciduous bonsai with a lush crown evaporate moisture more, and are more demanding on both irrigation and air humidity .
It is best to water in the morning and/or evening, i.e. when the daytime heat has not yet come or has already subsided. No plant can tolerate the ingress of water on the leaves on a sunny day. All conditions of detention should be similar to natural ones, and in nature, as you know, dew falls in the morning and evening. If suddenly on a hot day the plant is dry and the leaves have wilted, it needs to be transferred to the shade (in a cool place), then allowed to cool a little, and only then put the container in a container with warm water so that it completely covers the ground. When the bonsai "gets drunk," it can be sprayed.
What kind of water should there be? It is best to use soft tap water filtered by a household filter. If there is no possibility or desire to use filtered or rainwater (it is most preferable), then tap water that has been standing for at least 3 days can be used. During this time, the impurities will precipitate, so you need to carefully drain only the top layer of water.
If the water in your area is very hard, then you cannot do with a conventional filter, only filters with ion-exchange resins will help (they remove impurities of calcium and magnesium salts from the water), for example, from the Geyser WS series .
If this is not done, then not only on the surface of the earth, but over time and on the bark of trees, a white chalk precipitate forms, which can no longer be cleaned.
The same goes for spraying. Bonsai requires and responds well to regular spraying, but hard water leaves an indelible white salt coating on the leaves.
The water temperature for irrigation and spraying should be several degrees higher than the ambient temperature.
Fertilizer dressing
Bonsai dressing is carried out throughout the year, with the only difference that in spring and summer fertilizers are applied with irrigation once a week, and in autumn and winter - once a month. This is due to the fact that there is not much land in the container, and water, as a rule, does not have nutrients .
As fertilizer, both specialized fertilizers for bonsai and conventional preparations for indoor plants are used. Do not mix organic and mineral fertilizers in one go. All fertilizers are diluted in a concentration of two, or even three times less than recommended. Overdose of death is like.
There are special developments by well-known bonsai breeders who provide recipes for special bonsai fertilizers. For example, fertilizer on cotton cake contains: cotton cake - 300 g; sesame cake - 300 g; superphosphate - 100 g; fish meal - 200 g; wood ash - 100 g; water - 10 liters.
But I personally will never use such a recipe, due to the fact that I have no idea where to look for cake or fish meal in urban conditions. In addition, the liquid will have a very unpleasant odor .
It is much easier, more convenient and safer to use special fertilizers for bonsai, for example, Pokon for bonsai. I also recommend Flower Planet fertilizers for bonsai. If you have not found specialized fertilizers, then you can use the Ideal indoor flower fertilizer.
It is impossible to apply fertilizers immediately after transplanting and pruning the plant, as well as if the plant is sick and weakened. Do not feed plants before flowering and during flowering. Moreover, some types of bonsai (for example, myrtle) will not bloom at all if they are often fed by listening.
It should also be borne in mind that conifers of bonsai plants require less fertilizer than deciduous ones. Therefore, they are fed about half as often.
All fertilizers are applied to moistened soil or diluted in sufficient water.
In order not to be mistaken, it is better to start a feeding calendar or take one day a week for this procedure. Let's say Monday is fertilizer day.