Basics of Bonsai-Creating and maintaining

Bonsai is actually two words, "Bon", and "Sai". The word "Bon" means "tray" and "Sai", "growing" or "planting". Therefore, the two words put together give you the translation of "tray growing" or "tray planting". When you say the word, "Bonsai" to people, they usually think of a type of tree. However, this art form is actually a way of growing many different species of plants and trees.


Creating a Bonsai
Trees are first chosen for bonsai that have an interesting trunk. Branches can be reshaped by wiring and pruning, but the trunk form, except when seedlings are used, is fixed in the choice of the tree. Nursery stock, especially junipers, such as Prostrate Juniper and San Jose Juniper are the easiest for beginners. The finished bonsai is generally between six or seven inches to no more than three feet in height. Plants are selected with the final height in mind.

Once the potential bonsai plant has been selected, it is looked over carefully to decide which side well show off the trunk most effectively. The selected side is called the "front" of the bonsai and all shaping is done to maximize the beauty from the front side.

The lowest branch is usually selected to leave the trunk bare about one-third the distance from the ground to the top. The lowest branch should be the largest. The second branch should be above and opposite the first branch. It is pruned to be a little shorter than the first. The third branch should point toward the rear to give the bonsai depth.

The first three branches are wired with soft copper wire to hold them in a horizontal or slight downward slanted style. Other branches are selected up the tree, repeating the three previously described. The branches should be shorter progressively up the tree. Note that all branches pointing toward the front of the tree are removed as are the branches not selected for the bonsai.

The final form is triangular, an irregular triangle, with the branches on one side longer than the branches on the other. Branchlets are wired to give a flat shape.

The trunk may be straight or slanting to one side or the other, The tree will look very sparse when you have finished cutting and wiring. Be patient. The branches will fill out. You are on the way to creating your first bonsai.

So to go step by step:-

1. Select the species of tree. When selecting a tree species its important to consider your geographic location. Some trees lose their leaves in the winter and require the temperature to drop below freezing so that they can enter a dormant state and prepare for the spring. Other trees will not survive long in the freezing weather. Some trees will require a lot of water during a hot summer while others are heat hardy. Research the kind of trees that do well in your area.
2. Select the size of your bonsai. Bonsai trees can be as anywhere from miniature (6 inches tall) to large bonsai (up to 3 ft tall). Decide what size bonsai you would like before actually going out to select the plant.
3. Select the plant. Once you have decided which kind and what size bonsai you would like, you can go to a nursery or a bonsai shop and select the plant that you will use to make your bonsai tree. When choosing a plant, look for leaf color to make sure that the plant is healthy. Then look around at the selection of plants and imagine what each plant would look like after it is pruned. It's important to visualize the bonsai before you buy the plant and bring it home. You do not want to bring a plant home only to decide that it isn't immediately suitable to be a bonsai.
4. Select a pot. Selecting the right pot has a lot to do with the desired size and style of the plant. Select a shape and color that you personally find aesthetically pleasing. The pot must be large enough to allow enough soil to cover the roots of the plant. You do not want to have such a small amount of soil in the pot that the tree roots can not retain moisture. You will kill the plant if you do not have a large enough pot. At the same time, you want to maintain the illusion of nature and select a pot just large enough to support the tree. The idea of a bonsai is to balance the pot with the plant and make the plant look like a miniature tree. Some bonsai pots do not come with pre-drilled drainage holes. If you do not have drill that will cut through ceramic, then make sure you purchase a pot with pre-drilled drainage holes.
5. Prepare the tree. Prune the tree to the desired shape. Wire any branches that need to be wired. Remove the plant from its existing pot and water the roots. Most of the roots will be cut before the plant is repotted into the bonsai pot. Cut away enough roots so that the root system can fit securely in the new pot with the proper amount of soil.
6. Pot the tree. Install mesh screens over the drainage holes to prevent soil erosion. Add some soil to the pot and then place the tree into the pot. Before covering the top of the roots with soil position the tree in the desired orientation. Run a heavy gauge wire from the bottom of the pot through the drainage holes on the bottom of the pot. Tie the wire around the root system in order to hold the plant in place. Finish adding soil to the pot. If it is warm out, make sure to keep the newly planted tree watered well until the roots get established in the new pot.
7. Experiment. You can experiment with many kinds of trees, plants and shrubs. Try making colloquial bonsais with plants native to your area.

A simple guide on the basics of keeping your bonsai alive and healthy.

For the novice or a new person thinking of buying or growing bonsai themselves, the following is a good 5-point starter.

1. Do not keep the bonsai indoors. This is the main reason bonsai die. A bonsai is a living tree, it requires an outdoors environment, just like you couldn't survive for long in the ocean. You can bring the bonsai inside for a day, maybe once every 6 months or so, but it is not recommended any longer, as its not its normal environment. If you really feel the need to display them, then just set up a nice viewing area outside, and your bonsai will appreciate it much more.

2. Only water the bonsai when it needs water, not every day. This is the other main reason your bonsai will most likely die. Imagine someone is feeding you a large meal, then 1 hour later they give you another huge meal, and so on and so on. Eventually you would die. Ironically, the symptoms for over-watering a bonsai are exactly the same as those when it dies from lack of water. The roots become rotten from too much water and cannot properly feed the tree as they can't breathe and rot away.

The best advice for new people is ; stick your finger halfway into the soil, then take your finger out. If a lot of soil sticks to your finger as you take it out, its still too wet. It should be fairly dry before you water, but not bone dry. In other words, if its damp about 3-4 cm down, its still too wet for another watering.

Also, when you water, make sure you water the soil right at the base of the trunk a few times, just to ensure that the water isn't just dribbling down around the sides of the pot and not actually wetting the interior soil ball which is a common problem in older bonsai soil.

3. Never let the soil of the bonsai become bone dry, especially before a hot day. A bonsai requires special care, because there is not much soil in the pot, so depending on how much sun your plant gets on your balcony/backyard, it may require watering about every day or 2nd day. The following is a rough guide, but ask me if you want advice on your particular bonsai species.

• Pine trees / fig trees / conifers require full sun and be careful not to over water
• Most other natives require full to half sun and average watering conditions, being careful not to overwater.
• Fruit trees require half sun, and careful not to let the soil become dry.
• Redwoods require half sun, and careful not to let the soil become dry. Often in the summer, you can safely water every day without fear of overwatering.

4. A bonsai needs sun. Depending on the variety, try for morning sun and if possible, its nice to have shade cloth over it, about 30 percent sun shade, but this is not a necessity. One of the best environments for bonsai is full sun with about 30 percent sun block, but if your bonsai is only going to get sun for half of the day, then compromise, and use about 15 percent sun block. Sun shade cloth is literally just cloth that lets through only a certain percentage of sun, such as only 10/20/30/40 or up to 50% of the sunlight through.

5. Don't keep your bonsai on ground level, put them high up on a table away from ants and bugs. Every couple of weeks, just inspect your bonsai, and look out for little critters or nastys eating your bonsai.

Scale is probably one of the most common pests you will encounter, but fortunately they are easy to remove, they usually attach themselves on the underside of the leaves, thus concealing themselves. Just lift your bonsai and look at the under side of the leaves closely, and you may notice a thousand little sucking things that you can just wipe off with your finger. They may also attach themselves to fresh growth of the ends of the branches where the flesh is supple and easily chewed on.
Caterpillars.... They can eat a huge amount of your bonsai in just one or two days, so try to keep an eye out for them. They are not always green, and they can be brown, and stick-like, attaching to the branches and chewing on the leaves. and stems.

Borers are bad, and often very hard to detect, but you will find one day, the branch of your bonsai is half hollow, and these little guys have made it their home. You will need to cut the entire affected area off and drench the remaining surrounding area in bug spray (check your local nursery for best recommendation depending on the insect)