BONSAI!! Does anyone grow/like Bonsai?

[53Driver]

Interesting. I remember seeing your avatar before and thinking "cool". Being from California originally (San Francisco to be exact) it's something I have been exposed to and always wanted to do but never took the time or money to start. I'd be interested in hearing what your recommendations are and what all it really involves to acquire and maintain a bonsai tree not to mention equipment needed and what the art form really really requires (besides patience and a green thumb of course).

[MannyO]

Originally Posted by 53Driver

Interesting. I remember seeing your avatar before and thinking "cool". Being from California originally (San Francisco to be exact) it's something I have been exposed to and always wanted to do but never took the time or money to start. I'd be interested in hearing what your recommendations are and what all it really involves to acquire and maintain a bonsai tree not to mention equipment needed and what the art form really really requires (besides patience and a green thumb of course).

+1

[Nafe]

Haha patience and a green thumb are definitely important :P
basic maintenance is quite simple. Water the tree regularly, fertilise it fairly often, and basic pruning to maintain shape. The biggest thing I can say is DO NOT keep them indoors. Houses are for people, not for trees :P
With regards to watering, this can be an art on it's own....almost... There are such thing as both over and under watering. You should water when the soil STARTS to dry out. the easiest way is to check with a chopstick. if you stick it in a centimetres and it comes out dry, water your tree thoroughly. If it comes out with slightly damp soil on it, water. if it comes out quite sodden, don't.
How often a tree needs water will depends on it's species, the size of it pot, the time of year and the general climate in your area.
At the moment here in Oz (it's summer) I am watering *almost * everything daily.Sometimes if i have a crappy day I might miss a day, but I wouldn't want to miss any more than that. In winter trees need much less water as they aren't doing much growing.

Fertilising.... Even more difficult that watering! But still not hard haha. basically it comes down to what you want from your tree. If you're happy with it's overal size and design, fertilise at half strength from spring to early autumn. Probably fortnightly.
If you want it to grow alot more and have more styling to do, fertilise at full strength (i often fertilise alot higher than recommend though) and weekly. using a seaweed based tonic (not a fertilsier) such as seasol regularly can really help maintain health too.

Pruning.. If you are happy with how your tree looks, cut off any shoots when the extend beyond the shape. Cut back to the leaf just before it goes out of shape. as well as keeping it's shape, this will help keep leaf size down.
There is ALOT i could say for pruning, but it's hard to know what to add.

As for tools, there are special ones available for bonsai. But a set of good secateurs is usually a good starting point, also some small-medium sized bonsai sheers and whats called branch cutters are useful for when you have styling to do,

[53Driver]

Thanks for the info.