A Change In The Weather And Watering Our Bonsai Trees

Noticed the geese flying over the shop this morning and judging my how cold my legs are wearing shorts, I guess the autumn is just about upon us.

Here in the shop, it thankfully means the rate at which we are watering our bonsai trees subsiding somewhat. In the bonsai nurseries of Japanese, apprentices learn most other things ahead of watering, as it takes skill to get it right. A bonsai will recover from being pruned badly, but poor watering causes great harm. their is a tendancy to water by routine, blinding reaching for the watering can or hose and soaking all your trees at once, not paying attention to if each tree actually needs watering. This is especially true in summer where waves of fatigue can wash over even the most observant waterer.

The problems with watering by routine are two-fold. Firstly, small trees dry out much more quickly then the larger compatriates and secondly, that difference species of tree require difference amounts of watering. An additonal thing to consider is that trees which have recently been repotted don’t dry out as fast as trees which are pot bound or due for repotting shortly.

Small tree, having smaller pots and less soil, dry out much faster than large bonsai. Tiny mame and small shohin trees are therefore harder to keep in summer. In the nursery, we often get “first time bonsai’ers” coming to the counter with the smallest trees that we have available to buy, saying “I’ll just start with a small one and see how it goes.” We encourage then not to buy anthing too tiny due to the amount of care required to keep on top of the watering. Larger bonsai trees can be damaged by overwatering if they recieved a soaking each time the small trees get one. This results in brown leaves resulting from root-rot or in less servere causes, long, flopping grow. Pines want less water than other bonsai, so keep an eye on this when watering. Rather than causes them harm, too much water tends to result in overly long needles which ruins any sense of scale.

 

 

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