Caring For Your Indoor Bonsai Tree

The bonsai juniper is a beautiful specimen tree that excels as both a bonsai plant and a garden specimen. This versatile tree is known for its hardy ability to take on nearly any form and condition, and is equally at home in the yard as it is in a conservatory, or a formal living room. Some bonsai junipers have been successfully kept indoors all year round; others are best kept out of doors, like the California Juniper. This article will show you how to care for your bonsai juniper so that it can still be an active and enjoyable bonsai tree.

Bonsai soil starts out in the bottom of a shallow dish of water mixed with half-strength bleach water. This solution needs to stay in this container until the bonsai tree begins to grow roots. Once the bonsai has roots, it will need to be fertilized with a good quality commercial potting soil. Bonsai soil that contains a lot of clay will need to be watered often to keep it moist; a mix of perlite, silt, sand, or potting soil is the perfect mixture for successful bonsai plantings. Bonsai juniper bonsai should have annual maintenance fertilizer added at least once a year to keep its root system well maintained.

Once the bonsai tree has grown to about four feet or two feet tall, it is time to repot. This process should not be done before wintertime, because it may damage the new growth of your tree. Repotting your bonsai tree is best done about six months after it was planted, as it will establish a root system that will help your bonsai mature faster.

If you have bonsai juniper trees that were grown in pots, they will need to have their soil and pot removed when you repot them. This is because the roots of these types of trees are so tightly intertwined that it will be impossible for them to spread out naturally when you repot them. Therefore, you will have to dig them up, move them outdoors, and then replant them in their proper positions. Once they are replanted, you can then put them in the same containers or pots that you placed them in during the summer. Make sure that you first rinse the soil lines with water so that nothing gets back into your bonsai soil or pot.

When it comes to reporting indoor bonsai, you should only remove about one-fourth of the root system. Keep in mind that the juniper branches are very strong and can easily cause injury to your bonsai if they are not removed properly. You should also take steps to ensure that your tree will remain strong and healthy by trimming back any dead branches or pruning damaged branches. Once you have successfully repotted your bonsai tree indoors, you should place a small amount of fertilizer on the branches regularly.

Bonsai trees can be a wonderful addition to your home and you will quickly discover that they offer you many hours of entertainment. However, because bonsai are delicate and sensitive indoors, you should never mistreat them. This can easily result in the death of your bonsai tree. If you are unsure whether or not your bonsai tree needs extra attention, you should speak with a local bonsai expert before you bring it inside.