The complete guide to bonsai cultivation techniques: easily master bonsai care methods

Bonsai is an art form that uses plants and rocks as basic materials to express natural landscapes within a pot. It has a very long history, and there are also very many schools of bonsai. When cultivating bonsai, you should choose according to the actual situation. Let's take a look together at the complete guide to bonsai cultivation techniques.

I. Exposed-root bonsai

1. Shallow planting and root lifting. Cultivate in a shallow pot, choosing a semi-finished tree stump with well-developed main roots that is easy to shape. Arrange the lateral roots at the base of the trunk so they are exposed above the potting soil in a distinctive way. For those whose lateral roots at the base of the tree trunk are not suitable for direct exposure, you can use the root-lifting method to lift the roots out of the pot surface, and combine this with the form of the tree stump to reasonably cultivate exposed roots.

2. Raising roots and exposing roots. Cultivate in a deep pot. Through measures such as repotting, raise the roots higher than the potting soil year by year to achieve the ornamental goal. You can also first expose part of the roots above the pot surface and then mound soil over them; after a period of growth, scrape away the soil again to encourage the form to mature early.

3. Layering branches. For tree stumps that are not suitable for directly exposing roots, if branches grow from the base of the stump, wait until they are semi-lignified, then girdle the branches, press them into the potting soil, and promptly cut off the branches after they have rooted, so as to achieve the goal of exposing roots.

II. Clump-tree bonsai

1. Choose a shallow pot, which can display the wild charm of a forest grove and the flavor of the open wilderness, make the trees appear larger, and give people a more distant visual impression. You can also pile up mounds of soil, add stones, and arrange scenes in the shallow pot to make the bonsai more vivid and lively.

2. The materials generally chosen for clump-tree bonsai are small shrubs. When planting, they should differ in size and be staggered in height; otherwise the landscape will be stiff and lack vitality.

3. In the production of forest bonsai, the tree stumps should have advance and retreat, and the space should have density and sparseness. The composition should produce undulating changes, and it should have the feeling of a "forest" without making people feel suffocated.

4. If the trees in the bonsai are not pruned for a long time, branches often grow wild and become tangled. Therefore, prune at any time to maintain the spatial structure and the relationship between density and sparseness, and improve the ornamental value.

III. Miniature bonsai

1. Material selection and shaping. For miniature bonsai materials, generally choose materials with fine branches and small leaves, easy to keep alive after potting, peculiar roots and trunks, gorgeous flowers and fruits, and easy to shape, such as five-needle pine, small-leaf podocarpus, fine-leaf holly, serissa, asparagus fern, and Japanese flowering apricot. You can also dig up suitable tree stumps in the wild, shape them, and then plant them. When shaping, methods such as coir tying, lead wire wrapping, and branch bending are commonly used.

2. Potting and care. While shaping, the tree should be transplanted from a clay pot into a purple clay pot or glazed pot. Generally, tall deep cylindrical pots are suitable for cascade style; oval or shallow rectangular pots are suitable for planting straight-trunk or slanting-trunk styles; shallow polygonal pots are for planting tall-trunk styles; round pots can be configured with low, twisted plants. Care after planting: the potting soil should often be kept moist, suitable temperatures should be maintained in winter, and in midsummer it should be placed in shade. During the growth period, apply thin fertilizer frequently, generally once every 10 days. You can apply decomposed soybean cake, hoof piece water, and so on, or apply complete-element compound flower fertilizer.

There are very many types of bonsai, and the cultivation techniques for different types are different. You should choose the appropriate cultivation techniques according to the bonsai you are growing.