One trick for jade plant care to shrink the dragon to an inch: learn in 3 minutes how to grow a true bonsai

Jade plant, also called "golden branches and jade leaves," is a fairly common potted plant, and many flower lovers grow it. The jade plant is the fastest-woodying of all potted plants, which also makes it a tree with very strong disease resistance and a very fast growth rate. The jade plant has very high ornamental value; its leaves are emerald green, round and plump, like pieces of jade hanging from the branch tips, which is how it got the name jade plant.

Many people, when caring for a jade plant, simply treat it as an ordinary potted plant. In fact, the jade plant is an excellent plant for making bonsai, because its woodiness gives it a basic quality, its overall style is fairly rustic, and it is also a foliage plant with no flashy flowers, which matches the requirements of bonsai even better. Today let's talk about jade plant care: learn one trick to shrink the dragon to an inch, and in 3 minutes you can be taught to grow a true bonsai!

Shrinking the dragon to an inch generally has two steps: pruning and branch wrapping. Below we will explain these two steps in detail:

Pruning

If you want to grow a bonsai, pruning is essential, and pruning must be continuous. It is not something you can finish after doing once; rather, you must keep adjusting and keep pruning throughout its growth process to ensure a good growing posture. First, we need to establish the jade plant's general form. If a single trunk is to support the bonsai, then during the early growth process we should cut off the other branches and keep one strongest branch, then carry out targeted pruning on this strongest branch.

If two branches are the main structure, we also need to establish a primary-secondary relationship. Only with a primary and a secondary is there a sense of layering, and only then is there artistic aesthetic value. The main trunk can keep several layers of leaves, while the secondary trunk should keep at most two layers of leaves. Only in this way is there a distinction between primary and secondary, a sense of layering, a sense of space, and a sense of depth. Throughout our continuous pruning process, we must always keep these points in mind; otherwise, the jade plant will grow into something nondescript.

Branch wrapping

While pruning, we must also learn branch wrapping, because the jade plant is a natural plant with a tendency to grow toward light: whichever direction the sunlight comes from, it will grow in that direction. But often the direction of the sunlight is not the direction we want, so we need to do branch wrapping.

The method of branch wrapping is actually fairly simple: we only need to use wire to bind the jade plant's branches toward the direction you want. During the subsequent growth process, this branch will, because of the force applied, gradually grow in the direction you want. However, there is one point to note here: do not use too much force and break the branch, as this causes very great harm to the jade plant.

If there is no good anchor point for applying force, we can wrap it with wire, then point the wire toward a growth direction we want. In this way, although the force is small, it can still achieve a certain effect.

This is the method for shrinking the jade plant's dragon to an inch. Of course, during this process, our cultivation of the jade plant cannot be interrupted, and we must also provide an environment more suitable for growth. Only then can the branches become woody as quickly as possible and form a rustic effect, and only then can it truly be made into a bonsai!

Alright, that is all for today's flower-growing tips. If you are interested in potted plants, you can click to follow. We update articles of the same type every day, and we hope to help everyone.