Indoor Bonsai Care



First hand indoor bonsai care tips and techniques that you can put to use right away.

Bonsai trees are generally not meant to be kept indoors. But the fascination for keeping these trees inside our houses makes it imperative that you understand the nuances of care for indoor bonsai. A good starting point would be to understand the basic difficulties in growing these trees under indoor conditions.

The basic requirement for any tree for that matter can be listed as

  • Proper exposure to sunlight
  • Adequate availability of moisture
  • Protection from insects and pests
  • Appropriate temperature

So while designing the plan for indoor bonsai care you have to keep these points in mind.

Exposure to Sunlight

Inadequate exposure to sunlight is a major limiting factor for the growth of indoor bonsai trees. It is always better to place the Indoor bonsai in a window sill facing the eastern or the southern eastern side, so that it receives sunlight for the maximum time during a day.

As an alternative you may keep your indoor bonsai under artificial lights for a major part of the day. It’s also important to keep in mind that you should turn the tree around so that every part of the tree gets equitable amount of sunlight.

The major problem with trees grown Indoors is that the trees don’t look green enough and inter nodal spacing of new growth is larger. Inadequate sunlight also affects the blooms in case of flowering plants.

Watering

Atmosphere inside most houses are not very damp hence are not very conducive for the growing of trees. To overcome this problem you must water the bonsai plants almost every day (varies with species). Always water the plant from the top. To keep the air around the bonsai plant moist, it would be a good idea to keep buckets full of water near by the plant.

Pruning and Trimming

Pruning and trimming are something you would need to do on every bonsai plant; hence it would not be an exception for indoor bonsai plants.

Re Potting

It is very important to repot your bonsai trees once every two years or so. This too depends on the species of the bonsai plant. It is advisable to repot bonsai trees during there dormant period. Ideally tropical bonsai trees should be repotted during the mid summer period, just before winter season when new growth begins. As a part of your Indoor bonsai care regimen ensure that you add a layer of micronutrients and iron to the bottom layer of the new bonsai soil.

Insect Protection

Keeping the bonsai trees indoors makes it more vulnerable to attack by household insects and mites. Hence you would need to take special care and attention to protect your bonsai tree. Towards achieving this end you could clean your plat with soap solution every 2 weeks and then wipe it clean with normal water.

Choosing the Right Species

It is important to find out the right kind of tree to grow as indoor bonsai. Some of the most commonly used indoor bonsai species are Ficus, Gardenia, Rosemary, Dwarf Pomegranates, Chinese Elm, Fukien Tea, Boxwood, Fig and Olive.

So if you have any intentions of keeping your bonsai indoors and need a indoor bonsai care plan in place then use the above information as a guideline.






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