The Easiest Way To Master The Art of Bonsai

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Paul Wilcox
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1 The Easiest Way To Master The Art of Bonsai By Rodney Daut Bonsai Enthusiast

2 "How Do I Begin Practicing The Art Of Bonsai?" There are at least 3 ways to have a bonsai tree. You can grow your tree from a seed. You can start a bonsai from plant stock you find around your home or in other natural environments. Or you can buy starter trees from a nearby nursery. I do not recommend beginners start their tree from a seed. It may seem like a good idea at first. But you will have to spend years germinating a tree from a seed before it is strong enough to withstand pruning and repotting. And as a beginner you re probably anxious to start developing your bonsai skills right away not 4-5 years from now. The other option is to start a bonsai from plant stock you find around your area. This is something you ll probably want to do at some point as many people get a great sense of pride from creating a living work of art from local plant clippings. However, this skill is a bit too advanced for most beginners. So I recommend that you buy a starter tree from your local nursery. Just make sure that you know what type of tree to get "What Type Of Tree Should I Get?" There are many types of trees suitable for bonsai. Your choice of tree ideally should be based on 1) your climate, 2) whether you want an indoor or outdoor tree, 3) the style you want to grow your bonsai in and 4) your skill level. However, if you are a beginner there is a tree that can grow in almost any climate, indoors or outdoors (if cared for properly), that can grow in most styles, and is hardy enough to survive beginner s mistakes that s a cedar elm. There are other varieties hardy enough for a beginner and I ll list these below. However, none of them match all 4 criteria mentioned above. Others trees that are also good for beginner s include Chinese Elm, Ficus, Japanese Maple, Juniper, Fuchsia and Camellia. Later, I ll show you how to get more information on these other trees in case you want to try them. But before I do that you ll probably want to know how to avoid killing your first bonsai

3 "What s The Biggest Mistake Beginner s Make?" Here s a typical beginner mistake repot the plant, prune branches, prune roots all in the same month. This can cause your tree to get sick as your poor plant is making too many adjustments at once. The Scratch Test If you ve already overwhelmed your tree and are afraid it may be too sick to recover, use the scratch test to see if your tree can still be saved. Make a scratch into your trees bark just above the base. If you see green, then your tree can be saved. If you don t see green, your tree may be too far gone. If your tree passes the scratch test, just give it some time to recover from all these adjustments. Then continue with your program to shape your tree to your liking. If you make one change at a time, not only is your tree less likely to get sick, but if it does get sick you ll know exactly what you did to cause your trees sickness. And you ll know that you pruned too many leaves at once, or took off too much root for example. To avoid doing too much too soon you need to learn patience. However, there is an art to patience just as there is an art to caring for your tree. The way to get patience is to actually make a long list of everything you want to do for your tree. Then put that list of items on a calendar with enough time for your tree to recover from each change. When you do this, you ll breathe a sigh of relief knowing that you can do everything you want for your tree just follow the plan. However, the best plans of mice and men are best laid to rest, so be prepared to shift your plan when something unexpected happens. If your tree unexpectedly falls ill for example, you need to make adjustments to your plan.

4 But now you ll have a good record of what you did just BEFORE your free fell ill and if you have to ask for advice, you can use this record when discussing your tree with others. However, even if you manage to avoid overwhelming your tree, you must avoid another common error or your tree will die

5 "What s The Second Biggest Beginner s Mistake?" The second biggest beginner s mistake is to take a tree that should grow outdoors and try to grow it indoors. Most trees will die if grown indoors. They just aren t suitable for growing outdoors. Here s why: 1) In most homes there is not enough sunlight, even next to a window for a bonsai tree to grow properly. So if you re going to grow a tree indoors, you absolutely must supplement the light from your window with another light source. Indoor Lighting For Bonsai Indoor lighting for bonsai is actually a complicated topic. There are at least 5 different types of indoor light sources for plants each with their own advantages and disadvantages a major one being cost. Because of the complications and costs involved with the lighting alone, I do not recommend growing indoor bonsai for beginners. 2) Most bonsai are meant for a temperate climate meaning they must have a dormant period in which they actually need cold weather to be healthy. And you probably don t want to let your house become cold for a few months out of the year for the sake of your plant. So if you do try indoor bonsai, you absolutely must use a tropical plant that needs roughly the same temperature year round. Now that you know how to avoid common errors in raising bonsai, you ll want to know how to do the three most important tasks in keeping a bonsai healthy, making it look like an authentic bonsai so you can feel like a bonsai master

6 "How Do I Know How Much To Water My Plant?" Another way to accidentally kill a bonsai is over or under watering. Most people take years to learn the skill of watering a bonsai tree properly. However, there are two powerful short cuts that allow you to take care of your tree like an age-old master. 1. Weigh your perfectly watered bonsai when you purchase it. Then weigh the bonsai when it s soil appears dry. And while the plant is still on the scale, add water until it s back to its original weight. This tip will only work if your tree remains exactly the same size forever which it won t. So use this technique for the first few months only. 2. The second way to make sure you don t under or over water your bonsai is to use the chopstick method. In this method you jam a chopstick into the soil, down to the bottom of the pot, about halfway between the edge of the pot and the tree. Every day take the stick out and feel the end that was in the pot. If it s damp, don t water your plant. If it s dry, add water. Of course bonsai trees need more than water, they also need other nutrients from the soil. And since these nutrients are not replenished naturally in the pot, you must supply them. To find out how

7 "How Do I Feed My Bonsai? What Do I Feed My Bonsai?" Like most plants, bonsai need to get nutrients from the soil. And as I mentioned earlier the soil in a pot will be depleted because your plant is not in a natural environment in which the soil would regain its nutrients. So you have put the nutrients back into the soil. Here s how: You must buy special fertilizers for your plant. You want to avoid chemical fertilizers as these can disrupt the ph balance of your plants soil and harm your plant. So I recommend organic liquid plant foods because they do not disrupt the ph balance of your bonsai s soil one less thing to worry about. Make sure that you pay attention to the resources at the end of this report so you ll know exactly what kind of feeding schedule is needed for your bonsai. Some only need food during growth spurts. Some need extra nutrients weekly. "How Do I Prune My Bonsai To Make It Look Just The Way I Want?" Here s another secret of the bonsai masters. In ancient times bonsai masters would draw a sketch of what they wanted their trees to look like. This sketch would guide their pruning. Today however, modern bonsai masters have improved upon this technique and you don t need the skills of a sketch artist to use the modern method. All you need is a camera and a marker. What you do is take a picture of the tree you have now. Then with your marker draw the outline of what you want your tree to look like on top of the photo. This will help guide your pruning efforts. And

8 "How Do I Maintain My Bonsai?" Once your bonsai is shaped the way you want it, you ll need to maintain this shape with regular pruning. You must prune all new growth in order for your tree to stay a bonsai. The problem with many beginners is they will often forget to prune their tree or not notice all new growth. Here are 2 tips that make this easy to do. 1. Make another photo of your bonsai once you ve shaped it the way you want. Keep this photo nearby your plant so that you can remember what it looked like when you achieved the shape you wanted. When you compare the photo to the plant, you ll often notice growth you might have missed. Once you notice the new growth, prune it. 2. Make a schedule And keep the schedule on a sheet of paper that you ll see whenever you are going into your garden or if you have an indoor bonsai keep it nearby the plant. Then mark on the schedule each time you pruned your tree. And if possible make a new photo after each pruning and date the photo so you can see the progress of your tree over time. Of course this is just the beginning of raising a healthy bonsai into a living work of art you can feel proud of. To truly feel like a mater bonsai gardener, you also need to know: The one place to never keep a bonsai if you want it to live for more than a few weeks. (p 15) The essential natural water treatment that controls red spider and aphid and keeps your plants looking fresh and green (p 78) How to avoid the fatal mistake beginners make in watering their bonsai in winter. (p 76) The first step to knowing how to direct your bonsai's growth knowing which style you wish to shape it into. Will you grow your bonsai as a kabumono, yosue-ue, ne-tsuranari or ishi-stuki? Find out on page 20. Detailed diagrams to show you how to prune your bonsai--you'll know what to remove and when--including what must be removed to keep your bonsai alive. (p 67)

9 50 different plants you can use for bonsai... and how to tell which you can grow in your area (p 23). Just knowing which tree to grow can save you tons of unneeded frustration down the road and allow you to fully enjoy growing bonsai. The four steps to growing bonsai from material you find in your own backyard or neighborhood. (p 37) This is actually the secret behind many bonsai masterpieces. When you know this, you'll be able to create bonsai with any traits you wish... just like the ancient masters. And a lot more. There is only one bonsai guide that teaches everything above about becoming a master bonsai gardener and that s Bonsai Gardening Secrets by Rodney Daut and Claude Chidamian. If you want to master raising healthy, beautiful bonsai I recommend you check it out by visiting Bonsai Gardening Secrets today. (Click link below) Bonsai Gardening Secrets

Bonsai Secrets BONSAI SECRETS. Author: Marian Costita.

Bonsai Secrets BONSAI SECRETS. Author: Marian Costita. BONSAI SECRETS Author: Marian Costita 1 Introduction The art of bonsai has been around for years. Its culture is deeply rooted in the Asian culture and it adds not only a touch of class to your garden