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Root
Pruning: Don't wait until the last minute.
The delay won't kill you, but certainly could damage your Bonsai.
If you
haven't already done your root pruning for the
year, then, by all means do it right now! However,
if you don't need it then don't do it just as a ritual.
We spent a few minutes last weekend root pruning
one of our large Japanese Maple Bonsai. It's a task
of love. By doing this, you will keep your Bonsai
with a fresh, new and youthful root system that will
carry it through for a few years to come. Normally,
the tropical Bonsai like ficus and snow rose will
need root pruning more often than the temperate climate
Bonsai like junipers and maples. Why? It's a matter
of the length of their growing season. Temperate
climate Bonsai have a rest period in which they do
not grow where tropical Bonsai have two periods of
growth (which means they grow all the time) in their
native location, a dry season and a wet season, but
still both are growing seasons. Depending on the
size of the pot you may need to root prune your tropical
Bonsai from every year to every three years. Temperate
Bonsai need root pruning every three to five years.
We normally remove about 1/3 of the root mass and
remove any roots that don't appear to be helping
the Bonsai. For instance, dead roots or roots
that have grown so big or so long they are growing
out of the holes of its pot.
You need to be thinking about spring time. Yes,
parts of our great United States of America are still
in their winter mantle of snow, but the lower portions
of the 48 are seeing leaf buds swell and some flowering
of quince and cherry trees. Mid March is our last
freeze here in Dallas, Texas, so we really race now
to prepare all our Bonsai for the Spring Season and
the beauty that they will present us in the way of
unfolding beautiful leaves and outstanding blossoms.
Of course your part of the world has different
last freeze times, but the daylight time which is
so important to our Bonsai and its cyclical growth
patterns is basically the same. We have 247 days
that are free of frost. St. Paul, Minnesota has 170
days and parts of Montana have only 100 days.. Why
am I giving you these parts of the USA and their
frost free days? You need to know the climatological
details of your area and to use these details to
benefit your Bonsai. We can't fight mother Nature
so we need to go along with her rhythms and adjust
as best we can for our Bonsai to thrive.
Our suggestions for this month of March are:
1. |
Get
your pots ready
if you haven't transplanted already.
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2. |
Have plenty of Bonsai
soil (potting medium) ready when you
need it. Be a good Boyscout/Girlscout and
be prepared. |
3. |
Start thinking about fertilizers for
the Spring/Summer seasons. Fertilizers are
extremely important to your Bonsai during this "coming
out" season..even for evergreens as they
wake up from their winter hibernation. |
4. |
Think about a pruning
tool, wound
sealant, wire and branch
benders. Of course you can prune any
time of the year, but your Bonsai will recover
much more quickly this time of the year. |
And as always
... enjoy your Bonsai, keep it in good health and it
will reward you in so many ways.
Happenings
at Dallas Bonsai Garden:
New items that will be here soon ... but not in time for this email
message:
1. |
Some great new tool
lines from Japan. |
2. |
New Pruning Compounds. |
3. |
New Grafting Tools. |
4. |
The Kokufu collection of Bonsai
masterpieces. |
| 5. |
New Jinning Tools. |
Book Mark the new
items page and check it periodically. This is where
we will announce these items as they arrive from Japan.
A new article on The Chinese Elm by Bonsai Expert Thomas
J.
In part one of two, Thomas J. shows us several examples
of Chinese Elms and throws in a trick or two.
Click
here to read Thomas J's article
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