Top » The Development of a Bonsai

Published by Thomas Te on 09.11.2009 in and previewed 29 times


Cultivating a Bonsai is usually a better alternative than buying it and there are many reasons behind this. Chief among these is the fact that by cultivating a Bonsai plant, you can actually shape it according to your thoughts and ideas, and also get most wanted features out of it. Cultivation will also lead to a stronger link between you and your Bonsai as you will in fact be learning the art form of growing it.

Cultivating a Bonsai is not easy, but neither is it tough; with proper care, you can achieve some amazing results. To do this, you must of course use a variety of techniques while maintaining the continuity. An important virtue while cultivating a Bonsai is patience.

Some important aspects to be considered for the successful development of a Bonsai have been enumerated below:

Material necessary

Identification of a required species to be grown is the primary step to be taken for the cultivation process. You should be clear in your mind as to which tree you wish to grow in a dwarfed form. Organization of other materials will be entirely dependent on the species you select, and is the next step in the process. This material could be in the form of a scar-free trunk of the selected species, rocks, fertilizers, and other items that are relevant to your cultivation.

Propagation

There are two major ways in which you can increase the propagation of your Bonsai plant – propagation of the leaves and propagation of the trunk. If you wish to you’re your Bonsai plant fully grown in a shorter span of time, then you should go in for the trunk propagation method as this option delivers the fastest results.

Whichever method you select, breeding techniques are based on patterning of the plant through its natural growth and reproduction characteristics, which vary extensively among different species. In addition to taking into account natural growth characteristics, you should also consider seasonal changes as most species are season dependent and would show positive results during that particular season.

In terms of starting a new Bonsai plant, there are three major techniques that you can pick from:

Growing from seeds
This is one of the simpler methods of growing Bonsai plants, but you need to be careful while purchasing seeds. There is no such thing as special seeds for Bonsai plants; normal seeds are what you need. However, certain vendors misguide customers in the name of bonsai seeds and charge high rates for it.

Cutting

This is perhaps the most reliable method of developing a new Bonsai plant. It involves cutting out a small piece from a living plant as the base material. This material is then inserted in a root medium, and nurtured to make it grow strongly. As it is this cutting would ultimately turn into your Bonsai and so you should root and tender it properly.

There are many diverse types of cuttings that you can find in horticulture and most of these can be used for propagating garden plants as well as Bonsai ones. However, stem cutting, root cutting and leaf cutting are the major types, with softwood cuttings, semi ripe, and hardwood cuttings forming the sub-division of steam-cutting.

Layering

This is an advanced technique for cultivation of Bonsai plant. In this technique, Bonsai is created from trees or shrubs that are presently in a size that cannot be considered as appropriate for bonsai cultivation.

Layering actually refers to the injuries that you are required to inflict on the parent tree’s wood. These injuries allow the flow of nutrients from the roots to the layers, but restrict the reverse flow from the layering leaves to the parent tree.

Over time, the injured part of the tree heals and the layered parts grow their own roots and food mechanism. With sufficient roots in place, the layered part can then be isolated and grown into a Bonsai on its own. This process works best when carried out in spring as that is the period when plants grow quickly.

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Copyright 2009. Thomas Te is interested in bonsai jade plant. More info, see http://www.indoor-bonsai-tree.com.
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