Does anyone up here know anything about bonsai tree plants?:(?

Question

I bought one for my mother and it looks like it's dieing it's my mother's everthing and it would crush her to lose it any info or web site would help she has a easteren chiness elm it's not a evergreen ten points to the answer that could save her tree.!!!

Answer 1

Tree Arrangement
I spend a lot time thinking about tree placement to get the most natural looking arrangement, and have come up with some guidelines that I think work. First, it helps to have a concept of the scalene triangle outline used so much in bonsai. This is a triangle that often defines the outline of the foliage canopy. The elements of the triangle are three unequal length sides and no right (90 degree) angles. This will make a triangle which when viewed from the 'front' or main perspective that will have three levels defined by the corners. The points of the triangle can represent the position of elements, either trees in a forest, the three levels of the canopy, or the position of stones in a garden


In general trees will grow fastest when planted in the ground. However, there are some caveats to be considered. It has been my experience that trees grow more slowly when first planted in the ground rather than shifted to a larger container. This effect seems to last one to two years for most species I have observed. I think what is going on is that the tree is sacrificing top growth for root growth, but it is also possible that the tree has more difficulty getting established in this (usually) denser medium.
Some of the best growth yet has come from the 'escape method' where I put five gallon cans on the ground and allow the tree roots to escape through the drainage holes and into the earth. I love this method because it is so efficient. You must continue to water through the can to keep the above ground roots alive. When you get the trunk you want, you simply sever the escaped roots at the holes and cut back the top of the tree at the same time or sometime before. I am getting massive 'Seiju' elms by this method. They are putting on more than an inch of caliper per year.


IMPORTANT HERE:::
The same principles of feeding apply whether you are growing in the ground or in containers. Container mixes do not contain enough clay or fines to hold nutrients well and must be fertilized heavily and frequently to make up for this. If you use this type of mix for ground growing you will still have to fertilize heavily. Most bonsai mixes have very poor nutrient holding capacity, that is why we fertilize so often or continuously. If you are growing in native sandy loam the need for fertilizer is greatly reduced, so is watering. It is very difficult to give a set formula because of the great number of variables involed. You must rely on the plants and become good at recognizing good nutrition by growth and leaf color.
I think the emphasis on foliar feeding is greatly overdone. Roots are the primary method that plants have devised to take up water and nutrients, and they are hundreds of times more efficient at it than leaves. The response may be faster when fertilizer is applied to leaves but in the long run it is the roots that will take up and store the far greater part of nutrients needed. Foliar feeding is fine as long as the runoff ends up on the roots, if it just escapes, it is a terrible waste. You would be hard pressed to over feed by applying fertilizer to the leaves unless you used too strong a concentration. In any case if the runoff is going to the roots as well how do you know that it is too much foliar feed or too much root feed?

Overfertilizing trees, no matter how you apply it, will result in salt burn, you will see it at the margins of the leaves, they will turn brown and dry out.

Personally I don't think the type of fertilizer matters a bit as long as it has what the plant needs, which is NPK and minor nutrients such as iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum, boron, cobalt, and nickel. You will pay a little more for a fertilizer that has these minors but it is well worth it, especially when growing on such a small scale as most of us are. Nitrogen is the primary nutrient for green growth. It will make leaves large, deep green and will create long internodes in good growing conditions and with adequate soil space. It is essential in spring when deciduous and evergreen plants are putting out new growth. It should be tapered off at the end of the season to stop forcing soft new growth that could be damaged by frost. Phosphorus is important in promoting root growth, flowering, strengthening cell walls and for fighting off diseases. Potassium aids in general cell functioning. A balanced fertilizer seems to work just fine under normal conditions (all the numbers for NPK are the same such as 10-10-

10). Higher nitrogen percentages are suitable for spring growth and for acid conditionsAre there methods of lengthening the growing season. Without a greenhouse it would be difficult to grow a tree during winter, but for container plants, you could bring some into the house and grow them under fluorescent lights. On average, how long do temperate trees need for a dormancy period.

answer
Living where I do, I have an almost nine month growing season if you count root growth. This is where I think there is potential for simple extended season growth. It is very difficult to do anything about air temperature when growing outside, but soil temperatures can be changed or maintained by some rather simple methods.

Most of think trees go dormant when the leaves fall. Not true. There is no top growth but the roots continue to grow until the soil temperature falls below about sixty to sixty five degrees. This continued root growth occurs here in Northern California until about Christmas, root growth picks up again in late Feb depending on the weather. By extending root growth you set up the plant for increased top growth the following season. You can maintain fall temperatures longer by mulching with an insulating layer such as straw, etc, and you can raise spring temperatures sooner by mulching with black plastic to capture the sun's heat.

((((((((((((If you can do all this and keep you plant alive in its nursery container for a year, then you will probably be ready for the second phase of learning root work. You will have a healthy compact plant with excess root capacity ready for a soil change and root reduction. But in the meantime read all you can to prepare. Try to find a club in your area; it will help immensely. In a club you can repot with expert guidance or simply watch it done a few times before you attempt it. )))))

check this link out
http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/bonsaibe.htm
The major problems in indoor growing are the lack of intense light and a cool dormant period for temperate climate plants. Even if you kept your plant in an unobstructed south facing window, I doubt that the light would be sufficient for many species of woody plants. Most people just don't understand how dark it is in the house, even in front of a window.
Consider that, outside, the light comes from not only the direct sun, but from 180 degrees of sky PLUS all the reflected light of objects in the other 180 degrees. Light from a window is little better than a point source of light. If you measure the light level with your camera (not pointing it directly at the sun, but obliquely to get an average reading) you will find that the level inside is two to three f-stops lower than just outside the window. One f-stop would be half as much light, two f-stops is 1/4 as much light, etc.

From experience I can tell you that most woody plants will perform best at full sun to 50% full sun. I get 50% by growing plants under shade cloth. Less than this amount, performance falls off, and at 70% shade, plants get leggy and problems can begin.

You can correct this by putting your bonsai in the sunniest window of your dwelling, but not too close to the glass or it will experience excessive heat buildup. This light may be too intense for some tropicals that are used to growing on the forest floor, but for most woody temperate climate plants it is still insufficient. Couple this with an overhead fluorescent lamp for these species. Keep the lamp about six inches above the plant. Twin forty watt fixtures are inexpensive to purchase and use. Special bulbs are not necessary. Keep the lamp on 12 hours a day to augment the sunlight. If you lack a window with sufficient light for even low light tropicals, you can safely use fluorescent lamps as outlined above as the only source of light.

http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/indoors.htm

Air Circulation and Humidity
Secondary considerations, but important ones, for indoor growing are air circulation, humidity, and insect/disease control.
Air circulation in summer can be as easy as leaving the window open to get a little breeze. In winter you might want to get a very small fan to gently waft the air about your plant.

Humidity is greatly over emphasized for temperate climate plants kept indoors. For many beginners, misting is mantra, a way of showing that you care, but many plants could care less. Many tropicals need high humidity, temperate climate plants do not, but it is important not to let levels approach desert aridity, which can happen inside during the winter. Misting plants once or twice a day in my opinion is a worthless procedure. The only thing that happens with misting like this is that you build up salts on the leaves as the water drys. If you mist the entire area around the plant to bring up the humidity, then you are doing something useful, but in the house this is usually not possible. Instead, create humidity by placing your plant on a bed of small stones in a large flat tray filled with water. Do not let the pot actually touch the water. The flatter the tray the better, this will help keep down algae and other critters because nearly the entire volume of water will evaporate each day.

http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/indoors.htm

I like to check for dryness by lifting the pot. It takes some experience to develop the 'feel' of a dry bonsai, but it works quite well. It is amazing how much an adequate amount of water will increase the weight of the pot. Of course this is only possible for smaller plants. I don't go around lifting 5 gallon cans to see if they are dry, or the monster bonsai. But since about 25% of the volume of a proper soil mix is water at the saturation point, this is a significant increase in weight, and one needs only to pick up a pot when wet, and then when dry, to tell the marked difference. Dryness can also be tested with a chopstick inserted into the bonsai pot as a sort of dipstick. When the chopstick is pulled out and it is nearly dry, it is time to water. This is a method advocated by Michael Persiano. A third method, perhaps used by most people, is to dig half an inch under the soil surface. If it is dry down to this point, it is time to water.
There are several factors that affect 'drying time' and they are all interrelated. For example, Malus and Prunus can tolerate denser soils under optimum conditions because they grow so quickly that the roots soon colonize it. This rapid top growth quickly pulls the water out. I have to prune all the time of course, so when I cut them back to form a new trunk section, they are now too wet until the top grows back.

Here are some of the factors I have found that influence the drying time:


Soil Mixture
The primary components holding water are: organic and inorganic fines (very small particles), peat moss, vermiculite, and clay. If you increase the amount of any of these amendments to your soil mix, you will decrease drainage, and increase the water holding capacity of your soil, which will increase the interval between watering.
Increasing the percentage of these elements to the point that the soil will hold more than 25% of its volume as water is not recommended. Beyond this point you may begin having root rot problems form decreased aeration (poor drainage).

The components that increase drainage (aeration) and reduce water holding capacity are: inorganic and some organic (bark) large particles (greater than 1/8 inch). These include lava rock, coarse sand, perlite, turface and other stable fired clay products.


Plant Size and Pruning
Fast growing leafy species colonize rapidly, drying out the soil. Root bound or even properly root colonized plants will dry a pot very rapidly. This rapid drying of the soil is very healthy for the plant, if you manage to water often enough. Each time the plant dries out it pulls a fresh charge of air into the root zone. Likewise, each time the plant is watered and the excess water drains, another fresh charge of air follows the water to through the root zone. I consider the ideal watering interval during the growing season for outdoor plants to be one day. This makes watering easy to remember or schedule, and will almost assuredly prevent root rot problems. Cycles shorter than one day inevitably lead to dry or wilted plants on occasion.
Plants that are well root colonized in the pot shorten the watering interval as the top grows and demands more water. After a plant is top pruned, transpiration is decreased and the watering interval is again increased. For plants that are very susceptible to root rot, it is important to pay close attention to this factor.

Choosing the Components

The container: The use of a very shallow container is essential. Both a glazed suiban and a marble slab can be appropriate choices. Depending on your design, a regular shallow bonsai pot with drainage holes may work as well - you'd need to ensure that all drainage holes will be covered by land areas since they would be meaningless and distracting in the area(s) designated to represent water. Keep in mind that drainage holes are not a horticultural necessity in this type of penjing composition; since the container is so shallow, excess water will drain off the sides effortlessly and not lead to problems of waterlogging. Using a container without drainage holes imposes fewer design limitations later.

The trees: Most tree species commonly used for bonsai are suitable. Before trees are used in a water-and-land composition, they should be grown in containers with their taproots removed in order to develop shallow root systems. They should have under-gone some fundamental bonsai training, and their basic trunk and branch lines should be established. Otherwise, the tree material does not need to be ideal. When styling a single tree, root and branch placement and taper are critical considerations, but in water-and-land penjing, a wider landscape is being created, and overall balance and harmony, rather than individual forms, are the overriding concerns. To create an aesthetically pleasing effect, you need trees with a variety of sizes and trunk calipers. At least one tree should be more mature and larger than the others to serve as the dominant element in the composition.

The rocks: China has a 2000-year history of collecting interesting rocks and stones, and the art of appreciating individually selected specimens for aesthetic reasons dates back about 1200 years. Rock connoisseurship, known in the West by its Japanese name suiseki, is alive and well in China today. The stones selected for penjing, however, play a different role: They are not so much chosen for their unique individual beauty and outstanding qualities but for their ability to contribute functionally and artistically in a wider design.

Zhao's preferred rock is the Turtle-Shell Rock collected in the mountains of Shandong, Sichuan, and Anhui Provinces, although he also uses the more widely available Ying Rock (Yin Tak Rock), among others. He encourages the use of domestic stones and offers guidelines for collecting. Colors should be subtle, not extravagant. Look for stones with soft, roundish shapes and attractive surface patterns. The most prized stones in water-and-land penjing display a weathered, worn, aged look, suggesting great durability and timelessness. Always keep in mind that the rocks need to harmonize and blend with all other design elements into one harmonious piece.

Clay Miniatures: These are optional.

http://www.venuscomm.com/Wlp-IB.html

Hope this saves your moms plant!! Peace M~*

Answer 2

I used to have a lot of plants, but I had to give up the hobby as they were taking over my whole house. I never attempted a bonsai, however, as they are extremely difficult to grow and they grow slowly. Certain plants such as bonsais and orchids require a certain temperature and light source to thrive, not to mention a lot of patience. You might try giving it indirect light -- not bright sunlight, but maybe filtered through a curtain, or not directly in front of a window. Keep it away from drafts or direct heat from a radiator or furnace. Don't over-water it. Give it a drink about every three or four days, but don't drench it. Use a mild fertilizer, such as Miracle Gro, but again, don't go overboard. Then try talking and/or singing to it -- seriously -- the carbon dioxide from your breath will be good for it. Plants give off oxygen and take in carbon dioxide -- just the opposite of the way humans breathe. Other than that, keep an eye on it, and pray a lot. Good luck!

Answer 3

a million. specific, you are able to submit flora. 2. Bonsai relies upon on the tree you prefer to strengthen. frequently, you initiate off with a "cloth" in lots of cases sourced from forests. those are then lovingly potted and under pressure so as that it varieties an imaginative shape. that's artwork, and a few followers by no skill sense they might desire to hurry the bonsai to strengthen.

Answer 4

Why don't you just call a garden center nearby? Does it need water, a little sun, some fertilizer????
And by the way, Any tree/plant can be made into a Bonzai..
I learned that a few years ago b/cause my daughters girl scout leaders husband had Bonzai as his hobby..........

Answer 5

I think that tree needs to dry out between watering. Try watering it once a week. And make sure it's by a window. Hope it makes it :)

Answer 6

www.bonsaiboy.com has some care tips on the left lower list of categories. Different care tips for summer, winter, indoor, outdoor. Hope it helps.