A Few Beginner Questions

robingfx

Hello,

I am a beginner with one bonsai casualty experience already. I have read two books about bonsaiing and I currently have two live bonsais in my possession (and a few experiments going on). I have a few questions even after reading the books that I hope someone can answer. Thank you so much in advance for your help.


1. Is there a tool or instrument that can tell me how damp or dry the soil is? Like a “humidimeter”?

2. Living in southern California, how concerned about seasonal changes should I be? The weather is much cooler now than in the summer, but it never gets really cool. Can I prune, wire, repot, fertilize etc all year round?

3. I have a ficus that came with small rocks on top of the soil. It looks very nice, but should I remove them? They are not glued.

4. Most books and internet recourses recommend watering a few times per week (or even more in the summer). The bonsais I have always seem too damp. I water maybe once per week, and I don’t even soak the soil. My instinct says they don’t need water. Why is the soil always damp?

5. At what point should a tree in training be placed in a bonsai pot? Can I train a tree from start in a bonsai pot?

6. How old/big can a cutting be? Can I take a 1 inch thick ficus branch and make that grow roots?

Robin

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Adam_MA

Well Robin welcome to the addiction!
I am not from your area so I will only answer the general questions that my ability allows.

1. Yes it's called a moisture meter. You should be able to pick one up at most any nursery or wal-mart/kmart
2. Sorry I can't help you on this one maybe someone from your area will chime in.
3. If the rocks are not glued they are there just to make it look pretty. They are fine to stay as long as when you water the tree the water goes through the spaces and does not just roll off the top.
4. This is a tough one. Without knowing your climate very well and without knowing what your soil is made, makes it tough to answer this one. Although you should be watering thoroughly, enough to the point of seeing the water draining out of the bottom. That is if the container has drainage holes. If not it should and that could explain always being damp. Some more information would help answer this one better though.
5. You can put a tree in a Bonsai pot any time you wish. Some say a tree should not be put in until it is of show quality, but that choice is up to you, my trees are far from show quality and a couple of them are in Bonsai pots. Yes you can train a tree from the start in a Bonsai pot, just remember with the limited space for roots to grow the growth of the tree will be much, much slower. If putting a small tree in the ground to let it grow for a couple of years is out of the question a pot/container is fine but the bigger the pot the bigger and faster the tree will grow.
6. Ficus are of the easiest trees to grow from cuttings. Yes large ficus branches will root if treated properly. Take a Look Here This site has probably the best information out there on all things ficus.

I hope this helped!
Good luck

Adam