short of shooting my bonsai off towards the sun...

BonzaiSquirrel

How do I give my bonsai enough light? I'm at the end of my rope! I have a fukien tea bonsai that is 22 years old (although it has only been in my posession for a few months now). I put it right next to a window where it gets plenty of direct sunlight for the first half of the day, and a fair amount of sunlight the rest of the day. But after the first two weeks, its leaves turned yellow and fell off. So I bought a plant light, and now it gets all that sunlight, plus it has light from the plant light for at least 14 hours a day. But the leaves on it are huge! A friend of mine told me bonsais get large leaves when they aren't getting enough light, but short of putting my bonsai into a glass capsule and shooting it off towards the sun, I don't know how I could give it any more light than it already has. The plant light is practically on top of it, and shining on it all day.

Are there other things that could cause the leaves to be big? Perhaps too much fertilizing, or too much water or something? Or maybe it's the type of plant light? I'm using a General Electric plant light with a 65 watt bulb (which is what the box recommends). Any ideas? When I got it, it had tiny little leaves. Now its leaves are ten times the size! Help!

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Vance Wood

It is possible it is getting to much water but I would be the last one to tell you to let it dry out. Fukien Teas are fussy buggy little things and most of us that have had them, in our minds default to perverting their names to fit their temperament. Sometimes they just don't like to be moved. I would not fertilize for a while and back off on the water a little bit. Keep the light levels the same that's not going to hurt anything. In fact light levels tend to make the leaves smaller.

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The only finished bonsai is a dead one; me 1992 MABA Des Moines Iowa

BonzaiSquirrel

Thanks for the advice. After its leaves turned yellow and fell off I gave it a bunch of fertilizer and watered it a lot (in addition to getting a plant light). Maybe that was my undoing. My reasoning was that it needed an extra boost in order to recover well. After the initial fertilizing I figured I may have gone overboard, so I haven't fertilized it since. And I've cut back on the watering so that I only soak it for 7 minutes, every three days (the guy I bought it from said I ought to soak it every other day for 10 minutes). But its foliage is still as gigantic as ever. I definitely don't want it to dry out, because I've never had a bonsai before, and I would feel terrible if I killed a 22 year old tree. Do you have any tips on how infrequently I could water my fukien tea without putting its life in peril?

If less watering and less fertilizer don't reduce the leaf size, do you think all hope is lost? Is it possible to 'un-bonsai' a tree? I'm wondering if that's what I did.

HB Smith

I don't know where you live, so don't know your climate. These are tropical trees so do the best outdoors with plenty of sun and fresh air. Indoors, with a lot of practice and experience you can get them to survive, but not thrive. If you can keep them above 60 degrees, keep them outside, give them good sun, then move them indoors in fall and winter.

It is best not to suddenly move a tree that has been indoors to the full sun in the middle of the summer. Introduce them gradually to more and more sunlight.

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Sincerely,
Howard

www.BonsaiSmiths.net

Joanie

And be careful about watering on a schedule... water it from the top, three times, each time letting the water run down out of the drain holes. This flushes the salts in the water and draws air into the soil for the root system. And only water it when the top soil is a little dry, and when you stick your finger into the soil it is just barely moist. Or use a chopstick or a wooden dowel, stuck into the soil halfway between the trunk and the side of the pot. If you stick the chopstick in until it hits the bottom, and leave it there, you can pull it out to see how wet the bottom of the pot is. That's where you will get root rot if it stays too wet all the time. When the chopstick is just moist you can water, but if it's wet, don't water.

Part of the problem of big leaves may be because it was almost leafless, and then it got a surge of fertilizers and water and came back with a vengence!

(If he snips the big leaves, a few at a time, from the tree, will they come back smaller? Will it hurt the tree to do it in this season)

Joanie

PatArizona

I'd like to add just a bit of detail to Joanie's very informative post...

Three Step Watering Process


(1) Always water from the top; get the top of the soil wet without watering until water runs out the drain holes. Wait 5-10 minutes, then,
(2) water until water runs freely from the drain holes. Again, wait 5-10 minutes; then,
(3) water until the water runs freely from the drain holes.

If during (1) or (2) above, water runs through immediately, there is a problem with your soil, and you will need help...maybe repotting. If, during (2) and/or (3) above, water stands on the surface more than 1 minute, there is likely a problem with your soil...call for help. Every bonsai needs to be planted in a well (fast) draining soil.

Pat

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BONSAI isn't about surviving in a storm, rather, how to dance in the rain.
THE ONLY WAY: Always remember, and don't ever forget, that whatever you read here is not cast in concrete... the intent of any advice is to help. In no way should you feel that I’m saying that my way is the only way…heaven forbid! I've seen far too much of the "my way or the highway" attitude in bonsai as well as in other areas of life.

007

It sounds to me like you need to get yourself a good book on bonsai . . . while your immediate problems are probably not related to lack of sunlight at all and due to improper watering (which the above info will help remedy), it also sounds like you have some misconceptions about bonsai in general.

I think that a good book would serve you quite well. i like Harry Tomlinson's Bonsai Workshop as a beginner guide.

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MoSinister

Hello. Sorry to revive a thread that's had no comments in the past two weeks, but I just wanted to ask why some places advocate soaking, and others say watering from the top is the way to go? Is this just a "preference" thing and there won't be a consensus on which way is right?

~Mo

007

I have read in a lot of places that soaking is only really used after a repot to ensure that all soil particles are thoroughly saturated.

Top down watering is generally preferred because it rinses the soil as it saturates. It also creates an oxygen exchange which is essential for healthy roots.

That being said . . . I water MOST of my bonsai from top down. EXCEPT for two of my smaller mame/shohin tree's. I soak those up to the rim for about 10-15 minutes because top down watering washes away so much soil on these two tree's.

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