Rain

mintastic

I'm sorry I have not been posting as much, but with school, and my collection of bonsai(It's quite big about 30) I have no time to get online. Well I'll get to the point. I live in California, the Marin area to be exact, and man it has been pooring which brings me to my question: will all this rain hurt my bonsai? I know the wind can't because it's allways hitting the house on the west and my bonsai are close to the house on the east side so the wind gets refected. But the rain has been soaking them. I water them with my automatic watering system which I have taken the liberty to turn off. The system waters them once a day for about minutes. The rain can go on for days. Takeing them inside is out of the question. first there is no room for them and secondly they need sunlight. They seem to like the rain; they are budding out and look quite happy, but I think thats just a begining effect and that they will get mad in the end. Please reply.

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-william

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stephentoddpope

hey, nice to c ur back!i too have had a similar problem here in alabama, but i am not worried too much, cause, in the ground, they are survivn, so why not in a pot, as long as it drains really well, your should be fine

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"A Bonsai! A Bonsai! My kingdom for a Bonsai!"

William Shakespeare

weirdowl

Hello Mintastic,

I've been having the same concern lately. I've tried to move my trees onto the porch when it has started raining, unless they need it. I don't think it is a good idea to let them get that much rain, just like you wouldn't want to drench them completely every day. Most trees need to dry out some before they get more water. The extent of the dryness needed before watering again is dependent on the species. In any case they should not be allowed to become completely dry nor should they stay wet.

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weirdowl

ripsgreentree

Stop and think, rain is quite natural and as long as it does not wash your soil out of your pots what harm? Now this is assuming that you have very good draining soil to begin with. We just got 1.76 inches of rain here in fresno and in two days I will be watering again. I think for rain to hurt your bonsai you would have to leave your bonsai in a bucket of rainwater for a couple of weeks at least, beond that if it rains hard enough to water your bonsai this just means you get a break for a couple of days.

Glenn

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ripsgreentree

It requires an open hand to give and to recieve.

Jose_Alberto

Well, I believe I'm good to talk about rain, I get more rain than almost all of the formum members hehehe... well, rain won't hurt, what might hurt is if you get some drainning holes obstructed, watch out that they don't get too soggy, if so, watch out if the holes are not obstructed... Eventhough, if you keep an eye close to them, you won't have troubles, I sometimes get my trees swimming, but I help them drain quickly... so, they don't die...
About getting a break, I got a break for maybe 2 weeks, because of a hurricane in the coasts of Mexico, so, when it stopped rainning I forgot to water them, thankfully none died or got sad , so, enjoy the rain...

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Jose Alberto Franco
Guatemala
Central America
http://www.doschivos.com

whidn

you know I was thinking about a theory.

If you take a bowl the same cercumfrance as your pot and fill it with 3 inches of water, and it takes that much to water your tree properly then that would equal 3 inches of rain to properly water your tree.

Case study

I have a bonsai in a 4 inch pot.
I use a cup that is 2 inches wide to water
I need to fill the cup 4 inches to water my tree
that equals 2 inches of rain that I would need (I think)

It is not often to get 2 inches of rain in a day.

Thats why if we are only having a light rain I water my trees anyway Just to be safe because 1/4 inch of rain wouldn't thoroughly water my tree.

Someone please correct me if Im wrong

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Beginner From U.S.A.

If you skim when you read
Your knowledge will be skimpy

A lways
S eek
K nowledge

God, give me the wisdom to use it

Bonsainut

Whidn,
You are thinking too much , now get out there and collect me a bald cypress stump!---Nut

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Keep growing,---'Nut



Lethal Use of Farce

salix

...but interesting nonetheless, these maps show worldwide rainfall for 1997:

http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/glob/glob122.htm

I particularly like the animated map that cycles through the year, showing the rainfall moving up and down the continents.

Jose_Alberto

Well, according to the graph, here we receive approx. 1475mm a year, that is, approx 58.5inches of water a year, so if we assume that it rains 20 complete weeks of 52 of the year (48% of the time, which is just too much) I would get almost 3 inches of water, which is just enough...

So, if it rains 30% of the time, it would be almost 15 weeks and 4 days, I would have 3.75inches of water, which is more than enough... so, at least here, I get enough water in a rainny day, to water well my trees... Well, considering here rains for an entire day or night without stopping, it's pretty obvious, so all those calculations were in vain hehehe... Just Kidding...

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Jose Alberto Franco
Guatemala
Central America
http://www.doschivos.com