Bonsai care (pomegranate)
Placement
Pomegranate is not a houseplant, so it should spend most of the year outdoors. It is a light-loving plant. Put it somewhere bright, and in summer keep it out of the scorching midday sun. From June through August you can keep it indoors, in a well-lit spot. From September, though, be sure to move it back outside.
Watering
A bonsai needs regular, careful watering. In nature, a plant’s roots grow deep into the ground. If it happens not to rain for a while, the tree can still get the water and nutrients it needs thanks to those deep roots. Confined to a pot, a bonsai has no way of sending its roots wherever they are needed. There is very little soil in a pot, so a bonsai depends on watering far more than a tree growing in nature.
It is also worth noting that on hot summer days, the movement of water through the plant and its evaporation from the leaves regulates the plant’s temperature and protects it from overheating. As long as the soil is moist, the plant can keep developing normally even in very high temperatures. When water runs short, “scorch” marks appear on the leaves and shoots, which ultimately leads to the plant drying out and dying.
How much and how often to water
How often a bonsai needs watering depends on the conditions it is kept in, the soil in the pot and the species itself. A bonsai should be watered not on a strict schedule but according to need. In late spring and summer, for example, watering once a day may not be enough. There is another misconception, that watering while direct sunlight is falling on the plant harms it. In summer it is sometimes even essential to water a bonsai during the sunny part of the day. So don’t draw up a schedule along the lines of: “The bonsai must be watered once a day, in the evening.”
Some species need their soil to stay constantly moist, while others need less moisture, but letting the soil dry out completely for a day or two very often kills the plant. Be sure to check the condition of the soil every day and water when it is needed.
There are a few simple signs that the soil is drying out: as the soil starts to dry, its surface changes color; the surface of dry soil is noticeably harder; and if your bonsai has been in its pot for a few months, you can also tell whether it needs water by lifting it. The difference in weight is quite noticeable – dry soil is considerably lighter. On deciduous trees, the first sign of late watering is drooping leaves and new shoots. Bonsai are watered with a special small watering can that lets the water flow out slowly. Pouring a lot of water at once washes away the soil surface and leaves hollows here and there.
Use ordinary tap water for watering. The drawback of such water is its chlorine and high salt content. After regular watering with it, the surface roots and the rim of the pot become coated with a white deposit, which you will have to remove from time to time.
Make sure water runs out of the drainage holes after watering; otherwise only the surface may get wet while the soil deeper down stays dry. It often happens that a bonsai is planted in its pot in such a way that much of the water poured on runs off the surface and over the side of the pot. In that case, pour the water slowly, only as much as will not spill over the surface, wait for it to soak in and then add more, until you are sure that all the soil in the pot is wet. Water running out of the drainage hole is the sign that the soil is thoroughly wet.
Suppose the soil in the pot has dried out completely. If you look closely at the pot in that case, you will see that a gap has formed between the pot and the soil. If we water it in this state, most of the water will run through the gap and straight out of the drainage hole.
In this case it is best to set the plant in a vessel larger than the pot, fill it with water up to the rim of the pot and lift the pot out once the soil surface is wet. The excess water will drain from the drainage holes. In spring and summer a plant needs much more water than in late autumn or winter. In winter you may find that you water the plant only once a month for the whole season (don’t water a bonsai during frosts).
It also matters what time of day you water your bonsai. In late spring and summer, when temperatures are high, try to water so that the soil in the pot stays moist through the night. Water in the evening, after sunset. If you water only in the morning or at midday, the soil will soon dry out and the plant will effectively spend the whole night in dry soil. In autumn, when the sun is no longer so scorching, you can water your bonsai at any time of day, preferably in the morning.
Now for overwatering. When the soil around the roots is constantly wet, the amount of oxygen in it drops, which eventually damages the fine roots. The damaged roots start to rot, and if the process is not stopped, a large part of the root system will gradually rot away. As a result the tree first weakens and, if the situation is not corrected, dies. So after watering your bonsai thoroughly, let the soil dry out gradually and only then water again.
The soil in the pot can also become waterlogged from prolonged rain. But even a week of nonstop rain will not harm the plant. The danger is when the soil in the pot stays saturated with water constantly, throughout the whole season.
Bonsai care in winter
In winter trees are dormant, and their active growth is suspended until spring. The dormant period is just as essential to a plant’s vitality as the period of active growth. So bringing a bonsai into the warmth in winter simply because it “might get cold” is fatal for the plant. Of course, bringing it into the room for a day or two to decorate the interior will do no harm. But if it spends the whole winter in the warmth, it will certainly die.
In temperate regions, where winters are not too harsh, a bonsai needs no special conditions to overwinter. But in regions where winter temperatures regularly drop low (-5°C and below), the plant must be protected from frost. This applies above all to the roots. A bonsai’s roots are not buried deep in the ground, so they can freeze easily. In Tbilisi’s climate the risk of freezing is lower. But if hard frosts last a long time, take a vessel much larger than the pot and bury the plant, pot and all, in sand or sawdust. Under these conditions the roots are relatively well protected from frost.
Protecting bonsai in summer
At temperatures above 30°C, unless we take special measures to protect the bonsai, the plant may be damaged or even die. How well a plant copes with abnormally high heat depends on its own heat tolerance and on how long the high temperatures last during the day.
The effect of heat is easy to see on a deciduous tree. A plant cools itself through its leaves, by evaporating water. In high temperatures a plant quickly loses moisture. When a bonsai gets too little water in the heat, the leaf temperature can reach a critical point. Wilting leaves are the first symptom of water shortage. In extreme heat a plant may go dormant prematurely (as it does in autumn). The leaves change color and fall, first those inside and at the bottom of the canopy, then the rest. When direct sunlight falls on a bonsai, the soil in the pot also heats up considerably. High temperatures can damage the roots as well. Under these conditions the plant becomes less resistant to diseases and pests. On a conifer, however, these processes are hard to spot, because its needles do not give such a “signal”. That is exactly why conifers need special attention in summer. A plant can cope quite well with very high temperatures if you give it normal conditions to function. There are a few simple ways to protect a bonsai from extreme heat. Keep it out of the direct midday sun, or rig up some shade. Don’t stand a bonsai on a surface that gets very hot in the sun – stone, concrete, metal; try to raise the humidity around the bonsai: mist it more often and water the area around it. Make sure the soil in the pot never dries out completely. Watering at midday is another way to cool the roots.
Fertilizer
For normal growth and development, besides carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O), which a plant takes from the air and water, a plant must get macro- and microelements from the soil. The macroelements are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). Various microelements are also needed in very small doses: iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), molybdenum (Mo), boron (B), manganese (Mn), sodium (Na) and other elements. All of these elements are vital to the plant’s existence, especially the macroelements. An excess or a shortage of any one of them has a marked effect on the plant’s development. For example, nitrogen is needed to regulate growth, for the leaves and for fruiting. A nitrogen deficiency soon shows up as slower growth; an excess prolongs the growth of new shoots. Nitrogen-rich fertilizer is not applied in the second half of the growing season. Phosphorus promotes the plant’s development and root growth, and strengthens its tolerance of drought and frost. Potassium gives the plant tolerance of stress (very high or low temperatures, too much or too little moisture). The right amount of potassium improves the buds’ ability to overwinter and the plant’s resistance to fungal and bacterial diseases. Calcium is essential for normal metabolism in the plant. Because there is so little soil in a pot, the nutrients are soon used up. So regularly applying a fertilizer that contains all of these elements is as essential as watering. Without supplementary feeding a plant develops poorly, its leaves and needles lose their color, and it falls prey to disease more easily. You can use either organic or mineral fertilizer on bonsai, but you must not mix the two together and apply them that way. There are fertilizers made especially for bonsai that contain all the necessary elements. Such fertilizer can be either liquid or solid, in granules. Liquid fertilizer is dissolved in water at a set dose and the plant is watered with the solution as usual. Plants absorb liquid fertilizer quite quickly, so on conifers it is applied once every 3 weeks. Granular fertilizer acts over a longer period. It is either mixed into the soil or put into special small baskets placed on top of the soil. With each watering some of it dissolves and gradually feeds the bonsai. You can order special bonsai fertilizer online. If you can’t find such fertilizer, you can use a balanced compound fertilizer sold at garden centers or flower shops. As a rule, such fertilizers contain all the elements plants need. For bonsai it is best to use one that dissolves easily in water, as it is more convenient to use. The packets always state the composition in percentages (NPK) and how much water to dissolve it in. Take great care when fertilizing and work out the right dose, because too much can kill the plant. Ideally it should be NPK 10-10-10 and contain microelements. Feeding normally begins in early spring and ends in autumn. There is no need to fertilize in winter. Never fertilize a freshly repotted plant. Fertilizer may be applied only 4–5 weeks after growth starts, once the bonsai has rooted well. At Samto Kimia you can buy “Kristalon 20-20-20” fertilizer. Dissolve 2 grams in 1.5 liters of water.
Misting
Misting is essential for both deciduous and coniferous plants. Start misting once warm weather sets in, in spring, and carry on until the leaves begin to fall. In summer it is best to mist every day; naturally, in rainy weather there is no need at all. Mist the bonsai when you water it.
Some water-soluble fertilizers are also intended for foliar spraying. This encourages lush, healthy leaves, and the leaves don’t fall ill so easily. There are also water-soluble foliar feeds whose spraying gives quite good results. If necessary, spray with dissolved fertilizer or foliar feed once a week, or as often as you apply fertilizer to the soil.
Diseases and pests
Like all plants, bonsai suffer from diseases and are attacked by pests. So it is best to spray preventively once a month from spring to autumn. Dissolve Ridomil Gold, Strobi Star and Actellic together in water at the required doses and spray. Never spray a bonsai in an enclosed space.
