Bonsai care (false cypress)

Placement

False cypress is not a houseplant, so it should spend most of the year outdoors. It likes plenty of diffused light or partial shade. The ideal spot is one that gets morning or evening sun. In summer, shield it from the scorching midday sun. For the best effect a bonsai should stand on its own; choose a place where the miniature tree can be seen clearly and is not “overshadowed” by other objects. First of all, a bonsai should be placed so that the viewer can clearly see its front, the tree’s most striking side.

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 some time, the plant can still get the water and nutrients it needs thanks to its deep roots. Under confined conditions, a bonsai has no way to steer its root growth wherever it is needed. A bonsai grows in a very small amount of soil, so it depends far more on watering 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. A lack of water causes the plant to dry out and die.

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.

How much and how often to water

How often a bonsai needs watering depends on the conditions around it, the soil in the pot and the species itself. A bonsai should be watered not on a strict schedule, but as needed. In late spring and summer, for example, watering once a day may not be enough. There is another misconception: that watering during the hot part of the day harms the plant. 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.”
False cypress needs less moisture, but letting the soil dry out completely, even for a single day, very often kills the plant. Be sure to check the condition of the soil every day and water whenever it is needed. Watch the moss first of all: it is easy to tell when its surface is dry, because it changes color.
Use ordinary tap water for watering. Make sure the soil is soaked through to its full depth after watering; otherwise only the surface may get wet while the soil deeper down stays dry.
In spring and summer a plant needs more water than in late autumn or winter. In winter you may water the plant only once a month throughout the whole season (do not water a bonsai during frosts).

The time of day you water a bonsai also matters. In late spring and summer, when temperatures are high, it is best 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 in effect spend the whole night in dry soil. In autumn, when the sun is no longer so fierce, you can water a bonsai at any time of day.
As for overwatering: when the soil around the roots is constantly wet, the amount of oxygen in the soil drops, which then damages the fine roots. The damaged roots begin 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 once you have watered a bonsai thoroughly, let the soil dry out gradually, and only then water again.
Overly wet soil can also be caused by persistent rain. But even a week of nonstop rain will do the plant no harm. The danger is when the soil stays waterlogged constantly, throughout the whole season.

There is one more mistake people make with watering. In summer, after a short shower, only the surface of the soil in the pot gets wet, while deeper down it stays dry. If you are not sure the soil is thoroughly wet all the way through, water the bonsai as usual. In this case the extra watering will do no harm.

Bonsai care in winter

In winter trees are dormant, and their active growth is suspended until spring. Dormancy is just as essential to a plant’s vitality as the period of active growth. That is why bringing a bonsai into the warmth in winter merely because it “might catch cold” is fatal to the plant. Of course, bringing it into a room for a day or two to decorate the interior will do no harm. But if it stays in the warmth all winter, it will certainly die.

In Tbilisi’s conditions a bonsai does not need any special conditions to overwinter. But if the temperature stays very low all day long (-10 and below), the plant must be protected from frost. This applies above all to the roots. Bonsai roots are not buried deep in the ground and can therefore freeze. During such spells the tree can be moved temporarily somewhere the frost will not be as severe.

Protecting bonsai in summer

At temperatures above 30°C, unless special measures are taken to protect a bonsai, the plant may be damaged or even die. How well a plant withstands abnormally high heat depends on its own heat tolerance and on how many hours a day the high temperature lasts.

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 a lack of water. In extreme heat a plant may go dormant prematurely (as it does in autumn). The leaves change color and drop — first the inner and lower leaves 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 too. Under such conditions the plant becomes less resistant to diseases and pests. On conifers, however, these processes are hard to spot, because the needles do not give such “signals”. 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 direct midday sun, or rig up some kind of shade. Do not 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 wet down 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 the carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) that a plant takes from air and water, a plant must obtain macro- and micronutrients from the soil. The macronutrients are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). Various micronutrients 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, the macronutrients above all. An excess or deficiency 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 itself as slowed 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 makes the plant resistant to stress (very high or low temperatures, too much or too little moisture). The optimal amount of potassium improves the buds’ ability to survive winter 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, nutrients are soon exhausted. That is why regularly applying a fertilizer that contains all these elements is just as essential as watering. Without extra feeding a plant develops poorly, its leaves and needles lose their color, and it falls prey to disease more easily.

For bonsai you can use either organic or mineral fertilizer, but you must not mix them together and apply them that way. There are fertilizers made specially for bonsai that contain all the necessary elements. They can be either liquid or solid, in granular form. Liquid fertilizer is dissolved in water at a given dose and the plant is watered with the resulting solution as usual. Plants take up liquid fertilizer fairly 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 placed in special small baskets set on top of the soil. With each watering a certain amount dissolves and gradually feeds the bonsai. You can order special bonsai fertilizer online.

If you can’t find such a fertilizer, you can use a compound fertilizer sold in garden centers or flower shops. As a rule, these contain all the elements plants need. For bonsai it is best to use one that dissolves well in water; such fertilizers are more convenient to use. The packaging always lists the composition in percentages (NPK) and how much water to dissolve it in. Take great care when fertilizing and work out the right dose carefully, because too much can kill the plant. Ideally it should be NPK 10-10-10 and contain micronutrients.

Normally, feeding begins in early spring, in March, and ends in autumn, at the end of September.

At Samto Kimia you can buy “Kristalon 20-20-20” fertilizer. Dissolve 1 teaspoon 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 continue until leaf fall begins. 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 that do not fall ill so easily. There are also water-soluble foliar feeds whose spraying gives quite good results. If it is needed, spray with dissolved fertilizer or foliar feed once a week, or as often as you feed the soil.

Diseases and pests

Like all plants, bonsai get diseases and are attacked by pests. So it is better 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.