What to do In January
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What to do In January
Summer is here, and the days are hot, warm and windy. The wind will cause bonsai to dry out very quickly. Take good care when watering your trees and, when you decide to hide inside from the heat, do remember that your trees are still outside and need water. In the heat, together with the wind you can lose your favorite bonsai within a few hours. Do try and water twice a day. Also misting your trees during the day will help to cool them down and keep the soil moist. (I still need to see any damage due to watering in the heat of the day caused by water drops on the leaves!)
Try not to water the foliage after 5 pm on warm days. Water on the soil surface. The moisture on the leaves will increase humidity during warm nights around the leaves that in turn can cause fungal diseases developing and spreading.
Pruning
Chinese Maples and White Stinkwood can still be defoliated. This will help to replace leaves damaged by the wind, will force the tree to produce smaller leaves and give you the opportunity to work on your development of the tree, prune unwanted branches and wire were necessary. Just remember that if you decide to defoliate a tree to reduce the size of the leaves, do not feed the tree for at least two months after defoliation. Feeding it will have the result of bigger leaves. Do not defoliate a tree that is not healthy. When your tree starts to push new leaves (around two weeks after defoliation), place the tree in an area protected from the wind, or the leaves again will get damaged.
Make sure that Japanese Mapels are growing strong if you plan to defoliate them. If the Japanese Mapel’s canopy is to dense then rather remove every second leave.
Do usual maintenance pruning, pinching back new growth and developing the tree.
Keep track of the development of the canopies of junipers. They grow fast this time of the year and if they get to dense, inner branches and growth will die.
Fertilizing
Keep to normal feeding programs feeding your trees on a monthly basis.
Do not feed your pines if you have candle cut them.
Also do not feed trees that you recently defoliated.
Repotting
Figs and buddleia can still be repotted.
Pests and diseases
Pest and diseases may be found less frequent due to the low humidity but do keep a lookout for them and control when necessary.
Also look out for signs of Thrip on your Wild Olives. On the first sign of marks on the Olive leaves spray your trees. Look for white fly on the underside of the leaves of Olives. Spray your olives with a preventative spray for root rot.
Styling and design
Prune Elms by constantly pruning the new growth back to 2 to 4 leaves. Make also use of the clip and grow method to develop the tree. Remove unwanted growth on your Elms. Choose the branches that you need to develop on new trees and remove the rest.
After defoliating a bonsai, it is a great opportunity to rectify problems, prune branches and wire new growth. Maples are not as brittle this time of the year compared to winter. Try not to wire new growth that did not harden off (changed from green to brown bark). The bark (cambium) on new growth is very thin and can easily be damaged with wire.
General maintenance
You will find that the trees are developing slower during this time of the year. This will give you time to catch up on your bonsai work. Do keep track of wiring on your trees. The branches thicken rapidly and can cause wire bite.
Mame trees can be placed on humidity trays. This can be made from drip trays filled with river sand or gravel. Put enough water in the drip tray to the level of the gravel/sand. Then place the mame on the gravel. Do not let the pot stand in the water. If the pot is placed in the water, it will cause root rot on the mame. The idea is for the water in the drip tray to form a more humid environment around the tree. Several mame can be placed on the same drip tray.
Weeds also tend to grow fast this time of the year and can become a problem.
Enjoy the festive season and may you have a fantastic 2025.
Stephen
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