If you have just started in the world of bonsai, we will tell you the 10 most common mistakes in the cultivation of bonsai that you can make and you must know to avoid them.
Overwater the bonsai.
One of the most frequent reasons for the death of a bonsai is excessive watering. When we start growing bonsai, it is the first thing we must learn. Control the irrigation and give the bonsai the dose of water it needs in each season of the year, preventing it from drying out or waterlogging.
Overwatering the bonsai, if the substrate we have does not drain well, we will get it to flood and as a consequence the rotting of the roots, root suffocation and the death of the tree, due to lack of oxygen in the roots.
If you have been a short time and have already been watching several videos on tips and techniques for growing bonsai, you will see that bonsai are grown in a special substrate, as if they were stones. They are special substrates with which we will be able to avoid waterlogging, greater oxygenation of the roots and that our bonsai grows healthy and strong.
Returning to the error of excessive watering, if we have already made the mistake and we have realized it in time, or we believe that we are on time, a solution could be a solution for this emergency could be to do an emergency transplant, without cutting roots and putting it on a granulated substrate of Akadama and Kiriu to avoid further waterlogging.
Water the bonsai by default.
Here we have the opposite error to the previous one. It is certainly less dangerous than excess water. If it is not very long, it is usually solved by watering abundantly and chopping the earth with something like stainless steel toothpicks to facilitate the entry of water and air. If the leaves are only limp and not completely dry, it will help their recovery that we will fumigate the glass with water, that is, the leaves, every 30 or 45 minutes, until they recover, in the last case if none of this results we will do a immersion irrigation.
Low light locations.
Determining a good location, along with irrigation, are the two main tasks that beginners in the world of bonsai must control. Each tree needs particular conditions and we must know them.
This error is very normal in beginners, it is believed that trees can be kept indoors, as an ornament, without thinking that they are living beings, that they are born and grow in nature and that the interior of our houses is not the right place for them. Inside the house, although in the middle of the room we can see well and think that there is a lot of light, in general we will not have the sufficient luminosity that bonsai need.
If we are making this mistake, we will notice the pale color of its leaves and long internodes. Over time this will lead to exhaustion and the death of the tree, because the trees in addition to having enough light, must feel and go through the different temperatures of the seasons as well as feel the difference between day and night.
Not understanding what bonsai we have.
If we have just been given a bonsai or if we have just bought it, the most normal thing is that we do not know what species it is or its specific care.
It is very important that you know that not all bonsai need the same care. There are tropical bonsai that need a higher temperature during winter, so we must protect them if they are outdoors in a greenhouse and yet outdoor trees such as apple trees, which perfectly withstand winter and also, in the case of this species, the colder they get during the winter, the stronger their budding will be in spring.
Therefore, before buying a macrobonsai we have to know what species it is and what needs it has. If they have given it to us, the first thing to do is to find information about it so that we can give it everything it needs.
Bad treatment in case of pests or diseases.
It is very common to cure what we think are pests with advice and things heard or visiting a flower shop and asking for something that we assume you have.
We should know that the most frequent diseases of our bonsai are mainly due to two causes.
- Pests:
- Mites. Yellow and red spider.
- Worms Borers, Earthworm, Nematode, Defoliator Caterpillar.
- Insects Ants, Whitefly, Woolly aphid, Green, black and white aphid, Grasshopper, Thrips, Cottony mealybug, Moisture mealybug, Limpet mealybug.
- Mollusks. Slugs, Snails
- Diseases:
- Mushrooms. Wood fungus, Downy mildew, Bold, Powdery mildew, Root rot, Rust, Botrytis, Olive leaf, Chlorosis, White evil of the roots.
- For insects we will use insecticides. For fungal fungi. For mites, acaricidal insecticide.
Transplant very frequently.
As a general rule, the bonsai will be transplanted every two years so that they have time to acclimate to the new substrate and that the roots occupy the entire space of the pot. Bonsai in development and
