I have a hard time believing you needed a misting system. It's true most Florida is warm and lovely most of the year. It gets hotter where I live. Most of Florida has the ocean breeze bloewing in to keep air temps down. I had more than 30 days this summer of 105 degree plus weather, over 20 where temps reached 110+ on my back porch where my bonsai are kept. I have shadecloth up and watering was only needed for most plants daily.

I've visited a few bonsai nurseries in Florida and none of them had misting systems. They used shade from shadecloth or large trees.

Constant misting of leaves and trees doesn't sound like a very good idea. It really sounds counter productive for established plants.

In your case I believe technique is more counterproductive than the quality of water. There are too many gorgeous plants grown in that part of the country for water to be that big an issue.

I've visited many wholesale nurseries in the Rio Grande Valley and their water stinks too, but they still crank out beautiful plants.

randy

I have a misting system because I travel frequently with my job and I can't be home everyday to make sure my trees haven't baked, and they will bake, even in the shade with wind when its 95+. What technique do you speak of that needs to change? How is misting counter productive for established plants? It seems to have helped all of my other trees. elaborate please.

So now we change our story :-). First a misting system is because of extreme heat. I'm curious where you moved from to think 95+ with an ocean breeze is extreme heat? I guess you've never been to the desert southwest:-).

Now it's because we travel. Then you probably should have an automatic watering system for when you travel. I have hundreds of plants that don't bake in 100+ weather and I don't live where it gets really hot like the desert southwest. They didn't bake when we were hitting about 110+ everyday for a few weeks. I only watered every day with some very small containers getting another shot in the afternoon.

You asked for advice, I gave it. Go for a drive and visit all the nurseries around you to see how many places use misters to water.

If your water has a lot of undissolved solids in it, spraying it on the leaves every 2 hours doesn't sound like a good idea. Put drip heads on the top of the pots and let them water the soil to the point the water runs out of the pot to help flush those solids out of the soil.

Just wetting the soil every 2 hours can and probably will build up a toxic amount of solids on the soil and trunk of the plants over time. Watering completely doesn't allow that to happen. You can wash off the leaves on occasion when you don't get a rain shower so often.

randy

I'm new to bonsai. We have lots of 95*+ weather and I water once a day and sometimes once every 2 days. My tray is about 16x16x5 inches. I understand bonsai need frequent watering because they are in a confined planting space but every 2 hours seems excessive. I might recommend 2 times a day for 10 minutes in h-o-t weather. My 2 y/o red maple is beautiful with just daily watering, sitting on the patio made of concrete pavers.

To save it, I recommend cutting back on the water and feeding it with SuperThrive tonic.

Hi, another consideration of all that misting would be that you're begging for mildew, mealy bugs and general rot. I would suggest that you get a watering system instead, as many people use them when travelling. They're programmable (a decent one would have to be, of course) and you're not depending on your sister's best friend's nephew, and you're not rotting furniture, and the foliage isnt marked up by water spots, etc. etc.

my opinion is that you may be stiffling the plant with iron deposits.....buy spring water or get a purifyer--not a softener!!they are poisonous and will posibly kill your trees

Im in florida and what I do durning the summer is make sure the trees, except a few, do not get high noon direct sun by moving the plants around.
If you keep the watering system, change the timing. Your watering every 2 hours wich never lets the soil dry out, so your asking for root rot. Change the timing so it waters once a day for 20 min or so. Do this either at night or eairly morning. My guess, with that, you would see better results. If you decide to go to a watering system, where you have tubes going to each pot, then cover the pots with rocks or something so the soil does not heat up in the day, but make sure the soil does not stay wet either way.
Very few plants will be killed by hard water or a 'bad' pH. Azalea is one of the few that come to mind that can not tolarate a high pH. I think seriesa is picky about the pH too.
What kind of plants do you have?

I live in Southern California, and have an automatic watering system. In the Winter I water once a day (mornings) and in the Summer I water twice a day (mornings and early afternoons). The system is basic in the extreme - but it is also very reliable. It is simply a lawn sprinkler system that sprays water out over all my trees. I move pots around if trees need more or less water, but for the most part I can let the system run for weeks at a time without problem. I have used it for 8 years now and never lost a tree.

HOWEVER - in the summer it can get HOT here. We are talking DRY heat in excess of 100 degrees (last summer we peaked out at 108 a few days). The only way to keep foilage on some of my trees in that heat is to move them into shade or under shade cloth. My pines and junipers love the heat. Elms don't do too bad. Maples hate it. Note that the trees with scorched foilage still do fine - when the weather cools in the Fall they drop the rest of their leaves and have a healthy Spring burst of growth. I just have to sacrifice a lot of their exterior foilage if I don't move them out of the sun.

Alex

www.bonsainut.com

I live in Southern California near the beach and the temperature never rises above 80 and never lowers below like 45. I don't water my bonsai that often, even in the summer. Is this due to the moisture or am I watering my bonsai wrong? I typically water them every 2 to 3 days.