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| Hello,
I've been developing an interest in Bonsai for a few years now, and decided to gather a good base of knowledge before diving in to the practice. That being said, people close to me offer (out of good intentions) the odd mass-produced bonsai with glued on stones and pots covered with fake moss. Recently I received a juniper and would like it to survive even though the odds are against it. I have removed the glued-on rocks and set it outside but i have a few questions about how to keep it from kicking the bucket.
Which is the best option? The bonsai is small, 6 inches high in a 6 inch ceramic pot. Right now it is on the SW balcony and gets about 4 hours of direct sun a day. It's in fine health but I am afraid to leave it outside come December. Any information would be greatly appreciated, thanks for your time |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Hi, good for you for removing the pebbles. Now is the perfect time to repot an evergreen conifer (rePLANTing is only for in-ground trees :-) and do keep yourself from watering that poor thing until more-than-less of it's now til you do repot. Deciduous trees should wait til spring except for maples, which you'd do as late in the fall as you dare before the soil freezes. BTW, I'm from Mtl. and I don't think you're zone 3, 4 maybe depending on where you live, but in any case it's still too cold for a small juniper in a pot just to live outside like that. Do get a much larger container of mulch and bury the pot and mulch over the top by 1-2". Keep the container in the shed and don't water at all once the soil of the rootball freezes. I might move the container from the shed in late Feb. so it begins to get sun, and I don't think the window option leaves enough room for enough mulch for protection, so the shed is probably best. When you repot now, use mostly grit depending on what's available - I always tell people to get aquarium gravel in a natural color because it's easily available, looks good and comes in different sizes. Mix it (it should be 75-80% of the mix) with pine or fir bark mulch in small bits (not always easy to find but you can use repti-bark from the aquarium store or soft and break-up-able bark from a bag of Schultz Orchid mix), and some coarse soil from a nursery that isn't mostly peat, or replace it with perlite. Worst thing you can do is to un-mulch it in spring before the last frost of the season - usually around May 1st is safe - because even if things thaw prior to then, if they freeze again the tree can die as tiny new growth will be killed. SO... anything else? |
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| Thanks Lucy, you are of great help. I will repot asap as per your suggestion. Thanks as well for the zone tip, I was going by the map provided by this site but I have to say it isn't a very good reference, very difficult to get an accurate read. Much obliged! |
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