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outdoor bonsai in winter

18 years ago

i am interested in beginning bonsai but i cant seem to find info about storing bonsai in winter. i dont want to build a green house nor do i have room to store plant inside. is it possible to store plants outside through the harsh winters we have had it the past couple of years. obviously tropical plants are out of the question. any advice would be appreciated thank you

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Comments (5)

Hasaki
18 years ago
Any tree hardy in your zone is best over wintered outside. My main bonsai benches are concrete step stackers stood on end or side with 8'x 3' pressure treated tops. In the fall the tops are removed and trees are buried between the stackers. It's best to have a good drainage layer under your pots. You can use straw or leaves to mulch around and on top. You might choose a location out of direct winter sun. Snow is a good insulater.
Then we get to pot quality/longevity for trees outside year round. In my experience the lower fired or Houtoku pots just don't last. The Tokoname do, but I do mostly larger trees.
Many of my trees are overwintered in a detached garage with temperature control min 24 F. I do a lot of cascades/semi-cascades, it's just easier to overwinter on stands in a garage.

Hasaki
Gardener_KS
18 years ago
Hasaki, is there any chance you could share a photo or diagram of your set-up as it looks in summer and in winter? It sounds like a good zone 5 system, but I'm not sure I'm visualizing it right.
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Hi, I lived in G. Rapids MN for a while so know where you're coming from :-), but unless you have access to ground somewhere, or a shed... I will comment on what you're doing now though, which is giving it not NEARLY enough light all day long (i.e. 15 hrs/day), and you're watering about 3 times more often than necessary. You said there's new growth, but I find that hard to believe unless your 'watering' consists only of spraying the top of the soil vs actually watering til it runs out the bottom of the pot. And as soon as cold weather comes, watering should be drastically cut back in any case, but as you're also indoors (or the tree is) much less often is still better but I'm not sure how long it'll last without proper dormancy, which is vital to any but tropical or semi-trop trees. I definitely do not endorse fridge growing (and especially not watering while there) because it's very difficult to control elements such as mold, dryness of the foliage, etc., and it doesn't get to go cold gradually as it would outside, nor really cold enough altogether (tho' the freezer is absolutely not the answer). I just realized you asked about bringing it IN, therefore I guess it's on the balcony, which is a whole other thing (wish you'd have said so!). DO get a much larger container, do stuff mulch material between the container and pot (which would be buried (with a couple of inches of mulch on top) when overnight temps go below 25, though I'd keep it in an open box to protect from wind until then, maybe with some padding for the pot, but don't 'protect' it from going dormant too soon, and allow the foliage to not be covered. As soon as you know temps will go below freezing (prior to above, I guess) make sure it IS well watered that day and then once the soil freezes, don't water at all til the last thaw/freeze is done with (e.g. May), though if it's dry there, you can always put handfuls of snow on top and on warmer days it will be watered naturally. This post was edited by moochinka on Mon, Sep 22, 14 at 6:21
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Continue on with the other thread... this is just gonna confuse everyone.
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Well ! There are many so called Chinese Elms. Many are Zelkova species. However I have been caring for these since 1972. That was when I was told it was an inside tree. It does not like overwintering inside : it gets dried out for one. This tree likes light as do most Bonsai , and plenty of it. I always keep these trees as normal outside trees, over wintering outside with a small bubble wrap cover. They need to lose their leaves just like any other broadleaf tree. Since I used this approach , I have never lost one. All my bonsai get a daily watering or two in a hot summer. Best is one early morning and another late afternoon. The Chinese Elm is just the same and loves this. I live in England near Warwick Castle. I prune these trees quite often and feed with Bio Gold solid blocks--2-3 each. This is a natural feed and you should never lose these to over feeding. These trees also need Oxygen for their roots so a fairly loose soil based on Akadama and Lava with a little compost and bark flakes.. Hydrogen Peroxide is excellent to improve Oxygenation is your soil is too soggy (repot ). You will need to dilute 3% HO2O as it can burn your roots if too strong mixture is used. I use a table spoon per 1/2 pint jug.. Most deciduous trees are hardy in my climate. So don't overdo the cocooning during winter.....during this time they don't need light at all , but should be kept just moist and no feed !!! or you will encourage growth during the winter , not what you want. So good luck . I hope this helps.
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Generally speaking, humidity trays are poor sources of humidity/moisture, but what you CAN do is build a humidity tray with higher sides. Find a container your plant fits inside of easily, the sides of which aren't going to block light from foliage. Fill it with gravel or terra cotta pellets, then bring the water level even to the top of the balls. You might even incorporate some objects you can set the pot on so there is no way the water in the humidity tray can 'find' a pathway into the soil. Flat humidity trays don't cut it, but if all you have is a single plant, what I described will work very well. Clean the rocks and tray weekly with a bleach stir and rinse to prevent a lot of fungulugly activity in the tray over time. Good luck - the high sides that don't block light to the leaves are the trick, so a bigger tray is a better tray. Al
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Hasaki
18 years ago
Gardener_KS,
I'm not able to post images on the internet but I'll try to explain better.
When I first thought about constructing benches they had to be initially easy to set-up; low maintainence; the base could be moved quickly if I wanted to change the layout of the benches; they had to be relatively inexpensive and the bonsai could be overwintered in the same space. Everyone was using cinder blocks with planks for bench tops. Anyway, I got about one hundred concrete step stackers for $12 each for the bench bases.
Step stackers are conrete frames that are filled with cobblestones to make garden steps.
You can get them in two sizes 29"x14.5"x7" and 36"x18"x7". The tops of the benches are 32"x6"x1" pressure treated screwed on to 8', 2"x4" pressure treated strechers.
The stepers are just placed upright and spaced with the bench tops on top. Eleven spaced stackers with five tops is forty feet long. They are still stable when double stacked, this gives a bench height of about 32".

Hasaki
Hasaki
18 years ago
I should also mention that the step stackers were available in various dyed or coloured concrete.

Hasaki
Gardener_KS
18 years ago
Thanks, Hasaki. I wasn't sure what the step stackers were. Got it now. Thanks!

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