The art of growing miniature trees at home is also called bonsai. (the word literally means "grown on a tray"). Planting plants in flowerpots and creating miniature copies of trees began in ancient China in the VIII century. Today, there are a huge number of areas of this type of art, one of which is the cultivation of Japanese pine at home.

Botanical tree description

Quite often, decorative bonsai trees are planted as bonsai at home, namely, Japanese pine. There are 4 main varieties of it that are used in this art: black, mountain, ordinary and white. The height of an adult tree can vary from 5 to 100 cm. The cultivation of tiny specimens up to 10 cm tall is considered the highest degree of mastery of the art of bonsai, since such plants have fairly fragile branches and a crown.

Japanese pine (Pinus thunbergii) is cone-shaped, as well as a high trunk with a smooth bark of red-brown color. The needles of the plant are dark, with a silver tint, it has the shape of an arc. The needles themselves are located on the branch in pairs.

In the wild, the tree is found mainly in Japan, less commonly in other Asian countries. But as a bonsai, this type of pine has spread all over the world, because it tolerates adverse conditions and minimal care.

Important! If a wire is used to shape a bonsai, it must be removed every year, otherwise it will grow to the bark and injure the plant.

The crown of the tree is quite sprawling and lends itself well to curly pruning. Japanese pine also has a strong trunk and a massive lower part, which allows the plant to gain a good foothold in the soil.

Gardeners prefer to grow this tree as a bonsai, because the branches fit perfectly into the overall composition, looking through the thick needles.

Due to the fact that the Japanese pine is considered unpretentious evergreen, it can be planted with equal success both in well-lit areas and in the shade. This plant is especially often used in landscape design as a decoration of stone gardens, which are very popular in Japanese culture.

Where can I get seeds

You can get the seeds of Japanese pine during a walk in the botanical garden or in places where the tree naturally grows. But their germination capacity can be extremely low. In addition, there is a risk that the tree will be infected with a certain virus, and the planting material will also be infected.

To purchase quality seeds, you should turn to specialized points of sale: stalls (only with a license), shopping centers, online stores.

Seed planting

When planting seeds of Japanese pine, be sure to familiarize yourself with the rules of agricultural technology that apply specifically to this type of plant. This is due to differences in the method of sowing, depending on the type of casing and the weight of the planting material. Exact observance of all planting requirements will help to get a healthy seedling.

What you need for landing

In order for the seeds not to die in the first weeks after planting, you need to choose the right materials and all the tools at hand to carry out this process.

The main ones include:

• Bordeaux liquid;
• container;
• fertilized soil;
• drainage (crushed stone, brick, gravel);
• sand;
• peat;
• press (enough wood);
• film or agrofibre.

Before planting, it is important to process the seeds to increase their germination and prevent the development of diseases. To do this, you must first place the planting material for 3-4 days in the water, slightly breaking the hard seed coat. After that, the seeds are removed, dried and processed using Bordeaux fluid.

For this, lime (150 g per 1 liter of water) and copper sulfate (100 g per 1 liter of water) should be dissolved in hot water in different vessels. Then the components are mixed and cold water is added until the total volume of liquid is 5 liters. This solution can be used to treat not only seeds, but also the soil in which they will be planted.

Did you know? Bonsai as a separate art movement arose 1300 years ago in ancient China.

Another method of treatment can also be used to sterilize the soil. It consists in freezing the soil to the full depth, and is used in November or early December. The soil that will be used when planting seeds is poured into a bag and left on the street or on the balcony until the first frost. After that, the soil is brought into a warm room so that it thaws.

To accelerate this process, you can pour it with melt water if snow has already fallen. After that, the bag is again put out for about a week. It is desirable that the temperature in the street be in the range –15 ...– 20 ° С.

You can repeat the procedure 2-3 times to achieve complete freezing of weeds and harmful microorganisms.

Landing process

Planting seeds is best at the end of the summer season or already in the fall. As containers, it is recommended to use special peat pots in which a mixture of peat and sand is pre-filled. They can be of any shape and color, although they recommend choosing neutral shades so as not to distract attention from the bonsai itself.

In addition, for a single miniature tree, a round or square pot is most often chosen, and for cascading compositions a narrow rectangular design. Sometimes, for the planting of Japanese pine, special coarse sand or ordinary land for cacti is used.

When planting seeds, you must adhere to the following algorithm of actions:

1. Mix peat with sand in the proportions 1: 1. Pour into a container for planting. It is worth remembering that you can not fill the mixture to the very edges of the pot: you need to leave about 3 centimeters of indentation.
2. Then pour out a turf ground specially prepared for coniferous plants with a layer 1 cm thick. For conifers, the ratio of sod land and sand is 6: 4. Soddy ground needs to be typed in the meadow, removing about 20 cm of the upper layer. Such a substrate will be very fertile and will increase the chances of rapid plant development.
3. Lay out the seeds, sprinkle them with sand (0.5 cm layer).
4. Press sand with a wooden press, pour and cover with a film. This creates the effect of growing plants in greenhouse conditions, and the likelihood of seed growth increases as much as possible.
5. This design must be placed in a room with a temperature not exceeding + 15 ° C.
6. From time to time it is necessary to remove the film and check if the soil is dry. If you need to add a little water, you should limit yourself to 80 ml at a time.
7. In a few months, the first shoots should appear. As soon as this happened, the film must be removed, and the container itself should be placed in a well-lit place so that the seedlings are exposed to sunlight for most of the day.
8. The plant trunk can begin to form after six months. When its height reaches 10 cm, you can transplant into another pot. It is extremely important to remove about 2/3 of the main root.

Pine Care During Growth

In order for the plant to develop without deviations, some rules must be observed. One of them is the timely transplantation of Japanese pine. It must be done every three years in early spring (March - the first half of April).

It is important to understand that it is not necessary to separate the old soil from the roots, because this can lead to damage to the processes and, as a result, to the drying of the plant.

When choosing a place where a pot of pine will be installed, it should be borne in mind that ambient light should constantly fall on it, and not direct sunlight.

At the same time, it should cover all branches of the plant, otherwise it will develop unevenly, and it will not be possible to create a beautiful figured bonsai.

Special attention should be paid to watering. If moisture is insufficient, the plant will begin to slow down its growth. When watering is too plentiful, the root system rots, which also leads to the death of pine.

Watering and feeding

When caring for a miniature Japanese pine, the main attention should be paid to the issue of watering. Since bonsai is grown in relatively small pots, the roots of the tree become very deformed over time, which in turn significantly reduces the effectiveness of the irrigation procedure.

To moisten the soil and saturate the pine with moisture, two main technologies are used:

• irrigation - leaves and the root part are watered with water from a special teapot (it is best to use rainwater or tap water, which has settled for 2-3 days);
• immersion - the container in which the pine grows is lowered for several minutes in a bowl of water (at the bottom of the pot there are small holes through which water penetrates the soil and moisturizes it).

Bonsai needs to be watered as soon as the root zone has become dry. Do not focus on the color and condition of the needles: there are often cases when it is bright green, and the root system has already dried out.

Did you know? It is believed that bonsai combines the essence of two religions — Zen and Buddhism, as it is the desire for minimalism and regeneration through the oppression of vitality.

It is also very important to feed the bonsai on time in order to accelerate its growth and increase the density of the crown. Japanese pine should be fertilized once a month by adding potassium, phosphorus or nitrogen to the soil.

Each of these components has its own purpose:

• phosphorus - responsible for cell division, accelerates the growth and development of the root system, resists diseases;
• nitrogen - stimulates the development of needles, accelerates the production of protein;
• potassium - Helps the plant fight pathogens, enhances fruiting.

When choosing ready-to-feed in specialized stores, it is sometimes quite difficult to choose a drug, in the composition of which the necessary proportions of the content of these components will be observed.

Experts recommend buying them separately, and then mixing them at home, based on what the desired result should be.

When creating fertilizer, the following rules must be taken into account:

1. In the spring, the plant develops more intensively, so you should focus on nitrogen, and add a little less phosphorus and potassium (in a ratio of 12: 6: 6).
2. The summer period requires a more balanced diet, so all components can be mixed in equal proportions (8: 8: 8).
3. In autumn, less nitrogen is required than potassium and phosphorus, as the tree gradually goes into the sleep phase (in a ratio of 3: 9: 9).

There is no need to fertilize pine bonsai in the winter, since during these 3 months the plant is at rest. It should also be noted that young and old bonsai need a different amount of top dressing. If for one-year-old seedlings it is worthwhile to fertilize up to 1 time in 2 weeks, then plants from 7 years old require fertilizer every 1.5 months.

Transfer

Regular transplantation for dwarf Japanese pine is extremely important. This allows you to free up space in the pot from an excessive amount of root processes (if this is not done, then the bonsai will gradually weaken and dry out). Thus, the main purpose of the transplant is not to preserve the size of the tree, but to improve it and accelerate growth.

Japanese pine need to be replanted every 2-3 years. For old trees (from the age of 20 years), a planting schedule every 5 years is suitable. You can determine whether you need to carry out the procedure by carefully examining the roots of the plant.

To do this, carefully remove it from the pot. If the root processes began to twist, covering the inner walls of the container, a transplant is necessary.

If the shoots do not go beyond the main root coma, then you can wait another year.

It is necessary to transplant in early spring, when the tree has not yet awakened after the resting phase. This will help minimize stress from the procedure, and also accelerate the healing of the resulting damage to the root system.

For transplanting, you need to choose the right soil mixture by mixing acadama, pumice and lava in a ratio of 1: 1: 1. You need to seriously approach the choice of container: it should fit the size of the bonsai root system so that the plant can develop normally.

The transplant is carried out as follows:

1. Remove the bonsai from the container using the root hook.
2. Remove old soil from the root processes using bamboo sticks. Only 1/2 of the soil must be removed so as not to damage mycorrhiza.
3. Cover the drainage openings of the container with a mesh and fix it with wire.
4. Fall asleep in a pot. It can be gravel, lava, acadama.
5. The prepared substrate is covered with a thin layer.
6. Place the bonsai in a pot, fix it with wire.
7. The remaining part of the substrate is poured out, evenly distributing it between the root processes with the help of bamboo sticks. All air pockets must be filled.
8. Water the tree with 80 ml of warm water.

Video: pine bonsai transplant

Cropping and shaping

Pruning a Japanese pine tree is quite difficult: although the pruning process itself is practically no different from the formation of other bonsai trees, all interventions must be carried out gradually and with a large interval so as not to damage the tree.

To prevent a delay in the development of Japanese pine, you need to adhere to these rules:

1. Never leave a large slice untreated. For pine, a process is characteristic when resin protrudes through the place of pruning. This process can be stopped only by treating the cut points with petroleum jelly. It will also help protect the tree from pathogenic bacteria.
2. You should not trim more than half of the height of the tree in one year. It is better to carry out the formation in stages, otherwise the bonsai may not recover after pruning and dry.
3. Trees over 25 years old may not sustain more than one pruning per year. If, for example, the branches of the crown have been removed, then with a curly shape you will have to wait.

Important! When forming the trunk, it is worth observing a simple rule: 1/3 of its part should remain without branches.

Fight against possible diseases and pests

Japanese pine requires not only regular maintenance, watering and top dressing, but also control over whether it is affected by diseases or pests. The tree is quite sensitive to diseases, so if you skip the start of infection, the bonsai can easily dry out.

The main pests include the following insects:

1. Plant aphid - a parasite that feeds on the juice of the plant. As a result of its activity, the appearance of the needles changes, the stems twist. To remove this pest, it is enough to soak a cotton pad with a solution of laundry soap and try to remove all insects, and cut off and burn the affected areas. After that, you can treat the pine with the insecticides "Aktara", "Aktofit" according to the instructions.
2. Caterpillars - This pest often appears on deciduous plants, although it can sometimes infect Japanese pine, quickly eating up pine needles. Caterpillars are easy to spot on bonsai, in addition, they always leave traces of activity such as cobwebs or eaten shoots. After detecting the caterpillars, they must be removed, the affected shoots must be cut and treated with ash.
3. Nematodes - These are small worms that often appear on the stems or in the root system of a miniature tree.Their appearance leads to the fact that the shoots bend and dry out, the shoots begin to rot, and the plant itself changes color. To combat nematodes, it is necessary to carry out a whole range of actions: reduce watering, transplant the plant (removing the old earth from the roots to the maximum), disinfect the pine tree with the Entocid agent according to the instructions.
4. Beetle Grinder - to find this insect among pine needles is not so simple. It has a yellow-green color and a very small size. Recognizing the traces of his activity is much simpler: the needles will be braided by a web, and the needles will begin to crumble sharply and lose color. If the tick has just begun to hit the tree, it is enough to begin to moisten the earth more strongly under the bonsai and spray the cobweb. If a large area is affected, it is worth treating it with Actellik (2 ml per 2 liters of water).

In addition to pests, bonsai are also threatened by pathogenic bacteria and fungus, which can easily provoke shedding of leaves or even drying out of the trunk and all root systems.

The main diseases include the following:

1. Rust - reddish-yellow spots begin to appear on the bark of the plant, the needles also turn yellow. In some cases, the fungus may be brown or even black. The disease progresses very quickly: growths with spores burst and spread to other parts of the trunk and branches. To prevent this, it is necessary to completely cut off and burn the infected parts of the bark and branches, and also treat the plant with Oxychom (10 g per 5 l of water).
2. Root rot - This disease is easily recognized by the appearance of a greenish coating on the surface of the soil and trunk of the plant. The needles are getting dark and crumbling. If the action of the disease is not stopped in time, the root system will quickly soften and the plant will dry out. It is best to transplant the plant, replacing the soil and capacity, as well as reduce the amount of watering.
3. Chlorosis - A disease that manifests itself in a loss of pine color. The plant becomes dull and begins to fade. This phenomenon is explained by the lack of sunlight and fertilizers. Curing the disease is very simple: you just need to move the bonsai to a more lighted place and feed it with fertilizers based on nitrogen and potassium.

Growing dwarf pine

Growing dwarf pine has many nuances, one of which is the proper handling of the plant in the winter. Often there is a situation where novice gardeners decide to bring a bonsai for the winter in a warm room so that it does not freeze during a sharp drop in temperature.

It is this mistake that often leads to the fact that the tree begins to dry out, turn yellow and slow its growth. Depriving a plant of its natural phase of rest leads to the fact that it has to constantly grow and develop, which depletes its resources.

That is why proper care implies that the pine tree will remain wintering on the street or balcony, but it must be prepared for the frost season:

1. It is necessary to remove all dry branches, as well as treat the plant with pest control agents.
2. If the bonsai is left in the garden, you should make sure that this place is on a hill, well lit and not exposed to constant drafts.
3. It is important to ensure that the soil in the container with the plant is not too wet, because during frosts this can provoke a complete freezing of the root system.
4. If the temperature in the street drops below –15 ° С, the bonsai can be brought into the room, but it should be unheated (cellar, balcony, garage).

Creating miniature copies of trees is not only an art, but also hard work, which requires many years of effort. If the plant care is correct, then the Japanese pine tree will thank the owner with its fast growth, dense needles and interesting forms.