每日吃瓜

Hey all!? Decided to pick up bonsai as a hobby and I'm about 1 month into it and trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible.

I bought 2 plants recently: A Japanese maple that I'm hoping to turn into a future bonsai once it's thick enough (it's just over a year old) which I got in a trainer pot and I bought a Chinese elm bonsai from home depot mainly so I can experiment with a mostly finished bonsai that I'm not trying to grow.

My question for both of these is I have no real idea what kind of soil is in either, but they seem to retain water more than the substrate mix.? The Japanese maple seems to be just standard soil, but the Chinese elm has a layer of moss on top and I'm not sure what's below that.? At the moment, I'm treating both of them the same as any other standard house plant and watering when the soil is dry by watering them until it runs out the bottom, waiting a few minutes and doing it again, and then checking on the soil with my moisture meter on a daily basis until it goes from moist to dry.

Most of the advice and tips I've absorbed to this point on this subject revolve around the thin bonsai pots with substrate, but since neither plant I have right now are in bonsai pots, or substrate that requires daily watering, would you recommend letting these grow until I will need to repot in a year or two?? Also is it okay that I'm using a moisture meter for now?? Appreciate any advice you can send my way.? ?

I hope you have them outside. The Maple needs growing for a couple of years, possibly potted on into a bigger pot next year. The Chinese Elm needs to be grown on also, it looks ok, but is overgrown and needs to be pruned back to the shape it had. The moss is not a problem, but it can be removed if you want. I suggest you buy a book and read how to prune, and how to look after trees. I would say do not re pot.

First thing first. Your first task is to learn how to grow your trees happy and healthy. For some it takes a year, for some it may take several.

repotting is one of the advanced tasks in bonsai. It includes root examination and pruning. First time you do it, make sure that you do it together with someone experienced. Join a club and seek help.

Uppotting to a bigger pot for faster development is not repotting and much easier. Just identify soil type and mix a similar soil to fill up.

Moisture meters is somewhat accurate for fully organic soil. The difference between different soils is acceptable.??However, for mostly inorganic substrate mixes it does not work at all. My recomendation based on that is to learn how to water your trees without it already now and the transformation to shallow pots an inorganic substrates will be easier in the future.

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The maple is outside and i got the Chinese elm currently inside front and center in a windowsill in my apartment facing west.? I got the Chinese elm specifically cause it's one if the breeds that can be grown inside since i don't have adequate space to house a lot of bonsai outside since it's a space i share with neighbors, so my plan is to keep monitoring it the first few months and if need be to get a grow light if it requires it.

I started to prune the Chinese Elm, but stopped because i felt i needed to learn more about the do's and dont's of pruning.? There's a few youtubers I've been following that have guides on pruning that have been helpful, but as for now all i feel confident in is keeping the areas that i want to thicken and grow out to get a better taper.

Appreciate your advice! Ill keep the soil for now and next year I'll take a look into repotting ?

Thank you! Sounds like for this year i don't need to make any huge decisions with the soil and i should work on finding local bonsai experts to help. I've already visited a few near me and there's a bonsai show that happens in August i can get resources from.

my plan with the maple is to grow it out for a few years, repotting it in a bigger pot to help with its development into a thicker trunk. One thing I'm unsure of right now is when it's a good time to in is development to start wiring it if you have a shape in mind. However, im sure there's going to be a lot of cuts i need to make in the trees development into a bonsai before i have to worry about that.

Chinese elm cannot survive long term in livingroom conditions. It is a decidious temperate species that need winder dormancy, just as the maple.

Most people do not wire maples more than for corecting an odd branch. Other than that, this species works better with cut and grow tecnique.