Bonsaikapilaas : BONSAI PLANT MAKING

THE ART OF BONSAI PLANT MAKING
Here I am explaining the art Bonsai art through the photos for the beginners . It is a live art . With imagination one can create beautiful Bonsai. Here the plant is Ficus Bnjamina.

Ficus benjamina is a hard plant , it can be grown from the branches also. The plant has compact small leaves which is good for making Bonsai. Depending on height , bonsai plants are divided in to three sizes , one is Big Bonsai, second is Medium Bonsai, third is small Bonsai , it is also called as Mame Bonsai. First keep the plant in front of you and think for a while how to shape the plant.
Start wiring the plant branches with aluminium wire. Bend the Branches gently with two hands with one and placing underneath the branch, please don't harm the branch, one should be soft towards these plants and handle them just like small kids.

Before Re potting start wiring the plant and give a style by removing unwanted branches.

After styling selection of the pot is very important .The style and the pot size, color and the shapes should be matched with plant style. Between plant and pot harmony is required.

Below are the two different pots and two different style plants.

Select a pot suitable for the plant depending on the shape, and size of the plant. keep it in mind the color and shape of the pot matches with the plant.

Put plastic mesh on drainage holes so the soil wont flow out from the holes. and fix

them with wires. Take aluminium wire and make it in to 8no shape and pull the two

ends from the holes of the pot, and push down both ends of the wire flat in side the

pot after inserting a plastic mesh correctly on the two holes.

Now take bottom soil which consists of only brick pieces and spread a layer of bottom soil at the bottom of the pot just like in the photo.

To control any type of infection spray a pinch of fungicide on the top of the brick pieces

Now put a layer of Bonsaisoil on the brick pieces . Bonsai soil is the garden soil specially prepared for the Bonsai plants with different ingredients in different proportions required for the plant , so that the plant grows well in the shallow pot. The know how of the Bonsai soil will be followed in my other blogs.

Remove soil from the plant and observe the roots , if the roots are healthy and tangled , slowly separate them and cut the long roots keeping the roots near the trunk line . Ficus is a plant of having more vigorous fibrous root system. so remove soil and shorten the roots a little , don't do drastic root pruning

Make the pot in to four equal parts and place the plant a little away from the center towards back. so the will be depth the front face of the plant.This is the general way of placing a plant ,so that the entire top portion of the plant will fall in the circumference of the oval shaped pot. This type of placing is suited for the for formaluprightstyle and informal upright style and umbrella shaped style plants .There are many styles . In nature each plant is having different style, there no two plants are same in nature .For the beginners to make it easy to study the nature of the plants ,the Bonsai masters given a few guide lines, After doing a reach study on nature they divided the plants growth in to few styles, one and the foremost is the formal upright style , where the plant grows in a straight line from down to the top of the plant just for example most of the pine plants and Christmas plants fall into this style. there are other styles of the plants will be covered in other up coming my blogs.

Place the plant in Bonsai pot and spread the roots in all directions , now cover the roots with Bonsai soil Fill entire pot with soil up to the brim of the pot. Take a chop stick, softly put in to the soil and spread the soil without any air gaps between the rots.Now take wet sphagnum mass, cut into small pieces and place on the top layer of the soil, that the soil can not be washed away with the water when we are watering the plant.

Just like in photo the entire plant can be placed in tub filled with wate, now place your bonsai plant in the water tub, but be careful ,the level of the water always should be below the level of the brim of the pot ,so that the plant can absorb the water from the wholes of the pot not from the top. when water is absorbing by the soil through the bottom holes of the pot is called capillary method , so that the entire soil will be wet without ant dry places in between the soil particles. This method of watering should be done when your reporting or making a bonsai plant . Wait for few minutes till the soil is completely wet. Take out the plant from the tub and put it in a open place in your garden .but don't put the plant in direct sunlight at least for fifteen days. Water the plant regularly in dry weather. Now your BeautifulBonsai plant is ready. Take care of the plant.
The Photos below are Bonsai plant before training and the after that plant made in to Bonsai .