For a good indoor bonsbonsai tree - pick a species that makes a good houseplant. Ficus is an excellent starter bonsai. It’s not overly fussy about it’s light requirements, and it takes a fair amount of neglect and will continue to live. (I know this because I have one - and until it starts raining inside my house…my houseplants will always have a rough time in my care.)
my bonsai tree!
its not a seed
To grow your bonsai bigger it needs optimal growing conditions. A free draining soil will help a lot, this is what basic bonsai soil does. You should fertilize it at half reccomended strenght every 2 weeks, go for a high nitrogen fert in the spring, balanced fert through the summer, and low nitrogen in fall. The more light the better, look into getting a desktop lamp with the bendy neck and stick a 40W or higher compact florescent bulb in there then place the lamp 2-4 inches from the top of the tree, also get a plug in timer and run it for 16hrs on 8hrs off. During late spring, summer, and early fall, if at all possible put it outside, it will get way better lighting outdoors than you can provide inside. Get a shallow tray fill it with gavel, put water in the tray but don’t fill over the gravel, put your pot on top of the gravel, make sure the pot doesn’t touch the water, this will help with humidity. Besides that don’t prune it for a while, just let it grow…good luck
I like the look of pine trees, and would like one as an indoor bonsai, but they don’t do well inside. I have researched a little and found that rosemary, wormwood, and southernwood can be grown as tree-like bonsai. Has anyone had luck with these, or could anyone suggest a better plant for me to grow inside? Any help would be appreciated.
http://www.bonsaisite.com/
I dont know much about them, but ive been doing some research and would like to know a bit more from somebody who has some experience. i work in an office (cubicle village) and was wondering if there are any beginner (indoor) varieties that would do well under flourecent lights, as i am not close to the window, but i do have a good supply of florecent lighting in my cube. I am looking to start with something simple and work my way up, however i dont know if the environment that i am in could support such a tree… any help is appreciated
will a juniper or flowering white jasmine do ok under a plain floruecent?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bonsai
My Fukien Tea is dying. Black spots have begun to spread all over the foliage, but the foliage still looks lush except for the black spots. Leaves keep falling off, however. I don’t think he has enough to make it now. I water him once a week like the provider suggested, and I feed him light from my fluorescent light bulb for an hour everyday. Every time there is new growth, there is a black spot to follow. The spots are usually found on the tips, but some leaves have them in the middle or near the stem. Its been going on for about three weeks and he hasn’t been able to kick out of it. He is an indoor plant, so i don’t believe it is a temperature thing. I’ve used super thrive and Rose Pride to protect him. What is happening to my tree?
http://www.bonsai4me.com
My Fukien Tea is dying. Black spots have begun to spread all over the foliage, but the foliage still looks lush except for the black spots. Leaves keep falling off, however. I don’t think he has enough to make it now. I water him once a week like the provider suggested, and I feed him light from my fluorescent light bulb for an hour everyday. Every time there is new growth, there is a black spot to follow. The spots are usually found on the tips, but some leaves have them in the middle or near the stem. Its been going on for about three weeks and he hasn’t been able to kick out of it. He is an indoor plant, so i don’t believe it is a temperature thing. I’ve used super thrive and Rose Pride to protect him. What is happening to my tree?
http://www.bonsai4me.com
I have recently purchased the new flourescent spiral flood light bulbs for grouwing date trees indoors. I’m going to make a indoor bonsai date tree. The lumens on it are somewhere around 1500. Am I good to go?
I would agree with Alterra. Lumens aren’t the only consideration for growing. Check out your local lighting store
I have 3 African tree seedlings in pots, Acacia Galpinii, to be exact. I want to make bonsais out of them but I live in Holland and do not have enough natural light in the house. They need to be outside actually but our climate is to cold for this kind of tree, so I went looking for grow lights and the best I could find was energy saving lamps that emit 100W of light using 18W of energy. I do not know if it would be enough to sustain the plants through the winter and do I need more than 3 of these laps.
Not likely.
The sun is giving them 1000Watts and that is what they are aiming for as a ‘full meal’ for the plants.
If you are only getting 18Watts of energy in I can’t see how you get 100Watts out as you can’t make energy from nothing. However, even assuming 100 Watts that is going to be pretty low.
I personally tried something like what you are doing here in Canada with a Mango tree from the Philippines. I used 3 x 75Watt grow lights. It was a very unhappy mango tree, it did grow–sort of.
It grew very spindly and seemed to be ‘reaching’ for the light as it wasn’t enough so it ended up stretched and unattractive.
It is not energy efficient, but hydroponic grow lights are going to be your best choice for a healthy tree (metal halide type)
Any suggestions?
Any tree that is clipped constantly will stay small . . my bonsai is a maple tree
Very hard to find bonsai stock