Bonsai summer care (Part 1)

Due to the effects of the heat, holidays, or the seasonal change, summer is probably the season with most questions regarding bonsai care. How should we take care of our bonsai in summer? We tell you all about it, and we give you the best advice to keep your little ones in the best condition.

Summer stages. Initial

In this first blog of the summer, there will be 3 in total, we will focus on the beginning of the hottest period of the year. We understand the initial part of the summer as the period in which temperatures begin to exceed the highs of spring and stabilise, before rising again to reach 30/32º C.

Watering the bonsai in summer, the main question

Throughout the year, the frequency of watering is one of the most common questions, a doubt that increases and worries more with the heat. For obvious reasons, with the rise in temperature, the frequency of bonsai watering will increase, especially in outdoor bonsais. The way to know when to water will be the same, testing the soil condition below the first layer, either with your finger or with the help of Aqua meter. You can review our watering tips in the previous blog: Bonsai watering, practical tips.

TIP: avoid watering in the hottest hours of the day, the best time is at dusk.

I’m going on holiday! What about my bonsai?

Don’t worry about your absences, there are watering systems to guarantee the humidity in the soil of your bonsai when you are away from home. The drip by drip system allows you to water your bonsai through a drip irrigation system that can be regulated according to the length of your absence. There are also two systems in which the bonsai receives water through a wick from a tank, the Automatic watering and the Hidrobonsai System, we tell you how the Hidrobonsai System works in the following video:

Should I fertilise my bonsai more, less or the same in summer?

It will depend on what time of summer it is. In this blog, we focus on bonsai care in early summer. The answer is that we should continue to fertilise as in spring, with a fertiliser rich in nitrogen. There are two fertiliser options: Nutribonsai liquid fertiliser and Hiryo Gold solid fertiliser. If you want to know more about fertilising your bonsai, check this link: The secret of bonsai fertilisation.

Other work to be done on our bonsai trees in summer

Here are some other works we can carry out on our bonsai trees at the beginning of the summer.

Wiring

In these early summer days there is still sap circulation, so we can continue wiring our bonsai.

Pruning

Can be done, but not drastically, as they will take longer to heal. Above all, protect with cut paste.

Pinching

Better to leave this work until the end of the summer.

Defoliation

It is the ideal time for this technique, which cannot be done on all species. Defoliation consists of removing the leaves from your bonsai by cutting off the petiole (the part that joins the leaf to the branch). This reduces the size of the leaves and enhances sprouting by allowing the sun to reach all parts of the tree.

2 TIPS to finish

1. At this time of year, pests start to appear, so it is recommended to carry out a preventive treatment with a phytosanitary product such as the ones in this link.
2. To prevent the effect of the sun on our outdoor bonsais, especially on the leaves, it is recommended to use a mesh to give them a semi-shade.

We hope you have found this blog useful to prepare your bonsai for summer. We will continue with the tips for this season with the second part of this blog.

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