Cleaning Everest

Repotting your bonsai tree isn’t difficult if you follow my guide written below:

The first thing you need to do is to find something such as a knife or a thin sharp object that can fit between the soil and the pot of your plant. Then you want to move this object around the pot or bowel several times until you can feel the soil being slightly loosened. Next you’ll want to use this same object as a lever to wedge out your tree from the bowel or pot. When doing this do not pull on the tree using your hands on the trunk. If you do this incorrectly you’ll end up breaking the tree in half. Instead lever it out gently.

Once the tree has been lifted out you want to place it on a flat even surface such as a table or a bench. You want to cut round the edge of the soil of the plant to about one third of the way in using a sharp cutting tool. The same procedure should also be applied when cutting vertically, that means a third of the depth of the plant should also be cut off.

Any of the remaining soil should now be gently removed from the bonsai roots. Pick out any of the major bonsai roots and cut back any of the ones which have grown too big. Once this has been done the the bonsai roots should be properly trimmed. Now you’ll want to place the bonsai tree in a new pot and add fresh soil and a healthy serving of fertilizer as well as a good amount of water. Keep observing the plant intently for the coming week.

Now you know the procedure for repotting your bonsai. But how often should you repot your bonsai tree?

There are a couple of things you need to consider. You’ve got to think about the type of environment your tree is living in, the age of the tree, the species and also the time of year. As a general rule most bonsais need repotting every one to four or five years. This should be done just before the spring season which is normally the growing season for your plant. This will allow any cut roots to heal quickly as the tree grows. However, take into account that different parts of the world have different growing seasons during different times of the year.

With older trees, repotting is needed less frequently than with younger trees which grow much faster. Also it is obvious when a bonsai trees roots are too cramped as the soil will swell upwards, telling us that the bonsai is now ready to be repotted. This is known as root cramping or clogging. When this occurs air and water will not be able to travel through the soil properly and so your plant will become damaged.