Seasonal care for your bonsai

Bonsai is seasonal just like any other form of gardening.  The information on plants necessary to maintain a normal size specimen is just as pertinent to their smaller cousins.   Bonsai may be a more sensitive plant due to the constraints of their containers, but none the less they follow the seasonal cycles just like any other type of plant.

Spring is the time of growth and flowering.  For most bonsai early spring, just before this takes place, is the time to repot.   The weather must be watched carefully so that late frosts or early heat waves don't damage new plant growth.  Deciduous trees are producing new leaves and flowering plants bud and blossom during spring making it one of the most beautiful times of year.  For bonsai fruit trees, such as the apricot or crab apple, fertilizing in late spring after the blossoms have fallen will promote fruit.  The conifers and pines will need high nitrogen fertilizer during the spring.

The summer months are an especially important time for bonsai tree care.  This is the time when growth is established and tree cutting and pinching is done.  Leaves should be trimmed to promote stronger limbs and shaping can be performed.  Watering is the single most important factor in bonsai health and summer time stresses this point.  The  fertilizer now is a low nitrogen dose continuing a healthy growth but not building a heavy, woody limb thus interfering with the ramification of the bonsai. 

Autumn is a time to let the bonsai rest.  Simple maintenance doses of low or zero nitrogen fertilizer is recommended now.  Trimming or pruning should not be done at this time.  The wood on the branches and trunk are thickening and hardening in preparation for winter so now is a good time to remove training wire.  Training wire left into winter may cause damage to the bark. 

When winter arrives the bonsai should be dormant.  This is the time to prepare for the next growing season.  The time to stratify seeds for germination next spring.  Winter allows you the opportunity to restock supplies, mix new soil and plan for repotting.  By the end of winter into late February and early March, just as buds are beginning to return, is the time to check the plant and tree roots and begin repotting.