How to Plant a Bonsai Tree

We need some bonsai soil. The bonsai soil is probably going to be different from the soil that the tree is growing in; which means that one of the last steps that we do here is that we take the soil off of the tree. It’s very simple; you don’t have to worry too much about abusing the trees and root regardless of what you’ve heard before. We can just do this with our fingers most of the time. Cut away some of the extra roots; we removed that much of the top. A good rule-of-thumb we can remove about that much of the root. Now we have our tree ready, our bonsai tree ready to go in our bonsai pot. Just a small amount of our fresh bonsai soil on the bottom. Put more soil on the sides. Cut our extra wires and then we’ll finish adding soil. Now this is what I call a chopstick, this is actually a bamboo stick. This is a good replacement for a chopstick. We used chopsticks when we were learning in our bonsai. This is just a heavier version of one. I’m poking the roots here, this looks kind of cruel. But what this does is help settle very dry soil in and around the roots. We have our bonsai tree and our bonsai pot with soil. The next thing we do is take our small pan, just big enough to hold our bonsai pot with tree. Put it about half full with water, set the tree in there and let soak. Set the tree in there for about twenty minutes and that allows this very dry soil to take on water. We do this for the very first time only. After this we water the tree from the top. It’s very important or the first about two or three weeks, after you’ve assembled your bonsai to ensure that you water it thoroughly everyday. Maybe twice a day. Because this soil takes a little while for it to absorb and take on water.