How to pot a Bonsai | GARDEN | Great Home Ideas

Graham shows you how to pot a Bonsai tree.

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Last week I took you over the Blue Mountains to visit a beautiful garden called goru it’s a Japanese garden where my mate Alan Jackson has created an incredible collection of Japanese maples now the Japanese maples are one of my absolute favorites this one here in my garden has been there for over a

100 years now they do have a reputation for being difficult and hard to grow well I’m about to show you how to grow them in pots that are really quite Small I have to admit over the last 40 years that I’ve been going to Japan I’ve watched the Masters at work I’ve learned a lot from them but I’ve never actually applied it in my own garden I’ve been buying pots for years I’ve got a great collection of bonsai pots in the garden

Shed but they’re all lying empty now for the last couple of years I thought I really got to give this a go be brave and pot up some grafted Japanese maples into small Bonsai pots and here’s my subject now some of the ones that I’ve done over the last couple of years are

These little fellows here as you can see they’re in quite small pots now the subject I’ve chosen this fellow here is a variety called ASA to mukama they think it’s one of the oldest if not the oldest Maple cultiva or Variety in in the world it was created in 1710 in

Japan now all of these plants here were also in 6 or 8 in pots the same as this one here the thing is you just have to be brave you have to understand that the under stock is super tough but first we got to get rid of all this

Soil okay okay now for the big operation you need a good sharp pair of secretors so what I’m doing is reducing the root ball by around about 3/4 yes it’s almost like a short back and size isn’t it yes I’ve removed a lot of roots let’s find the pot now from this selection

That I have left without taking any more Roots off how one’s close that one’s too small oh I think that one is just perfect now if we look at the shape of the curve of the trunk and the Weeping habit I think that’s about it now you can use regular top quality

Potting mix but I think it’s a bit chunky so I like to make my own it’s a combination of coy Pete coarse river sand which is really really course for drainage and this is regular potting mix top quality red ticks but I’ve actually sved it out and removed all these chunky

Bits because they’re taking up space for my roots which are really important to regrow from my maple it’s roughly 1/3 Each and then just mix it all up with your Hands okay now as you can see there are holes in the bottom of the pot so I need to cover those over just a bit of fly screen or a bit of shade cloth will do stop the soil falling through and then a handful of soil on

Top and then sit our little fell back there then it’s just a case of back filling it with your homemade saw mix but it’s important to get that saw compacted onto the roots get that little Edge in there now the reason I left the little channel on the edge of the pot

There becomes obvious when I start to put on the pot topping now this may not be the rigid thing they do in Japan but I find it’s really handy just to keep the moisture in the Pot and then gently slowly water it in now remember these are not indoor plants for other than maybe an hour or two they’re outdoor plants and you might need to water them every single day well there you go another one added to my collection give it a go this

Weekend it’s a lot of Fun