Key points for making and maintaining the bonsai of Chinese crabapple

Bonsai Making

Old pile breeding

Bonsai can be made by propagating old stumps that have grown for many years with hanging roots and exposed claws, which are quaint and unique.

Transplant after the leaves fall in autumn and before budding in spring. When transplanting, bring more old soil with you, cut off the main root, leave more lateral roots and fibrous roots, and prune the branches. After cutting off the branches that are not needed for shaping, plant it in a larger clay pot or underground to "grow it". Pay attention to keeping warm in the cold winter and maintain a certain air humidity, but the soil should not be waterlogged. After it takes root, pay attention to the cultivation of transition branches and backbone branches to make their skeleton beautiful and the transition between branches and trunks natural.

Modeling and trimming

The Chinese crabapple is suitable for making different forms of bonsai, such as straight trunk, slanted trunk, double trunk, curved trunk, waterside style, exposed root style, jungle style, and one trunk and multiple trunks style.

The shaping of young trees is mainly done by twisting and tying, supplemented by pruning. The trunks are processed to be tortuous but the artificial traces cannot be too heavy. The branches left should not be too dense, but sparse is better, to make them fresh and elegant. For old stumps that have grown for many years, they should be shaped according to the tree's vigor and produce bonsai of different styles. The crown can be made into a regular round shape, or a chic natural shape. Pruning and winding can be used to make the branches and leaves lush.

Maintenance points

Pruning and shaping

Pruning and shaping should be carried out after the leaves fall in autumn or before the buds sprout in spring, cutting off dead branches, diseased and insect-infested branches, overgrown branches, crossed branches, overlapping branches and other branches that affect the shape of the tree to maintain the beauty of the tree shape and ventilation and light transmission inside. Cut short the tops of old branches that have bloomed the previous year to concentrate nutrients and produce more flowers.

soil

Repotting should be done once every spring. The potting soil should be loose and fertile, rich in humus, and sandy soil with good drainage and air permeability. Some rotted cake fertilizer, animal hoofs, bones, etc. should be placed at the bottom of the pot as base fertilizer.

Light, water and fertilizer

The crabapple tree likes a warm, humid and sunny environment. During the growing period, it can be placed outdoors in a sunny and well-ventilated place for maintenance.

When watering, do not water unless the soil is dry, and water thoroughly when you do so to avoid waterlogging in the soil. When the air is too dry, you can spray water on the plants to increase the air humidity, which is beneficial to plant growth. Apply decomposed thin liquid fertilizer or compound fertilizer once every half month, and bury decomposed cake fertilizer in the flower pot in October every year to promote the growth and flowering of the plant in the coming year.