Bonsai Tree Planting

Planting House Plants from seed / grafting / Collection of Plants

      You can start planting house plants from
                1) Seed , Branch Cutting , Grafting , Layering etc.. -- Since these house plants are newly grown therefore it will require lot of time (few years), before you can give it a Bonsai look.

        2) Look at the figure left to this text. This is a Pipal tree (may be 10-12 year old) growing on a rock, very good choice for Bonsai.
Visit the rocky / forest area and find out a plant growing on a rock or seem to be







under developed due to any reason. Collection of plants from nature will give you advantage of time . The plant you collected may be 2-10 year old. Please take all care in collecting these plants. Root should not get damaged during removal from it's parent place. Trim the branches and leaves. Don't cut roots, but you may carefully cut the extra / damaged portion of root. Wrap it in a bag with wet soil and bring to your house.

Preparation and Planting a new House plants

                        FIG-A                     FIG-B                           FIG-C                     FIG-D                           FIG-E
1. Soil : Take some sweet earth and mix 30% manure and 15% river sand and 5% small bricks. Mix it properly and leave it to dry completely.
        now take a sheave of 1/4 inch mesh, 1/8 inch mesh and 1/32 inch mesh and filter the sand
                i) Throw the mixture which is more than 1/2 inch and less than 1/32 inch
                ii) Base Mixture - between 1/2 to 1/4 inch
                iii) Middle Mixture - between 1/4 to 1/8 inch
                iv) Top mixture - between 1/8 to 1/32 inch

2. Place a mesh piece on the hole of the pot.(Fig-A)

3. Put some base mixture in the pot

4. Take the plant and place it in the pot(depending upon your plan you may place it in the centre or towards one corner- this you can do during re-potting also). Fill 2/3 of the pot with middle mixture. Fill the balance pot with top mixture. Use niddle to provide some ventilation in the top mixture. (Fig-B)

5. Now in starting do not water from the top, it will not reach to the base mixture. Place the pot in a bigger pot filled with water.(Fig-C). Leave it for some time till you find the water layer on the top layer.

6. if you find that any branch of house plants is going in the wrong direction (you want to give a particular direction to branch) then tie it up with the help of copper wire for some days. In Fig-D all the branches were going upward only. to give the Bonsai a wider look, these branches were tied up with copper wire. When you find that the branch has taken the required direction and shape, you may remove these copper wire.

7. If your plant is not stable/balanced in pot, you may use copper wire to tie it with pot. It will get balance in due course of time.

8. Some time you will find that there are some unwanted branches are growing, which will destroy the symmetry of small house plant. You should remove these branches in the beginning only.(Fig-E).

9. Now don't disturb the plant for some months, so that it's roots gets developed and plant is stable for development to a real Bonsai
                Visit next section for maintenance, shaping and care of house plants.