Advice on Protecting Bonsai

[goosetown]

Alright, so I'm a first-time bonsai owner who has, so far, been taking pretty good care of my beloved plant. It's awesome. It's also under attack.

I live in LA in an apartment on the second floor of my building. The good news is that I have a great porch that gets awesome sunlight 320 days a year, and overall the tree is doing quite well. The bad news is that this is literally the only place I can keep the tree; being inside obviously doesn't help it and I have no other outside space.

The tree (I call her Kumiko because I'm a 32 year-old that never matured past the day he saw KARATE KID II) has been beaten up by, I'm guessing, a woodland creature lately. The potted soil has been dug up in various places, branches have been gnawed on, and a secondary branch has been cracked. Catching the furry little bastard who's causing the trouble is pretty much out of the question, lest I hold a vigil and lie in wait for it.

So what I'm wondering is this: is there a common product - like a wire or mesh enclosure - that can be placed over the tree itself to allow sunlight and moisture in but keep most critters out? I've been scouring the Internets today but don't really know where to start looking, and at the moment I don't have time to jaunt out to any gardening centers. Any advice that can point me in the right direction will be substantially appreciated.

Included is a picture of Kumiko. She sits on a small wooden table.

 

[goosetown]

And sorry, just to be clear - when I said "LA", I meant Los Angeles, not Louisiana.

 

[Lancaster]

Set a couple of rat traps around your tree.....

you could put your bonsai in a small bird cage, or go to home depot and build something out of the wire mesh they have.

But, that wouldn't be as fun as the rat traps, in my opinion.

 

[goosetown]

Ha! Yeah, I'm starting to think the wire mesh is probably my best bet. Just wasn't sure if they made something strictly for these purposes, and those mesh bags you're supposed to put over flowering plants to protect from frost, which doesn't happen here, seem superfluous.

 

[jkd2572]

The only thing that stops squrilles is a pellet gun.

 

[garywood]

Rubber snake moved as often as possible.
Wood

 

[iant]

Wow thanks Gary. That explains the rubber snake I saw in a tree photo before.... I was wondering why the owner thought it would look good to have a big black rubber snake in his bonsai pot. I thought it was similar to putting a piece of carved soapstone for decoration but now I see the light.
Ian

 

[Stan Kengai]

I have used cayenne pepper sprinkled on the soil (and also around my vegetable garden) with very good success. It won't hurt your plant, and it is a very powerful deterrent. Only problem is that you have to reapply it after heavy rain or watering. But the good news (in my neck of the woods anyway) is that the squirrels only seem to bother my plants in the early spring.

The problem I have found with killing squirrels, and I've killed more than my fair share, is that you will never get rid of them. They're rodents, and their population is based solely on available food sources. You could kill all of the squirrels within a mile of your house, and in less than 2 years neighboring tree rats will have repopulated the area.

 

[Bill S]

You can get screening that is called hardware cloth in a couple of grades that can be wrapped around the pot to make a barrier to the soil.

Rat traps work too but they only work on the squirrell tha gets it, the rest will follow.

 

[goosetown]

Thank you all so much for your help. Going to go with the cayenne pepper as a natural deterrent first and see if that works; if it's still an issue, hardware cloth, here we come!

As mentioned before, this is my first bonsai. I'm not much for gardening, but I love this little thing and I'm sort of struck by the amount of enjoyment I've had just tending to it for the last six months. If I could ask one more question:

As a complete novice in this area and someone that would like to keep this tree for years and years, what are the absolutely essential things that I should be doing for my tree on a daily basis? I've read several books and know most of the general steps, but are there steps you take with your trees that you would staunchly recommend to a first-timer?

Thanks again so much!

Geoff

 

[rockm]

Skip directly to the hardware cloth. They will get used to the pepper and continue to plague the tree.

The only absolutely essential thing for a bonsai is decent soil and knowledgeable watering. Beginners are always tempted to "do something" with their new trees. That impulse should be squashed. "Doing something" usually means overwatering, over fertilizing, overpruning and overcaring for their first tree, which usually kills it.

The biggest hurdle for beginners is learning to adquately care for the tree, that means mostly just leaving it alone. Make sure it is adequately watered (and watering every day on a schedule is one of the best ways to kill a new tree) and light. Then stand back and leave it alone for the most part. Don't worry about shaping or "designing" it at this point. Learn how to take care of it. There is no art without horticulture in bonsai. If you don't understand the plant and its biological requirements, you won't have a plant to work on...

 

[Bill S]

Ficus and Chinese Elms are good beginner materials. Followed closely by Junipers.

 

[goosetown]

Thanks for all the tips. Procured some hardware cloth just in case the cayenne does indeed fail.

I have been in close contact with the nursery that sold me the tree which also provided me with some general care instructions. Since I live in more or less a desert climate in Los Angeles, watering is a bit trickier, but I'm mostly misting as opposed to watering. And you're absolutely right as to wanting to go all Miyagi and constantly be shaping it, but I've only made a few snips here and there. Picking out a bonsai that was already visually appealing to me was important as I'd never had one before and didn't want to have to learn as I went re: aesthetics.

Bill - I have a Juniper, and so far it hasn't been too confounding. I also find it to be the most visually appealing of potential bonsai.

Skip directly to the hardware cloth. They will get used to the pepper and continue to plague the tree.

The only absolutely essential thing for a bonsai is decent soil and knowledgeable watering. Beginners are always tempted to "do something" with their new trees. That impulse should be squashed. "Doing something" usually means overwatering, over fertilizing, overpruning and overcaring for their first tree, which usually kills it.

The biggest hurdle for beginners is learning to adquately care for the tree, that means mostly just leaving it alone. Make sure it is adequately watered (and watering every day on a schedule is one of the best ways to kill a new tree) and light. Then stand back and leave it alone for the most part. Don't worry about shaping or "designing" it at this point. Learn how to take care of it. There is no art without horticulture in bonsai. If you don't understand the plant and its biological requirements, you won't have a plant to work on...

 

[jk_lewis]

How about telling us what the instructions from the nursery said. They're usually dead wrong.

And misting is not particularly good. Keep a chopstick rescued from your last takeout jammed all the way into the soil behind the tree. Remove it daily at the same time of day. Feel the dirty end. If it feels damp you do NOT need to water. If it feels dry, you should water -- from the top, like rain. A watering can with a good rose is ideal.

 

[goosetown]

Well, the nursery here specializes in bonsai care in Southern California and is owned by third-generation Japanese horticulturalists, so I have a feeling their advice isn't dead wrong. Nevertheless, here are the basics as they've been given to me:

1. In arid climates like Los Angeles's, the particular Juniper that I own needs slightly more frequent watering than it might in other parts of the country. I do not "water" it every day; I water it, as noted, when the soil is of a drier consistency the whole way through. However, as it is east-facing on my porch and spends a good chunk of the day in direct sunlight, they've recommended giving the bloom a light spray in either the evening or predawn hours, as the dry wind tends to have a more immediate effect on it.

2. As I've been having trouble with the critters lately, they've given me a special potting mix that I'm to add in bits at a time to replace whatever they might dig out. They've also recommended that, for the most part, I keep the roots covered as much as possible.

3. We've been over the basics of trimming/pruning (of which there is really not much to do, as my tree is fully mature). I've done tiny bits of shaping here and there, but the plant looks almost entirely the same as they I bought it.

4. I was advised to take my broom once a week and gently brush both the soil and the trunk for pests. I was also shown how to best remove weeds using the root pick and tweezers.

5. I was told to bring it back once a year so we could take a look at it together and monitor when/if it needs to be repotted.

That's about it. Anything I/they missed?

How about telling us what the instructions from the nursery said. They're usually dead wrong.

And misting is not particularly good. Keep a chopstick rescued from your last takeout jammed all the way into the soil behind the tree. Remove it daily at the same time of day. Feel the dirty end. If it feels damp you do NOT need to water. If it feels dry, you should water -- from the top, like rain. A watering can with a good rose is ideal.