Bonsai pots

[FredBW]

Greetings everyone. I have been slowly dipping my toe in the water with Bonsai.
One thing i don't quite understand is the pots. A healthy plant needs a good root system,and a way to take up moisture and nutrients.
When you put a plant into an itty bitty shallow pot. When growing season comes. You are faced with watering twice a day,and fertilizing because there just isn't much nourishment in said itty bitty pot.
Just what is the purpose of confining the roots like this? I guess it's kind of an important question,because a plant cannot be healthy without healthy roots.
TIA..... Fred

 

[BrianBay9]

Confinement of the roots helps keep the tree small. It forces shorter internodes and keeps the growth from getting to aggressive. This is done at the final stages of bonsai development. When you're trying to grow a trunk, or set initial branches you want to have your tree in the ground, or in a larger training pot. The root confinement is in the final stages.

 

[FredBW]

Thanks for the reply. I believe I have seen quite a few pictures,or you tube videos of people prematurely putting plants in bonsai pots and wiring them in place. Wondering why they were doing it.
I'm sure it's a good way to kill a plant if you don't know what you are doing.
I inherited a few bonsai pots from a cousin of mine several years ago. But I don't ever remember seeing any bonsai trees. But that was long long ago.
I am probably to old to be messing with this sort of thing. or let me say i don't believe i have anything that will be ready for a bonsai pot in the near future.

 

[BrianBay9]

Thanks for the reply. I believe I have seen quite a few pictures,or you tube videos of people prematurely putting plants in bonsai pots and wiring them in place. Wondering why they were doing it.
I'm sure it's a good way to kill a plant if you don't know what you are doing.
I inherited a few bonsai pots from a cousin of mine several years ago. But I don't ever remember seeing any bonsai trees. But that was long long ago.
I am probably to old to be messing with this sort of thing. or let me say i don't believe i have anything that will be ready for a bonsai pot in the near future.

You're right. Lots of folks put their trees in bonsai pots too soon. They just prefer the way they look in a finished pot. But it's not the most efficient way to get where they're going.

 

[ShadyStump]

There's an old proverb.

What's the best time to plant a tree?
20 years ago.
Well then what's the second best time?
Today.


I've been playing at this for 3 years, and my best tree with the most potential is half dead weeping blue spruce I found on clearance at Home Depot.
There's no rush. Enjoy the journey.
And welcome aboard!

Think of any house plant you've had that got root bound in it's pot. It stopped growing, or at least slowed way down. Same thing with the tiny pots used for bonsai. But it can also depend on the species of tree too.
The low shallow shape can also serve an aesthetic purpose, implying the low wide spread of the earth to the viewer.

Many of the YouTube videos you watch are purpose made to inspire beginners, so they do things that will look nice fast, but aren't necessarily best practices. Once you've dug around some more, you'll start seeing more of what it actually looks like.

One reason you might have inherited bonsai pots but never saw bonsai trees is because there's nothing particularly special about a pot that makes it "bonsai" except maybe including smaller holes for wiring the tree into the pot. Your cousin may have been keeping flowers in them. Many people here will tell you that some of their favorite pots aren't made for bonsai, but they work just fine. Heck, many of us find random ceramic dishes we like at thrift stores, and just drill drainage holes in them ourselves.

As you explore more, it will all start to make more sense.
And also be more confusing.
Don't worry, you'll figure it out.

 

[sorce]

Pot is a lot more Aesthetic as far as function goes.

I don't like the idea of "restricting roots", cuz, well, it's a tree.
You'll go through waves of "restriction" at best, but to consider it as a horticultural thing is not too necessary beyond noting how amazing it is.

Sorce

 

[dbonsaiw]

One thing i don't quite understand is the pots.

The various parts of the tree are interrelated functionally. As you correctly noted, the roots are essential to a healthy tree. When the roots have room to grow, branches will grow as well. More branches = more leaves = more photosynthesis = more growth of trunk and roots = more branches. Rinse, lather and repeat. While we are developing our bonsai, we want the tree to grow as vigorously as possible. We want the tree to have tons of energy to grow and thicken up the trunk as we develop movement and taper. The key to all of this is allowing the roots to grow (one reason why folks will ground grow in the initial stages).

But after spending a decade + developing all the fine details of our mini trees, the last thing we want is for the inherent nature of the tree to take over and ruin our efforts. Remember, if we planted a tiny finished bonsai in the ground and let its roots run freely, the tree would grow into a full size tree in a few years. This is the opposite of what we want. Once the tree has reached its "finished" stage, we want to preserve it that way as long as we can. It's only mini, because we are keeping it mini. To do this, we need to restrict the ability of the roots to grow. We still need the roots to grow and be healthy, but we no longer want the vigorous growth we have been relying upon.

In a little pot, the roots have less room to grow = less branch growth = less trunk growth etc. This combined with pinching and other operations assist us in maintaining our "finished" trees.

As a point of reference, one of the maples I am developing in a grow box grew about 4 feet this season. This was awesome in terms of me growing the next section of the trunk and it's now fat enough that I can prune it back next spring and continue development. This type of growth, however, would be a nightmare for a finished tree as one would never be able to maintain it as a bonsai with such vigorous growth.

 

[FredBW]

Great explanation

 

[rockm]

The function of a bonsai pot is two-fold--first horticulturally--pots DO restrict root growth. That is the key idea with bonsai cultivation. Less root run restricts long, extremely strong growth from taking over the top growth and ruining the image of a tree that is the goal of the art. However, in making the roots fit into a a container, they require regular pruning. That pruning encourages more feeder roots closer to the trunk of the tree, making what root mass that is in the pot more efficient and "young" which keeps trees strong. With in-ground trees, Long running roots turn woody and lose their feeders as they extend over the age of the tree. That means the tree has to work harder to move nutrients from the feeders at the ends of those long roots to the main stem and upper growth. There is a theory that eventually, the inefficiencies in transferring nutrients along those very long pathways leads to the decline and death of old trees--they literally grow so much they can't keep up. Forcing new roots with pruning every few years with containerized bonsai "refreshes" root systems by forcing new feeder roots near the trunk

That some bonsai have been in containers for 400-500 years in some cases tends to make believe there is something to that.

Of course all this depends on the stage of development of a given tree. Younger trees in development benefit from a lot of strong new growth to increase trunk diameter etc. Containerizing them too soon in the development process short circuits that goal. That is why gross development of trunks, surface roots etc is done in larger containers, or in the ground.

The second function of a bonsai pot is esthetic. Pots come in a huge variety of shapes, glazes (or unglazed). They compliment the trees in them. Choosing a pot that sets off the tree in it is an art in itself. Matching a pot esthetically also entails understanding the horticultural needs of the tree that is going into it. Deeper pots are needed for some flowering and fruiting deciduous trees, for instance, as they can require more water than say a pine which like drier soil...

Yes, trees in containers require closer care and supervision with watering and fertilization as those resources are very limited in a pot. It is a lot of work to keep up with those needs, which is also part of the bonsai experience.