Leave your bonsai out when it rains a lot?

[Noni]

I had watered my juniper bonsai and then unexpectedly that night, it rained. Then it rained again the next day, and again the day after that. So will my tree be getting too much water? It's on my deck, but it's a really small deck and there's no overhang or anything to cover it with. It looks like we're going to get some more rain soon. Will the roots rot? Should I move the tree into the garage? (only place that it could be protected.)

(My apologies for the newbie questions. There is a local bonsai club that meets once a month, but unfortunately I couldn't attend on that date, so now I'll have to wait until next month.)

 

[rockm]

If your soil drains even less than moderately, the rain isn't going to hurt anything.

 

[jk_lewis]

But if there's more than one hole in the bottom of the pot, propping the pot up on a brack so it slants, will help with drainage a bit. You may have to change ends with the brick a couple of times.

 

[grouper52]

I live in a wet micro-climate in the semi-rain forest along the Hood Canal in NW Washington State. It will often rain pretty much everyday for weeks and months at a time from November to May/June. Last winter I never once watered my trees that I can recall from before Thanksgiving to April. My trees love it. I use 100% inorganic soil, which drains well, but I also know others in only slightly less wet micro-climates up here who use 50/50 mixes with good results. It just has to have good drainage at the bottom of the pot. The rate-limiting factor for trees up here is never too much moisture, but rather the length and warmth of the growing season.

 

[cmeg1]

I read in Korshoff's book that a root can withstand 9 day's of saturated wetness(100% moisture) before roots collapse.

 

[mat]

A few years ago, I lost a bunch of things to a pro-longed rain spell. I wasn't yet in tune with watering and still had a bunch of stuff in dense nursery soil & pots. It rained for like 9 out of 10 days; serious rain, not just an afternoon drizzle. A bunch of plants rotted from below and died over the next few weeks.

This was my smack-in-the-face, wake-up call to get things into a decent substrate.