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If you are a garden person, then you are sure to like bonsais. Everybody likes it. They are so compatible, elegant, artistic, and soothing to look at. If you ask people what they prefer more, a big tree or a bonsai, then there are high chances that they would go with a bonsai.
And why not? There is nothing in it that you will not like. It is a compact form of greenery that your garden deserves.
Bonsais will also act as a piece of decor in your garden or inside your house and grab the attention of more and more of your guests and neighbors. Most of them would end up asking you where you got it from.
And there are very few moments on this earth when you will be able to be as proud as you would be when you tell them that you managed to do it on your own. Most of them will end up becoming your fans.
So, if bonsai will help you enhance and build your social status, let us know more about it. Let us start with what it is.
What is Bonsai?
A bonsai is a miniature form of a much more giant, fully grown-up tree. They have all the physical characteristics just like their bigger and heavier counterparts except their size. They are as alive as a fully grown-up tree.
It is not just the physical characteristics that are common between bonsai and a fully grown-up tree. The bonsai will also shed leaves in the autumn if the same breed’s fully grown-up tree does that. It will also bear new flowers in the spring season if the fully grown tree does that, and most importantly, it will also bear flowers and fruits if the fully grown-up tree does that.
The soil and the climatic conditions required by a bonsai is the same as the fully grown-up tree. The only difference arrives in their sizes and the techniques that are involved in the cultivation.
The cultivation of a bonsai plant is more artistic and more challenging than it appears. It is more technique and labor-intensive, and you need to make sure that they are growing well at regular intervals.
A perfect bonsai is worth the labor and the time. You will find it very hard to find something which is a better decorative piece than the bonsai, even if you are given tens of thousands of dollars.
Moreover, a bonsai tree gives you a very relaxing and comfortable vibe, and it is for this reason, the bonsai culture was started in the Chinese mainland. Now bonsai is the passion of every veteran horticulturist.
Everyone who has grown one of them is trying to grow even more, and there are even people who have yards full of bonsai and are trying to create a bonsai forest. Isn’t that fascinating?
As told earlier, bonsai can be made from any tree. It is just the techniques that you need to follow to do so. Today we will be talking about Larch Bonsai, which originate from Larch varieties of trees. But first, let us know about the Larch variety.
Larch
Larch is a coniferous tree that usually grows in the northern region where the temperature is low. This tree is convenient and has a thick stem. It bears cones in the spring, and the cones have seeds in them that help propagates the species.
Larch is a deciduous tree that sheds its leaves in the fall when it is time for winters. Its leaves are fragile and are like needles. They grow in soggy and wet soil. These trees can grow up to great heights, between 20 to 45 meters.
You can have a larch bonsai for yourself, which will have all the qualities that a larch tree has, needle-shaped leaves, thick trunk, and the bonsai of these varieties may also reach greater heights than other varieties of bonsai.
Growing a Larch Bonsai
Now let us learn how we can grow a larch bonsai for ourselves. Every plant’s cultivation starts at the germination stage, and it is no different for a bonsai. So here you are left with two options in your hand. One is to grow it from the seed or use the cutting to grow a larch bonsai. Both are equally effective
Using Seeds
You can grow a larch bonsai by merely using its seed. You will be able to get the seed from your nearby stores or if you already have a larch tree in your garden or your neighborhood or the nearby woods, wherever you can use the mature cones from one of those larch trees to cultivate a larch bonsai for yourself. The mature cones will contain seeds for the larch plant, which you can collect and sow in the soil. Ensure that you sow more than one seed so that if one fails to germinate, the other does.
Using Cuttings
As discussed earlier, larch plants can also propagate using cuttings. So, to grow a new larch bonsai, all you need is a fresh cutting from a fresh branch in the month of spring. If the branch appears to be too woody and not supporting growth, then avoid cutting that.
After cutting a good fresh piece of cutting, you are now required to put in a liquid with rooting hormones. These hormones will stimulate and facilitate the growth of hormones in the cutting.
After you see that a significant number of roots have grown out from the cutting, then you can plant it in the soil contained in the desired container.
Other Considerations While Growing a Bonsai
The other things that you need to fulfill while growing a bonsai are given below
Container
You need to make sure that you have the right container for the growth of the larch bonsai. A container comes in various colors, shapes, and sizes, and choosing one is subjective. All you need to care about is the size of the container.
The container should not be bottomless, and it should be as thick as a tree branch. It should also not be vast in terms of diameter as it will not contain the growth of roots then.
Soil
Well, the soil is the most critical aspect of every plant’s growth on this entire planet, and to grow a healthy larch bonsai, you need to make sure that you have the right type of soil. Generally, a mixture of different soils and rocks like pumice is used. Many people prefer to make their soil on their own, but you can also buy it from the nearest store or nursery if you want to.
Irrigation
Irrigation for a bonsai means drops or sprays of water. You do not want to ruin all your hard work by submerging the bonsai underwater or keeping it deprived of the same. You need to maintain a perfect balance.
As already mentioned, Larch grows well in soggy soils that means it can grow in overtrained, poorly drained soil. So, watering your Larch bonsai will not be that much of a hectic and confusing job as it is quite adaptable.
Fertilizing
Does your larch bonsai need fertilizers? Yes, of course, it does. It needs more fertilizers than you can ever imagine. This is because the leaves of a bonsai are tiny, and thus the scale of photosynthesis and the amount of glucose produced by it is also microscopic.
Since your bonsai cannot cook its meal for itself, you need to provide it with the right appetite; otherwise, your bonsai may not grow the way you want.
Sunlight
Sunlight is essential for almost every plant. You need to make sure that your bonsai receives an apt amount of sunlight to grow properly. However, the case with arch bonsai is different.
As a larch, being a conifer, grows in areas deprived of sunlight for a very long time. These plants grow well in little sunlight, so you need to decode or design a place for them to grow well.
You can keep your Larch bonsai either inside or outside as per your wish. If you have designed a place in the garden, especially for your larch bonsai, so that it does not have to face much of the sunlight, then it’s well and good, but if not, then you can keep it inside.
The growth of your bonsai, when inside the house, can be stimulated using growth lights. These growth lights will give the necessary wavelengths of lights required by the bonsai at that stage.
Be it outside the house, in the garden or inside the house, or in the patio, and your bonsai will effortlessly outshine other pieces of decorations.
Conclusion
These are some of the essential things that you must keep in mind while growing a bonsai tree. Growing a bonsai tree is an art, and it is a very challenging form of art that you should only try to opt for if you believe that you have the time that will be required for the growth of the bonsai.
A Larch bonsai could be grown either in the natural flow, or you can do some pruning to give it the shape you want. Best of luck with your first project of growing a bonsai. Take it from me; it will feel like an achievement when the bonsai has grown as you wanted it to.
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