Please see the new 2020 bonsai care sheet for taking care of your Chinese Elm indoor bonsai tree – Ulmus parvifolia.
Watering your Chinese Elm
Watering is an important part of growing bonsai trees, an indoor bonsai is dependent upon us to check it regularly to ensure it does not dry out. Please check the soil daily whilst you are learning. To touch the soil surface, if the soil is wet or damp then your bonsai does not require water. When the soil is barely damp to the touch please soak the soil. Please view our video for help.
Misting
All indoor bonsai trees benefit from having their foliage misted with water. This is in addition to watering the soil. Misting helps to maintain the humidity around the tree, this is more important during winter months when the central heating is on, as this tends to dry out the air.
Feeding
If you are growing your bonsai indoors, please feed weekly with a liquid bonsai fertiliser. Please avoid using houseplant fertiliser as it can be too strong and scorch the roots. Bonsai Direct fertiliser is ideal for all varieties of bonsai has contains all the nutrients and trace elements your tree requires.
Lucy –
Hi,
My bonsai tree has dried out whilst I have been away and has dropped all of its leaves, I have been watering it regularly keeping the soil moist but no new shoots have appeared. I scraped some of the trunk to see if it was still green underneath and it is but only quite low down to the base of the tree, the rest (it seems from the couple of other places I checked) are brown and woody after scraping into it a little. Is my tree going to revive and whats the best way of going about caring for it, I really don’t want it to die and am upset that it has shown no signs of recovery over the last week. thanks.
bonsaidirect –
Dear Lucy,
It will take at least 8 weeks to see any sign of improvement.
Please keep the soil damp (and not too wet).
When a bonsai dries out the worst affected area is always the top (Furthest from the roots and water).
I suspect the bonsai will reshoot from the base. When this happens allow the shoots to get really long and wrap them around the trunk and branches. Use the current shape of the bonsai as a skeleton.
I hope this helps
kind regards
Sarah – Bonsai Direct
Jonathon –
Hi
Some of the Leafs on my bonsia tree have small black spots that apear to be withering away the leaves. Ive picked off most of them and was just wondering what could be the cause
bonsaidirect –
Hi Jonathan,
It may be a good idea to spray with a fungicide.
It could have ‘black spot’ but this is very easy to treat.
A preventative spray once a month is always a good idea.
If you use something like RoseClear it will prevent pests too.
I hope this helps
kind regards Sarah