Jade Plant (Bonsai Tree) | DENNIS PLANT GARDEN

JADE PLANT

BONSAI TREES

Crassula argentea, Crassula ovata

Photo Credit (C) Dennis Lee Brown 2017

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reativity

JADE PLANTS & BONSAI TREES

DISPLAYS & IDEAS

PLANTS

Specific Bonsai care guidelines for the Jade Plant

There are several qualities required in a good soil mix

Good water-retention
The soil needs to be able to hold and retain enough quantities of water to supply moisture to the Bonsai between each watering.
Good drainage
Excess water must be able to drain immediately from the pot. Soils lacking good drainage are too water retentive, lack aeration and are liable to a buildup of harmful salts. Too much water-retention will also cause the roots to rot, killing the tree.

Bonsai substrates

Substrates: an underlying substance or layer. The surface or material on or from which an organism lives, grows, or obtains its nourishment.

WHAT IS A "BONSAI TREE"?

Bonsai is the Japanese pronunciation of the Sino-Japanese word "盆栽". It is an Asian art form using cultivation techniques to produce small trees in containers that mimic the shape and scale of full-size trees. They are plants that are grown in shallow containers, many are rectangular in shape although any “shallow” shape will do, following the precise tenets of bonsai pruning and training, resulting in an artful miniature replica of a full-grown tree in nature, accompanied with a decolorated soil at its’ base.

To produce bonsai tree methods and techniques such as pinching buds, pruning and wiring branches, and carefully restricting but not abandoning fertilizers, remain used to limit and redirect healthy growth. Most commonly kept under four feet (or about a meter) in height, Bonsai are not genetically dwarfed plants. However, plants with smaller leaves do make these compositions easier to design. In fact, any plant species that has a woody stem or trunk, grows true branches, and can continue successfully growth in a container, to restrict its roots/food storage capability, and has smaller or reducible-leaves can stand true to create a Bonsai.

Create a miniture

Jade Plant Garden

MINITURE JADE GARDENS

Decorating Jade Tree Bonsai Mini Garden Soil

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Position: The Jade tree, considered an indoor tree in most temperate zones, (see your zone) it can grow outdoors in full sun (in sufficiently high temperatures). In the winter, always keep temperatures above 5 degrees C (or 41F). It needs lots of light or even full sun.

Watering: Jade trees can hold large amounts of water inside their leaves. Water sparsely and allow the plant to dry out a little bit between watering. During winter time watering can be as seldom as once every three weeks, only if the tree remains in a cold area. Monitor your tree closely and water the moment the soil dries out slightly. The Jade Bonsai is not as particular about over-watering as most other succulents. Though overwatering can damage the tree. Peat moss (humus) is what retains the most water and therefore should be used sparingly.

Feeding: Once a month during the growth season (spring-autumn).

Pruning: As a succulent, it contains water in its trunk and branches; they tend to bend from their weight. Jades respond well to pruning, prune regularly to force the tree to grow branches, but remove the branches and leaves from the lower trunk. Do not use cut-paste though, as this might lead to rotting.

Repotting: Repot the three every second year in spring, using a very well-draining soil mixture. After repotting, don't water the soil for about a week, to allow the cut roots to dry and callous. Callousing is essential to rooting pruned branches. Otherwise you'll get root rot.

Propagation: Easy to propagate using cuttings during the summer.

For more detailed information on these techniques, see Jade Plant care.