Cultivating Your Pine Bonsai Properly

Pine bonsai is one of the most popular tree species grown as a miniature tree. Pine tree has a naturally firm and straight trunk that is why a lot of people like it, and they can easily follow the classical bonsai styles. In Japanese, it is known as Matsu, and in Latin, it is known as Pinus.
Three types of Pine Trees
There are actually three types of pine trees that are frequently used as pine grown as miniature tree by bonsai cultivators. Here are they:
1) European Pine Bonsai which includes Austrian Black Pine (Pinus nigra), Mountain Pine (Pinus mugo), and Italian Stone Pine or Umbrella Pine (Pinus pinea).
2) American Pine Bonsai that includes Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana) and Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobes).
3) Japanese or Asian Pine Bonsai which includes Japanese Black Pine (Pinus thunbergiana), Japanese White Pine (Pinus parviflora), and Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora).
Caring for your Miniature Pine
In order for your miniature pine to grow successfully, you have to provide necessary nourishment and care. Here are some of the basic things a miniature pine needs:
1) A good soil mixture that facilitates drainage. You have to prevent congestion of water inside your pot for minaiture tree because this can drown your pine bonsai and can cause root rotting. Miniature pine can get easily affected by wet soil, and the most sensitive pine tree species is the Japanese Black Pine. A good soil mixture should be composed of 25 percent sphagnum, 25 percent pine-bark, and 50 percent pine grit.
2) You must expose your miniature pine to a direct sunlight. Full sun will help your miniature tree develop shorter needles.
3) Provide adequate amounts of water to your pine bonsai. Giving too much water is bad to your little tree because it can cause root rotting. Further complication of over watering includes weakness and death. Giving lesser amounts of water should not be done because this will dehydrate your miniature pine. Dehydration can further cause weakness to your little tree, and it can even cause its death.
4) You must use a pot or container for little tree that has adequate holes beneath it. A good draining soil mixture can be useless if your bonsai pot does not have drainage holes underneath and vice versa. The bonsai pot should be deep, especially when you are going to repot your miniature pine.
5) Give a high quality of fertilizer to your miniature pine. Fertilizer plays an essential role in enhancing the growth of your pine bonsai by providing sufficient amounts of nutrients on it. You must give fertilizer during the spring season. The fertilizer should be composed of 0-10-10 nitrogen, potassim, and phosphorus, and you should give a mild solution of the fertilizer. You can as well feed your miniature pine during middle autumn until the end of autumn season using the same fertilizer because this will help the root system of the miniature plant prepare for the upcoming winter period.
6) Repot your young miniature plant once in every two years until its growth slows down. Then, repot your mature pine bonsai once in every three to four years. After repotting, give adequate amounts of water until the water flows out from the drainage holes of the pot of the little tree.