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Whether you are a bonsai expert or a beginner just thinking to start making some bonsai trees, In today’s post we will show you 10 mind blowing bonsai hacks and tricks that can save money, help you make bonsai trees quickly for free and save many years of your precious time.
Bonsai is an increasingly popular art of growing miniature live trees. Many people would love to own and grow a bonsai tree themselves. But You will need the right tools and right techniques to accomplish this. You will find that, most bonsai tools like scissors, shears, rakes, hooks, etc are quite expensive, may be because they are made in Japan or may be the demand and supply issues.
Let’s begin!
- Bonsai Rake Tool Hack: A stainless steel bonsai raking tool is an expensive tool. Simple free solution to this is to convert a stainless-steel dining fork to make a bonsai rake. Just insert the fork tines under a door or any sturdy slot and then gently bend it to your desired level to make a bonsai rake tool. Raking the top soil is a healthy gardening practice which has a lot of benefits.
- Wound Sealant Hack: Bonsai would sealant paste is very expensive. A simple alternative to this is to use universally available Fevicol paste. If you want to make it more effective, you can add some antifungal powder to Fevicol paste and apply to larger bonsai pruning wounds.
- Bonsai Turntable Hack: Bonsai Turntable is a very useful and a must have tool for anyone working with bonsais. If you do not have a professional bonsai turn-table, the cheapest alternative is a cake turntable which can efficiently work for smaller bonsais. Another hack to make a heavy-duty turntable for larger bonsais is to use the bottom steel base from an old or broken revolving office chair.
- Bonsai Wire Hack: if you do not have the professional bonsai wire to shape your bonsai branches, an easy alternative is to use thick gauge electric wires. You can use left-over pieces of old electric wire of different gauge, to wire and bend branches easily. But never use a GI wire like this one to wire bonsai, the obvious reasons are they are prone to rusting and difficulty in removing it when you want to, as they can adhere deeply into the stem or branch.
- Thick Woody Stem Bending Hack: It is next to impossible to bend a thick woody stem or a branch. You all know how important are bends or curves in bonsai tree designing. This bending technique is very important for making instant bonsais, especially from air layering technique which we shall discuss it later. If you have a thick branch or stem to bend, you can use a pruning saw or if the stem is not so thick, you can use a simple hack-saw blade to make multiple small wedge shaped cuts with a gap of about 1 inch between the cuts. You can vary the number of cuts or the distance between these cuts depending on how acute you want the bend. Make sure you don’t make too deep cuts, about 50% cut through the stem is fine. Then bend the stem or the branch to approximate or merge these cut wounds. To hold the bent stem in position, use a wire to support this stem or branch. Then wrap the wounds tightly with an aluminium foil first, to prevent moisture loss and promote proper healing of this wound, then wrap a grafting tape or a thin polythene sheet over this and then if you wish, put another layer of tape around it. Keep it undisturbed in partial shade. It should heal in about 4 to 6 weeks and your bonsai stem shape is done!
- Branch Splitter Hack: Bonsai Branch cutters or splitters are indeed expensive tools. In fact, almost all bonsai tools are expensive. You can make a bonsai branch splitter by grinding a cheap nail puller tool available at any hardware store. Carefully look at the image of the bonsai cutter blades and sharpen them in the same way. If you have good grinding skills, you can also make a parrot beak or bonsai concave cutter which is a very useful bonsai tool. Branch splitters are used to split thick branches, which helps to bend thick branches.
- Bonsai Scissor Hack: stainless steel bonsai shears and bonsai twig scissors are again expensive tools. A simple alternative is, to use surgical scissors with long blades as twig shears. These surgical scissors are very durable and do not rust so easily.
- Bonsai Root Rake Hook Tool Hack: Bonsai root hook is an indispensable tool needed while repotting bonsais. A simple way of making a bonsai root hook is to use large sized J hooks like these, which are cheap and easily available from a hardware store. You can sharpen the working point of this hook to your desired level. Now you need a handle to fix this hook. You can just use any wooden piece to make a handle, but the best solution to this is use a paint brush handle from an old paint brush. Just cut this part and make a hole into this handle and insert the hook and screw it tightly. You can then bend this hook to your desired level if needed. That’s it! Your bonsai root hook is ready to rake the roots.
- Thick Stem Hack: for faster development of a thick stem or trunk of any plant, you can place your pre-bonsai plant pot on a layer of gravel bed over the soil. The plant grows faster and thicker by sending out roots into the gravel bed through the drainage holes.
- Instant Bonsai Hack: As you all know making a true bonsai tree takes many many years if you are starting from a seed or a sapling. The quickest way of making and designing a thick bonsai tree is Air Layering technique which gives you an instant live bonsai tree to work on and save many years of work required to make a bonsai tree. You can check a detailed post and video on 5 different types of air Layering and some air layering tricks and hacks from HERE.
Happy Gardening and Happy Bonsai Making. Watch Full Bonsai Hacks Video below:
