Photos of deleafed bonsai from my garden

Photos of deleafed bonsai from my garden

The following are photos of bonsai that I recently deleafed and what they look like a few days later.

On average new leaves starting sprouting around 3-4 days after the deleafing treatment.

 This ficus tree took me some 3 hours to totally deleaf it.

One advantage of deleafing is that it allows me 

to get a better view of the structure of the tree 

and to facilitate trimming of the branches.  

This ficus tree was shaped more or less into an umbrella shape.

It is more than 4 feet in diameter.

The ficus tree 10 days after deleafing.

These are smaller trees (up to about a foot in height) 

which generally took about an hour to deleaf one tree.

A closer view of one of the bonsai that was deleafed 

(from the previous photo)

A closer view of one of the other bonsai 

(from the photo previous to the above)

A bonsai that originally was damaged 

and now a nice specimen after 20 years.

Another well-balanced specimen.

A deleafed bonsai with part of the roots exposed.

A smaller bonsai with exposed roots.

A bonsai with more spreadout branches.

A bonsai with many nice branches overall.

The top view of the bonsai from the previous photo.

A bonsai with exposed roots 

and a nice crown of branches on the top.

A taller bonsai with exposed roots.

A bonsai with one of the branches made to swoop downwards.

Another view of the above bonsai.

A larger bonsai (about 2 feet across) seen from the top.

Another bonsai with beautiful branches.

A deleafed bonsai starting to sprout new leaves.

A bonsai with its branches giving it a rich crown.

Another view of the above bonsai.

Another view of the above bonsai.

Top view of a deleafed bonsai with outspread branches.

A deleafed bonsai starting to sprout new leaves.

Bonsai with new fresh leaves after being deleafed.

Closer view of the above bonsai.

Bonsai with new fresh leaves 

sprouting out from the branches.

Repotting a Bonsai

These photos show the repotting of a bonsai (wild lime) which I did this mid-morning.  In the process I also trimmed the roots of the bonsai. This is the same bonsai that I deleaved in late January 2014 but did not repot at that time in order not to shock the tree too much.

1. The empty bonsai pot after the bonsai was taken out.

2. The bonsai removed from the pot.

3. Close-up of the roots of the bonsai, tightly intertwined.

4. Loosening up the soil around the roots with my trusty blunt screwdriver.

5. Bonsai with a good amount of the soil removed from the roots.

6. Another view of the bonsai with the soil removed from the roots.

7. Loosening out more soil with the bonsai lying on its side.

 

8. The bonsai lying on its side with the roots straightened out.

 

9. The bonsai with the roots trimmed (about the bottom 40%).

10. Front view of bonsai with trimmed roots.

11. Pot with stones on the holes (to prevent excessive soil running out over time).

12. The soil that was removed from the bonsai.

13. Mixing some fresh composted soil with the old soil (about 2 to 3 parts 

of the new soil to the old one (retaining some of the old soil to 

supposedly help the tree settle down a little quicker).

14. Mixing the new soil with some of the old until it looks more uniformly mixed.

15. Filling up the pot to about half full with the mixed soil.

 16. Positioning the bonsai into the pot ensuring that the roots are 

all facing down and preferably not intertwining with each other.

17. Filling the pot with more soil until all the roots are covered.  

You may wish to have the top of the main roots showing but this is a personal choice.

18. Giving the bonsai a good watering to let the soil settle down as much as possible.

19. View of the soil in the pot after  good watering.

20. Another round of watering after topping up the pot 

with a bit more soil to fill in the spaces where there were less soil.

21. The basic tools I use for my bonsai.  

Once in a while I may use a knife or razor to shape or prune parts of my bonsai 

but the above 3 are my basic tools - blunt screwdriver, pair of garden scissors 

and a trusty spade (this one is already bent on the edge but still usable).

 Have fun repotting your bonsai.