Bonsai trees are amazing, little trees that transform any space from just another room into something more relaxing and freeing. When you first get your bonsai you may be wondering how to keep it small forever, and doing that is the easy part, when you want to eventually move it somewhere else you may be wondering how to make it grow.
To grow a bonsai faster you will need to give it more water, a larger pot, and to stop pruning it altogether, allowing the tree to grow a bit more naturally. This will let the energy the bonsai usually has for regrowing certain parts be used into actual growth into a full tree.
Many bonsai tree owners are sometimes unsure of exactly what keeps the trees small when they could just grow large.
This is one of the secrets of bonsai trees, if they are completely left alone they will grow into full-sized trees, it is the pruning by their owner that keeps them small forever.
That being said there are periods when owners want to have their trees grow much larger, either to fill a new pot or to outgrow some sickness.
Knowing how to make your bonsai tree grow faster is quite simple and requires that you forget to do a few things while doing some others!
What are the things you will need to grow it larger?
Similar to when you are taking care of your bonsai, like finding it a new pot or just giving it the daily water, having your bonsai grow larger and faster requires the same techniques.
There are four things that you will have to work on when having your bonsai grow. These are the typical things needed to have it outgrow its current pot or to have it simply get back to a healthy state.
Here are the four things you can do to have your bonsai tree grow faster and healthier in a short amount of time.
Pot
The pot that a bonsai is growing in is one of the most limiting factors to the size of the tree, usually restricting the trees routes from growing out of control.
As the tree ages owners would naturally move the bonsai tree into newer pots that may look nicer but are not specifically larger.
When you want to see a large boost in the growth of a bonsai tree you simply need to move it into a larger pot.
This pot will allow the trees to grow faster and to have its roots system to grow stronger, this will cause the tree to grow a thicker trunk and more leaves.
The tree roots will also be able to absorb more nutrients, which means a short burst in growth after the roots have properly settled into the larger pot.
Water
Many owners prefer to water their bonsai trees only once a day, in the morning or the evening depending on how hot the day can get. However, if you have repotted a tree for growth, or just for a new pot then it is good to give it a little bit of extra water.
It should be noted that you can give too much water, but increasing the water to two times a day, once in the morning and once in the evening should help the bonsai grow easily.
More water means that the tree can feed itself and keep it safe from the heat of the day more easily.
This simple addition will mean that the tree grows healthily and easily when it is in a new port, or just trying to grow a bit larger in its current pot.
Soil
The most important part of having your bonsai tree grow much faster is to add in more nutrient-rich soil, giving the roots more food to feed off of.
Having fresh soil added more regularly should help in having it grow much faster, allowing the tree to easily reach the new size that you want for it.
Just be sure not to add too much of one specific nutrient to the soil, as this can damage the root system, either by chemically burning the tree or by overfeeding it.
This is one of the main reasons that owners looking to have their bonsai grow faster will only add new soil in the same way that they usually do.
Pruning
When owning a bonsai one of the most important things to keeping it small is regularly pruning the tree, either cutting off leaves or trimming the roots to ensure that it does not grow too large.
This forces the tree into regrowing existing limbs, making them larger and stopping it from growing larger in the normal way.
When you repot a tree it is generally good advice not to prune it anymore, the same can be said for having the tree grow larger.
By not pruning it the tree will be able to effectively grow without having to waste energy on regrowing leaves or roots.
As the tree grows larger in a new pot by not pruning the tree it will naturally use the energy in the right way.
How long does it take to grow a bonsai tree?
There are a lot of factors that affect the overall growth of a bonsai tree, this means that some trees can be fully grown within a few years, while others can rarely reach full maturity.
However, several kinds of trees have become industry standard for being used as bonsai trees and all of these have the same amount of growing time.
It takes between 10 to 15 years for a bonsai tree to reach full maturity, with the growth factors of the tree affecting what it will look like once it reaches maturity.
Many bonsai tree growers won’t repot their trees for the first four or five years of their lives. This means the tree can grow comfortably and without experiencing too much stress.
Usually, a bonsai will reach full maturity once it looks like a full miniature version of what it would have looked like growing freely. If you are growing the tree yourself you can easily compare this to pictures or trees around you to see what it should look like.
Why do Bonsai Trees Grow slow?
Once a Bonsai has reached its full maturity, it will start to grow a lot slower, with many owners having already planted the bonsai into its final pot by this point.
A bonsai’s root system will grow to fill the pot it is in entirely, and once its roots have filled the available space it will almost certainly no grow anymore.
This stunting of growth is how you know the tree is starting to mature, and by pruning the right leaves all the time the bonsai will grow so fast as to no longer be a bonsai.
Many owners like to keep their bonsai somewhere open once they reach this size because it no longer requires an intense amount of care. Simply pruning the leaves will be sufficient to keep it growing properly.
However, if a bonsai is moved into a larger pot or simply planted in the right soil it will quickly start to grow again.
Becoming larger and larger until it reaches the full height of the tree it should have been, during this period the tree may grow extra fast owing to its new space and nutrient-rich soil.
Final Thoughts on How to Make a Bonsai Tree Grow Faster
To make a bonsai grow fast is not the most difficult thing to do, with the real challenge of owning a bonsai being to keep it from growing out of control.
If you have a good pot, and the right soil your bonsai will experience larger bursts of growth in short periods.
Just be sure to start pruning the tree again once your tree has reached the right size.
