Bonsai Carmona: description, care at home

Bonsai Carmona is an Asian plant (the second name is "Tea Tree"), an evergreen shrub with small shiny leaves that are covered with light hairs. It is an excellent option for bonsai for office or home, from which you can form a tree in a beautiful Japanese style.

Bonsai is a philosophy

Japanese art bonsai in recent years is becoming increasingly popular in the world. Miniature copies of trees - a way to reproduce a small corner of nature in the apartment, which attracts lovers of home ornamental plants. Such "Japanese dwarfs" add Asian flavor and decorate any interior.

Cultivation of bonsai promotes the creation of mental balance and melancholic meditation. In this plant, the philosophy of seeing the beautiful in the small, reflecting the beauty of nature in the mini-space is realized. Eastern philosophy considers the tree of bonsai a symbol of life, helping to maintain faith in the living essence of plants as the basis of the universe.

But growing such a tree requires patience and time. Therefore, those who want to try their first bonsai, you can recommend starting with the most simple and unpretentious in the care of plants - bonsai carmone.

Description of the Carmona

Carmona is considered a tree from which beginners begin their acquaintance with this art. How to grow a bonsai, how to water it and fertilize it, how to form a crown - these basics of caring for bonsai they learn on the carmone.

Its bark is rough, over time it becomes like the bark of an old tree. Blooms carmona with delicate snow-white flowers of five petals. Fruits look like small red or orange berries (inedible).

Bonsai Carmona flowers usually 2-3 times a year, and with good care and additional lighting - all year round. And the tree can be both flowers and fruits. When watering, you should ensure that the water does not fall on the flowers, from which they can blacken and disappear. Decaying flowers should be thrown out immediately, so that the fungus does not start.

Varieties of Carmona

Among the amateur gardeners, the most common are 2 species of carmone: small-leaved and large-leaved.

Carmona small-leaved - bonsai Carmona microphylla. The correct botanical name is Ehretia buxifolia, but "carmona" is used more often. The plant received its name thanks to the German botanist GD Eret, and the similarity of leaves to the leaves of boxwood added to it the Latin word buxifolia. Small-leaved carmone can reach a height of 40 cm. Leaves grow to 1-2 cm long and are located on short petioles.

Large leaved cattle has a thicker trunk and leaves larger. Care and reproduction in these species of bonsai are almost the same.

Carmona (bonsai): home care

Most of the plants are brought to Russia from China together with a soil containing a lot of clay. With frequent watering, such soil is heavily compacted, so that the roots begin to lack oxygen. Therefore, when buying such a tree, it is better to immediately transplant it into a suitable soil.

The primer for bonsai carmone is usually made specifically, it consists of clay granulate, sand, peat mixed in equal proportions. Young plants should be transplanted every 2 years, usually in spring (in April). Older bonsai can do without a longer replacement of soil.

When transplanting, it should be borne in mind that carmona does not like cutting off roots, therefore replacement of the substrate must be done in several stages. Roots shorten a little at the next change of soil, so as not to introduce the plant into stress.

The tree loves it warmly, because in the summer it feels better outdoors, in a slightly shaded place, because it does not like direct sunlight. Hibernate in the same room in a house or apartment, like high humidity.

Watering and fertilizers

Watering is very necessary, because the plant does not tolerate drying and may die. Water better with permanent rainwater. To increase the humidity in the room pot with bonsai put in a container of water with poured hydro beads or expanded clay, which do not allow contact of water and earth.

Carmona also likes spraying, but you should do it carefully. If the room is drafty or cold, the plant can get sick.

To fertilize the tree use special organic products designed for bonsai. In the period from early spring to autumn, fertilize once a week, in winter - every month.

Carmona is very fond of light, so in summer it should be put in the penumbra outdoors. And in winter, illuminate the fluorescent light in the room.

Formation of a tree crown

Many lovers who want to cultivate a bonsai tree at home are interested in how to grow bonsai and give it the right shape in Japanese styles, because there are a lot of them: straight, cascaded, inclined, multi-barrel, etc. In each of them there are several varieties and Features that symbolize the philosophical attitude to life.

Carmona can be used to obtain any styles of bonsai. With the help of a wire, 1- and 2-year-old twigs easily take the given form. For branches older and stiffer, use special tensioning devices to prevent damage to the bark.

Often novice lovers buy a tree with a bonsai style already planned, and then it can be improved. For its formation takes at least a year.

When removing old branches, the place of circumcision is treated with a garden crock. The already strong shoots, which have grown to 10-20 cm, should be shortened to 1-3 leaves. It depends on the stage of development and the state of health of the tree.

Reproduction

Bonsai of carmone reproduces by means of seeds or cuttings. During the cutting of the annual tree, cuttings up to 10 cm in size are obtained. They can be planted in a small made greenhouse into which a mixture of peat and sand is poured. It is very important to maintain a high humidity and a temperature of about + 18ºС, watering a moderate. Often, for the rapid growth of rootlets, special stimulants are used, which increases the chance of getting cuttings with a developed root system. In the case of cuttings, plants completely repeat the maternal characteristics.

Reproduction by seeds is a longer and laborious process, in which the qualities of the tree from which they are obtained are not always transmitted.

Pests of bonsai carmons

As for any bonsai carmone plant, care at home requires proper watering, fertilizing, etc., besides the tree is highly prone to various diseases and pests. It can be mealy worms, scabbards, in summer often the plant suffers from an attack of aphids, chlorosis and spider mites.

The most common pests:

1. Vegetable aphids, which feed on juice from leaves and stems, usually appear on the underside of leaves. The easiest way to fight: impregnate a piece of cotton wool dissolved in water with household soap, which removes all aphids from the leaves. After that, the tree is treated with an insecticide to control aphids.
2. Shielding - it is possible to guess about damage to a plant by this pest when the shoots stop developing, the leaves dry out, become brown and fall off. Most often these brown-brown insects create colonies at the base of the trunk. To combat the shield, remove the build-up on the trunk, rub it with alcohol and sprinkle with an insecticide.
3. The spider mite has very small dimensions, so it is difficult to detect. The mites are round in shape and yellow-green in color, they live on the leaves on the underside, braiding them with cobwebs. The leaves dry out, turn pale and crumble. The tick is a very dangerous pest. To prevent its occurrence, it is necessary to maintain high humidity, spray the leaves, and also moisten the web, since the mite does not like water very much. These insects are caught with tweezers, and the leaves are treated with alcohol. You can use acaricides (use the enclosed instructions).

The most typical manifestations of diseases or attacks of pests that bonsai carmone experiences are falling leaves, turning pale or brown, losing color. All these signs indicate that it is necessary to search for the cause and the sapling urgently needs to be rescued.

Bonsai diseases

Diseases that affect bonsai carmonia:

• Frozen and powdery mildew is the most common problem among these plants, in which spots with gray fluff appear on the leaves, with time the leaves darken and deteriorate. Curing the tree can be by cutting the affected leaves (which are then burned), after which they should be treated with a fungicide. The plant itself should be placed in quarantine so as not to infect the others.
• Chlorosis is a disease in which a plant loses its color from lack of sun and loss of nutrients. For treatment, the tree is placed in a more sunny place and fed with fertilizers.

• White root rot is a parasitic fungus attacking the roots of the tree. The condition of the plant with this disease is greatly deteriorating, the leaves fall off, and the roots begin to soften and darken. To save the plant, it must be urgently transplanted, replacing the pot and soil. It is necessary to remove all affected parts of rootlets, and the rest to be treated with a chemical.

With proper care, the bonsai of the carmone will grow into a magnificent beautiful tree that will become an evergreen mini-masterpiece standing on a tray.