Essential Tools for Growing Bonsai Trees

Having experience and good knowledge of something is very good but without the essential tools, the person will not do a particular job right. You can get a good result from improvising or using some basic tools but using the most essential to do what you want to do is always the best and gives the required results. This certainly also applies to bonsai.

Essential Tools for Growing Bonsai

Getting the most essential tools will help you achieve a better result when you are shaping your bonsai tree. Bonsai trees are quite delicate which is why it is important to know that using ordinary scissors or secateurs to prune your tree can cause damage or scar your bonsai tree.

Bonsai tree

Bonsai tools are to be kept clean all the time. They should be cleaned after using them for the tree or even before using them to avoid transference of some plant disease from tree to tree. The tools should also be kept sharp in order to make clean cuts so that the bark of the trees won’t be compressed. Also it is necessary to store them in dry places to avoid rusting.

There are different types of tools available in different sizes and quality. As it is good to buy high quality tools for your everyday work, it is also good to go all in if you are interested in having and managing a bonsai tree. You can spend a little more for tools that will last longer and more reliable. You can even get some that will not corrode fast.

Some of the most essential bonsai tools include the following: concave branch cutters, pruning scissors, wire cutters, root rake, chop sticks.

Concave branch cutters are employed in cutting branches of the bonsai tree. This kind of cutter is better than the ordinary scissors or secateurs for cutting bonsai tree branches because it leaves an inward cut in the branch so that when it heals up, the bark will be leveled with the inner part of the branch instead of having a stub that will heal leaving a lump or the inner part grown out and unsightly.

Pruning scissors have the same function as the concave branch cutters but the difference is that pruning scissors is used for cutting small branches and foliage. If it is used for larger branches, it will bend out of shape. Wire cutters are used for cutting the wires once the tree limb has set and for cutting the wire used for holding the tree to length. If you try to unwind the wire without the wire cutter, you can cause damage to the bark or even break it. So it is a lot safer to use the wire cutter.

Root rake is simply a small rake. You can use it to rake the soil surrounding the root then separate the roots you want to prune. You might think a chop stick is not necessary but it actually useful for pushing in the soil surrounding the roots of a new bonsai tree. It is also useful for pushing soil in to cover/ remove small air pockets inside.