Experienced bonsai fans advise against cultivating an indoor fir as a bonsai. Since the tree cannot be pruned well and wiring is also not possible, most of the indoor firs that are kept as bonsai die after a short time.
The fir is difficult to cut into shape, but you can keep it small
Indoor firs can hardly be cut into shape
An indoor fir quickly resents being pruned too much. No new branches sprout from the old wood, so that every removed branch is irretrievably lost. The branches cannot be wired. They fall back into their old form when the wire is removed.
You can try to limit the growth of a silver fir by topping it off at the top. Cut off the top, several side shoots will sprout. As a result, the classic form of the indoor fir is lost.
Nevertheless, there are attempts to pull the newly sprouted tips hanging, so that a bonsai shape, albeit an unusual one, is created. However, you have to reckon with the fact that the indoor fir will not forgive the pruning and will not die.
Prune roots carefully
To limit the growth of the fir tree, you can prune the root ball when repotting. But be careful not to cut away too much.
The bonsai fir is only repotted every two years because it does not grow very quickly. The best time for repotting is early spring.
Caring for an indoor fir as a bonsai
Caring for an indoor fir as a bonsai is not easy, as the tree does not forgive care mistakes and unsuitable locations so quickly.
- Bright, not sunny location
- keep warm in summer
- keep cooler in winter
- protect against drafts and contact
In a suitable location, the indoor fir is very bright but not sunny. In summer it tolerates temperatures between 7 and 22 degrees, in winter it must not get warmer than 5 to 10 degrees.
When watering, make sure that the root ball never dries out completely, but that under no circumstances does it become waterlogged. Fertilize every two weeks during the summer with a rhododendron or azalea fertilizer.
tips
In the trade, indoor firs are occasionally offered as bonsai. However, these are not classic bonsais, just trees that have been grown in spirals or other unusual shapes.