Hi there

Does anyone know whether bonsai pots are available with a plastic inner pot which you can lift out in order to water the bonsai by placing the inner pot in water, rather than placing the actual pot in water with resultant concerns about it potentially marking a surface if it is not sufficiently dry.

I've had a look on line and can't seem to see anything so I am interested to see if anyone bothers with this at all, or whether most pot directly into the pot itself.

Any links would be appreciated if you know of any.

We don't water by placing the pot into water, but use a garden hose or watering can untill water spills from the drainage hole.
Submerging is not a good practice.

lucR wrote:

We don't water by placing the pot into water, but use a garden hose or watering can untill water spills from the drainage hole.
Submerging is not a good practice.

Completely correct.

Most municipal water has dissolved minerals of some kind. Soaking puts minerals in the pot which then dry out. Watering from above washes the minerals down, and when the water pours out of the drainage holes it takes the old minerals out. Otherwise the minerals build up and up.

You can avoid this with rain water, if you get enough rain and have few enough trees. Most of us don't get enough rain, so watering from the hose is the only option.

That is one of the reasons yes. However the most important reason is that watering from the top pulls air and oxygen to the roots. Submerging suffocates the roots.

Many thanks for all your advice with regards to watering. I will do this in future. I always let water stand for a while before watering but I'll see if I can collect rain water and of course water from above. It was actually advice I had received from a friend who is a bonsai enthusiast who told me to sit the tree in water every day for a very short time. I'll also pass on to him your advice.

With regards to my question as to whether I could purchase an inner plastic pot for bonsai pots, my question kind of still stands, considering there could be drips. I suppose the way round this would be a pot with a tray underneath.

As I have been incorrectly watering my bonsai over a considerable period, do you feel that both re-potting and proper watering would help bring it back to better life, or have I caused too much harm? I'll attach a photo.

No, there are no such thing as plastic inner pots for bonsai. Bonsai is kept in a ceramic pot with lots of drainage.

If you are worried about drips from the pot you are proboably keeping your tree indoors, which is the most common beginner misstake. Trees should be outdoors most of the year. Some species needs protection during the coldest part of the year, but that is at lover temperature and not much watering is needed.

Tropfrog wrote:

No, there are no such thing as plastic inner pots for bonsai. Bonsai is kept in a ceramic pot with lots of drainage.

If you are worried about drips from the pot you are proboably keeping your tree indoors, which is the most common beginner misstake. Trees should be outdoors most of the year. Some species needs protection during the coldest part of the year, but that is at lover temperature and not much watering is needed.

Topfrog is right. I have a few tropicals, and they come inside when temps are <50F/10C. Sometimes I take them back out if it will be warm for a while, but that is a big production since some of them are pretty heavy. When they come inside, all three lose leaves. The baobab drops them all and tries to grow some more but doesn't do well until March when it goes back out side. The ficus drops leaves steadily all winter, and the jaboticaba drops a lot and new leaves slow way down, only starting to grow leaves again when it goes outside. They sit in a bay window with a lot of sunlight. I have been thinking about getting lights for them to compensate for the sunlight.

Lucr puts it shorter: trees belong outside.