Hi, I'm new to Bonsai.
I've got a tree that is ment to be indoor, but when I looked
around on the
web, it says that indoor trees should be put outdoors in the
summer?
Is this right, and if so, why?
Yes. It is right.
All plants (with the possible exception of some algae that may
have adapted to the darkness of cave life) are outdoor life.
After all, when plants were "invented" there wasn't such as thing
as "indoor."
We in our pridefulness call them "indoor" plants, but it is only
because they _can_ survive indoors if forced to do so.
Note the word "survive." That's what they do inside a building,
where even the artificial the light is poor, there's almost no
life-giving sunlight, the humidity is sometimes down in the
single digits (where plants prefer the upper double digits),
where there are no predators to eat the aphids and whiteflies
(which truly seem to be "indoor" insects), and where watering is
iffy at best.
Given temperatures that they can endure, plants will ALWAYS do
better outdoors. When it gets too cold, we can turn them into
"indoor" plants. They still will do better in a greenhouse than
in OUR house.
So, in truth your tree is NOT meant to be indoor; that's just
where you have it, and with a little luck on its part and quite a
bit of work on yours, it may survive there.
Some day go where you can see "indoor" bonsai growing where
they're supposed to go (in the lands of perpetually no frost) and
compare them with MOST "indoor" trees of the same species grown
where they cannot see 365 days of natural ultraviolet light. NO
comparison.
Welcome to the complexly simple world of bonsai.
Jim Lewis -
- Tallahassee, FL - Who owns ONE
"indoor" plant, but it lives outdoors from mid April to mid
November (usually).
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