I've got a 7 year old Serissa and I've had it for about a year
now.

I can't really keep it outside, so I want to know, does a air
conditioned room, pose a threat to my bonsia?


The short answer is "yes."

The air in an air conditioned (or heated) room is very dry --
much drier that plants like and need. And, to bring a room up to
the right amount of humidity, the room would be too sticky for
humans and furniture, which would quickly mildew. It can be
tough to hit the happy median (I almost said medium, but it is
hard to find a happy one of those, these days).

A good place for a tree that is forced to live indoors is a
windowsill over a kitchen sink. The steam from a sink-full of
dishes being washed helps to keep the humidity up in that area.
A bathroom window would be even better, but too many bathrooms
don't have windows, and almost all of them have much too low a
light level for plants.

Some people mist their trees a couple of times a day. This
probably helps -- briefly -- but it also leads to soil that is
kept too wet. Others set the pot in a shallow, pebble-filled
tray, with water nearly to the top of the pebbles (the pot should
NOT be sitting IN the water!). That may or may not help, and I
lean toward the "not."

A humidifier in the room, especially if it is near the windowsill
where the tree is sitting, also could be of some help.

Whatever you do, do NOT water the tree every day to keep the
humidity level up. You will rot the roots and kill the tree.
Only water when the soil is almost dry.

Keeping an exclusively indoor tree healthy can be difficult.
That's why many people who grow tropicals do so in greenhouses,
where it is easy to keep humidity levels high enough.

Many trees come indoors over the winter, and just barely survive
the experience. They then spring happily to life in the spring
when they get put back outside. Of course, some do not survive.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - The ignorant
man marvels at the exceptional; the wise man marvels at the
common; the greatest wonder of all is the regularity of
nature. -- George Dana Bordman

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