What Work Can You Do To Your Bonsai In Winter?

Winter is usually the season where there is not a lot happening with bonsai. Your trees will be dormant and it is best to leave them alone and let them relax.

You can also do a lot of relaxing at this time too, but there are still a few things you can do to keep yourself busy, especially near the end of the winter when you can really do a lot to get ready for spring.

Winter Protection

Before winter fully arrives you should make sure your trees are ready for it. This means you may need to give you tree some winter protection.

I have written about this in much more depth here – What Do Bonsai Need Protection From During Winter?

So make sure your trees are in a suitable position and then let them rest.

End Of Winter Work On Your Bonsai

Once the winter is starting to end … but it’s not quite spring just yet, it is time to get to work.

You want to make sure you time this right, you want the tree to still be dormant, but you also want it to make sure it willl be waking up soon.

Basically some of the work you do will cause some damage to the tree, and since it is winter it will not be growing … so not healing.

This means you need to time this right, if you do it too early, then your tree will be sat for too long and exposed to the full force of the winter while it is damaged, which can make the situation worse.

Then if you time the work too late, the tree will be growing and while this means it can heal, it can actually be just as damaging. The tree will be pushing up a lot of energy from the roots, which means you can get a lot of sap bleeding. Sap is energy, so all that energy is literally just pouring out of the tree and not going into developing your bonsai.

Hard Pruning

My favourite work to do in late winter is hard pruning. This is when I just hack my trees back and shorten everything as well as get rid of anything I don’t like.

I usually let a lot of my trees just grow unchecked once it gets to the middle of summer, so a lot of my trees are pretty long and leggy and just very overgrown by the end of the season. This doesn’t look good for bonsai, but it does give them plenty of strength and energy, so you have to do this sometimes to keep the tree healthy.

However, since its bonsai, the long growth can’t stay forever and winter is the best time to remove it. 

All the energy from this longer growth will be stored in the trees roots at this time, so we are not losing anything. Then in a few weeks when it does start to wake it, all that energy is going to go into the parts of the tree that I do want to keep and they are going to be very healthy.  

(You can read more about – How To Prune A Bonsai)

Trunk Chopping

Trunk chopping is the ultimate hard prune and is when you basically grow a tree out to get a thick trunk, and then chop it right down to basically a stump. From this stump you then develop your bonsai tree.

The same principles apply here; the energy from the tree will all be stored down in the roots at this time, so removing the top growth is not really going to cause any issues. Then when the energy does come back up it is basically a whole trees worth of energy all concentrated into a little stump …which means it is going to explode with new growth.

A few weeks after trunk chopping your trunk will be covered in buds which will all become your new branches. 

(You can read more about – How To Trunk Chop A Bonsai)

General Pruning

You can also just do a more normal type pruning at this time too; it doesn’t need to always be big aggressive chops.

This is actually a fantastic time to prune your tree as you can actually see what is going on. The leaves will not be in your way, so you can see what the branches are doing and how they are structured.

You will be able to see where the buds are and cut back to the ones you want to keep and you will also be able to spot any branches that might be growing in places you don’t need and remove them.

Basically it’s a great a time to get everything in to order and then when the tree wakes up it will be putting its energy into everything you actually want.       

Wiring

Late winter is also a great time to wire you tree. After you prune it up and get it into the shape you want you will very easily be able to see what areas need wire or not, since the tree has no leaves and you can see the structure properly.

The wire is also easier to put on at this point as the leaves are not blocking your view and the buds will not be swollen so there is no risk of damaging them.

I also find that most trees are pretty flexible at this time of year, so wiring them and bending them is also just generally easier at this time of year.

(You can read more about – When Should You Wire A Bonsai Tree?)

Yamadori Collection

I will say right away that in late winter you can dig up some yamadori, but for the most of them, you will want to wait until very early spring.

However, winter is a good time to go and look at trees that you want to dig up (of course make sure you have permission first)

You will be able to see everything clearly and can decide if the tree you are looking at is worth digging up. It can be good to look at these trees in summer too, as they will be in leaf and it will also be easier to identify the species, but you will see the structure better in winter.

Although you could argue that you could just look at the structure right before you dig it up in very early spring, the tree will still have no leaves, so nothing is blocking your view. This is true …but walking in nature is fun so why not do it in winter too. Then in spring you can come back and know exactly what trees you are going for and what ones you are leaving.  

Other Work You Can Do In Winter

As you can probably see from above all the “winter work” actually happens right at the end, almost at spring time.

However, there are still plenty of things you can do during the depths of winter, it just doesn’t involve your tree.

Tool Maintenance

Your tools are going to get dirty and dull from using them and while you can maintain them at any point, and should really keep them in a good condition as you go, you will probably find they get a little neglected as the season goes on.

I like to give my tools a really deep clean and get them back to the best condition I can and winter is the perfect time for this. There is no rush to use the tools, since the trees are dormant so I can take my time to get them clean and sharp again.

The best part is that everything will now be ready for spring. Everything will be nice and sharp for the new growing season. 

(You can read more about – Bonsai Tool Maintenance and Care)

Clean Your Pots

If you have a bunch of pots that are not being used, winter can be a good time to clean these up. This is another thing you can do at any point of the year, but it is also one of those “I’ll do that later” situations.

Usually if I repot a tree in spring and don’t re-use the pot, I just sort of set it on a shelf and leave it there. It will be dirty and covered in a white crust, but it’s not really causing any trouble, so I ignore it.

I could reuse it again in this state, but it is better to clean it, it will just look better. Nothing is happening in winter, so why not get these pots clean and maybe you might use them in spring, so now they will be ready.

You shouldn’t clean the pot if there is a tree in it, you can do this at other times of the year, but I would just leave it alone over winter. 

(You can read more about – What Is The White Crust On My Bonsai Pots?)

Sort Your Soil Out

Another thing you can organise over winter is your soil. You are probably going to be repotting something in spring, so it’s good to have the soil all ready before hand. The last thing you want to do is realise your tree is waking up and you have no soil.

You can buy everything you might need and there is no rush to get it delivered. You can also sort out your old soil, if you are like me and reuse some components of your soil, then winter is a great time to sift these out. 

When I repot in spring I save all the old soil then I leave it to dry out naturally. This can take a while in my environment and I usually have to leave my large plastic tub of soil out in the summer sun to get it nice and dry.

It needs to be dry so that the small particles turn to dust and are easily sieved out. I sometimes do this in summer … but often I am just enjoying the weather and leave this task to winter.

(You can read more about – Can You Reuse Bonsai Soil?)

Planning For Spring

Winter is also a good time to take a step back and evaluate what has happened and what needs to happen.

You can look at your trees and see how much they grew last year and you can see how they are progressing, but more importantly you can start to take notes about what you need to do when the winter is over.

You will need to decide what trees need pruned and what trees may need major pruning and what needs repotted. These are not light decisions, so it’s good to look at your tree over winter and decide if the work needs done or not.

I like to take note of everything I want to do, and then I just have to wait until the time is right and tick everything off my list. Making this plan over winter makes sure everything is accounted for and then nothing will be missed spring.

Once things start waking up, it can get a little busy and it’s easy to over look a tree, so making a plan and writing it down is very helpful.      

(You can read more about – How To Plan and Track Your Bonsai)

Conclusion

As you can see there is still plenty to do over winter, even if most of it doesn’t directly involve the trees.

It’s a slow time of year and you can relax a little, but it’s just the perfect time for sorting everything out and getting everything ready for the new growing season.

Spring can get a little crazy, so use the quiet time of winter to get yourself ready. This will really make things run smoother for you when everything does wake up, so you will be thankful that you spent the winter preparing. 

(You can read more about – Do Bonsai Trees Die In Winter?)