Bonsai (Physiological Approach)

So ayun.. Pinagawa kami ni Ms. Mae ng report about the role of Plant's Physiology to the practice of bonsai..

Masaya naman!*in a tone of tv ad endorser* :P


Eto yung output ko.. :)



The word bonsai came from Japanese phrases "bon" (basin) and "sai" (to plant), which literally means "to plant on a basin". It is regarded as an art of growing miniature trees in shallow pots. This practice originated in China but became famous in Japan. Here, a plant specimen is trained to grow in a shallow container by cultivation techniques such as pruning, root reduction, putting, and grafting to produce small trees to mimic the full-sized ones. This report will tackle on how cultivation techniques, role of hormone, density of roots and apical dominance affect growth of plants in achieving the miniature effect of bonsai plants.

In shaping, bonsai cultivators repeatedly prune the stem, leaves, and buds of shoot. It is established in science that root grows larger according to the needs of shoot and conversely, shoots grow until the roots can fully support it. Having this premise, cultivators of bonsai assume that pruning the tree roots and shoots would result a miniature effect - which was latterly proven right. Root pruning is the cutting of trees' taproot and thick roots in such way that lateral roots are encouraged to grow. By doing this, more roots will provide more water nd nutrients to the tree. On the other hand, without root pruning, there will be few roots so the shoot will be poor. To achieve the root-shoot balance after root pruning, shoot pruning must be done. In shoot pruning, we focus in cutting of the apical bud of the plant to remove the apical dominance. Apical dominance is the phenomenon wherein the central stem of the plant is dominant over the terminal bud, thus stimulating vertical growth and inhibiting lateral growth through lateral buds. Leaf pruning (one form of shoot pruning) is done so that the water and nutrients that have been previously supplied to the leaves will now flow to the lateral buds encouraging its growth.

Plant hormones also explain the root-shoot balance in bonsai training of a plant. Auxin which primarily synthesized in the apical buds of the shoots are transported to the roots via phloem. They stimulate root's growth and sometimes inhibit it from growing larger. Cytokinins on the other hand, are synthesized in the apical meristems of the roots and transported via xylem going to apical buds. This boosts the vigor of cell divisions in the apical bud, thus increases the vitality of the shoots and leaves. Therefore, growth of roots is directly proportional or dependent to the growth of shoots. Relating to apical dominance, Cytokinin's landing site on the shoots are the apical buds. Cytokinin has no choice but to go to lateral buds (capillarity).

The crucial stage in making bonsai is the training. When the cultivator succeeded in the training, the bonsai plant can be treated just like any other plant.



*** I've encoded this on my phone during those time that I was super bored!