Why Are Bonsai Pots Shallow

As you would have seen bonsai pots are all absolutely tiny in relation to the tree in terms of length width and being extremely shallow.

Why are bonsai pots shallow. 1 year in the ground equals 7 years in a pot. A coarser soil will have a lower shallow column or layer of saturated soil than a finer mix. To accommodate the cascading plant and indeed display its cascade to the best advantage kengai containers need height. The total retained amount of water is less for a coarser soil.

Bonsai pots are shallow and it s this shallow ness that keeps the tree growing slowly and small. The bonsai pot helps keep bonsai trees small the magic behind why a bonsai tree stays small is in the pot. The kengai bonsai form reflects a cascading tree growing on top of or on the side of a mountain or cliff etc. The deeper or more shallow the pot the more the effect.

That pot is severely slowing the growth of that tree. For bonsai designed to appear to be trees in a normal landscape setting the shallow pot produces in the brain the impression of a broad expanse of land. For cascade and semi cascade bonsai the impression is one of a mountainside. Water can be removed from this saturated layer.

Informal upright bonsai trees are most often planted in oval pots and formal upright trees in rectangular pots. The bunjin style needs a round pot which in most cases is quite shallow and small and can be irregularly shaped looking primitive called nanban pots. The larger or smaller the pot the more the effect it is proportional.