Last month we presented an article on winterizing your trees. Hopefully, you have taken all your indoor trees inside for the winter. In that article, we had some information about how Gene Sewell grew his trees. This month we want to expand on his methods.

About 17 years ago, Gene Sewell started in the bonsai hobby. Unlike a lot of us he didn’t have a place outside to put his trees in the summer since he lived in an apartment which had no balcony. This of course didn’t dissuade him from growing bonsai; it just made him look for “other” ways to grow them. Because of his lack of outside space, he knew that he had to specialize in indoor tropical trees.

Gene realized right away that he had to have additional lighting to keep his new plants growing and surviving. No matter what else he did, he realized that putting his trees in front of a window wouldn’t do if he was going to keep them indoors all year around. He started experimenting with different types of lights to determine the effects on his trees. He finally settled on his current mix of fluorescent lights – one grow lux and one 3000 lumen cool white bulb. He then started experimenting with the number of fixtures until he finally settled on three fixtures per tree. Gene said that the ideal light would be a sodium fixture because it is a more full spectrum light. However, it has a number of problems including producing an extremely high amount of heat and it would be very difficult to install safely indoor.

The next problem Gene had to overcome was watering and fertilizing. He started out watering just like the rest of us, with a watering can. He noticed that after awhile the tree leaves needed dusting. So he decided to give his trees a shower! He has a hand held shower head and puts his trees in the tub every other day and gently waters his trees. When asked if the shower washed out the soil, he said that he has good control over the amount of water with the hand held shower head and doesn’t have any wash out. This definitely is a unique way to water.

For fertilizing, he settled on a mixture of full strength “Watch Us Grow” and Superthrive. He fertilizes once a month through out the year. Before he settled on this mixture, he tried several other brands and combinations but believes this combination gives the best results for his situation.

Gene has one bedroom that has been converted into a bonsai room. He has three two shelf stands for his trees. They are made of aluminum tubing and each shelf contains a water proof tray. Each shelf has three two light fluorescent fixtures that are on 16 hours a day. They are controlled by a timer. Since some of his trees are rather large, they are placed solely on a shelf (see picture of his Brazilian raintree on the left). Due to the amount of light in the room, you could almost get a suntan if you stayed in there too long.

One last thing Gene has settled on with his tree room is that he placed an oscillating fan in the room to circulate the air. This keeps the room from getting musty and puts fresh air around his trees. He keeps this fan on 24 hours a day.

Does he have problems with this method of growing trees? He said his biggest problem has been with scale and mealy bugs. To correct this, he uses a mixture of Malathion and dormant oil. He only uses this when he sees signs of infestation. (NOTE: he does take the trees out to the parking lot to spray them and not only sprays the leaves and trunks, he puts a drench of the mixture on the soil)

Does Gene recommend that other bonsai enthusiasts use this method? No he doesn’t recommend it since it is much more difficult to grow trees like this. It would also only work on tropical trees not temperate. He simply states that this system works for him. He readily admits to losing a number of trees (but what bonsai grower hasn’t lost a tree or two?). He said that since he loves bonsai and doesn’t have access to a balcony or patio, this was the only method he can use to grow his trees.

Gene also states that using this method, the trees are more prone to physiological problems and diseases. They are also more prone to becoming weaker. We discussed this for some time. Trees that are placed outside in the summer are exposed to the climatic changes, whereas Gene’s trees never see these changes. Would changing the lighting or watering routines help the trees overcome some of the physiological problems? Gene doesn’t know but doesn’t think so. He says that this is only his opinion and he doesn’t have any hard evidence for any of the things he does. Could a tree live forever in a system like this? Probably not! But several have survived for 15 years or so.

Gene’s passion for bonsai readily spills over to the bonsai community with his setting up our Oxmoor and Greentree Mall shows, getting workers to man the shows (and to bring trees when there are not enough volunteers), as well as doing the beginner workshop following these shows. He also takes most of his trimmings from his trees and tries to sprout them. If they sprout, he gives them away to various students to try to get them involved in the bonsai hobby.

I think Gene has done a lot of real time research for the bonsai community. Hopefully, this article will give you some guidance in growing your indoor trees over the winter or if necessary, indoor year around.