Evaluation of stress on Bonsai

Thu Thoai, aka Bonhe

Stress is an alteration of living system’s homeostasis when there are any external or internal factors
(stressors) act on them. The living systems such as human, animal, microorganisms and plants will
respond to this change through types of reactions to get them back to homeostasis.

Environment has a big role in plant’s development. We, bonsai people, tend to collect many types of
trees to have more varieties in our collections. Ideally, we should only use local or our area trees to
avoid the problems arising on the trees which were from different climates. Besides, we are also an
important factor to contribute to the plant’s health either good or bad.

For the plant, stressors can be sun, wind, rain, temperature, humidity, insects, animal, fungi, bacteria, or
human.

Stressors can be immediate or gradual.

- Immediate: pruning (leaves, branches), wiring, bending, transplanting

- Gradual: weather (hot - cold; dry-wet), poor care from the owner (watering, choosing soil
substances or tree location, fertilizing).

With the immediate stress, the healthy tree can respond with good results which are suitable for bonsai
art such as smaller leaves, ramification of branches, balance energy, reduction of “critical area” for
diseases, drainage improvement. The healthy tree is a must for its survival and recovery from the
stressors. If the patient is too weak for major surgery, s/he can die on the operating table! Simple fact.
With the gradual stress, the tree may lose its adaption and succumbs.

Pathophysiology:
Optimum growing for most of the trees is in 60 - 85ºF (15.5 – 29.4ºC) range.
If T > 85ºF (29.4ºC) - heat stress
Temp < 0ºC (32ºF) can freeze the leaf tissue of cold intolerant plants and turn them to mush after just a
few hours. When overnight temperature is down below 4.4ºC (40ºF), some trees might not die but
suffer cold-induced setbacks.
Tropical plants are often damaged if T < 10ºC (50ºF) and died at about 4.4ºC (40ºF). However, a few
periods of cold is often not enough to kill tender plants but the longer they remain cold, the more likely
they will be damaged.
Thermal death threshold: 115ºF (46ºc)
General rule: each 18ºF (10ºC) increase -- physical doubling of respiration and water loss.
High day temperature can injure plants:
- directly by damaging the cell membrane, phospholipid, or
- indirectly by creating plant-water deficits that arise due to high transpiration demands.

*Dehydration is one of deadly causes not only for trees but for human as well.
Evaporation is principal mechanism of heat reduction in a hot environment. Evaporation of water from
leaf surface is needed to cool down plants. 90% of water absorbed by roots is used to cool down the
tree when air is hot and dry. If the tree isn’t able to get water fast enough from the roots to provide
evaporative cooling effect, the foliage will get hot, the tender growth wilts and the older leaves sunburn.
The amount of water loss is depended upon tree size, sunlight intensity, temperature, humidity and
wind velocity.
The ideal range of relative humidity for plants is between 40 – 60%. Low humidity (dry) can increase the
water evaporation and vice versa.

If evaporation is limited either by (A) water inadequate, root damage; (B) xylem vascular damage;
and/or (C) leaf area damage or reduction, or too high humidity; the inner tree temperature can increase
above the thermal death threshold. Evaporation becomes ineffective if relative humidity is higher than
75% or the root-trunk-foliage axis is disrupted.

Normally, the water loss via the leaves is faster than being absorbed through the roots. It will have much
more problem if the roots are injured. Combination of rapid water loss and temperature increase in
leaves is a death sentence for the tree. Because of this, transplant with root work in the hot weather is a
‘homicidal act”!

Most plants reduce growth and production if T > 32.2ºC (90ºF) or < 15.5ºC (60ºF).
Non-tropical plants will not only stop growing but also deteriorate and die during hot weather.
Heat stress makes plants more susceptible to pest and fungal infection.

*Don’t fertilize during times of heat stress. New young tissue is susceptible to heat affect due to sudden
foliar collapse.

*Humus improves
- water holding capacity of sandy soils
- water penetration of clay soils
CAUSES:
*Weather:
. Sunlight: too much - burn (bark, leaves); too little - affected photosynthesis
. Wind: light (increase trunk diameter), strong (broken trunk or branch, uprooted tree)
. Water: drought - flood
. Temperature: hot (water loss, burn), cold (burn)
*Animal, insects, bacteria, fungus, virus
*Human:
. Pulling
. Wiring and bending
. Pruning
. Soil selection
. Site of tree placement
. Watering (water in rush, on vacation)
. Fertilizing
. Tree health status
. Time of pruning (cut big branch in growing season - severe bleed), wiring & bending (in cold season -
 broken branch), transplanting (during hot weather - water loss)
. Environment change (new arrival tree from other climate area)
SIGNS OF STRESS
- wilting at tender new tip - dieback
- foliage burn: brown at tips and edges of old leaves
- Rapid moisture loss can cause tender leaves turn black.
- Yellow-white “burn” on the upper surface of older leaves are due to too much intense sunlight.
- Iron deficiency- yellow leaves.
- Broken branch
- Cracked skin
- leaning tree in a short time
- Mushroom grow around the trunk base
- shedding leaves early (due to heat, water, pest or disease)
- Foliage changing color early
- Brow spots on leaves after raining season (fungal infection)
- Leaves is small with brown or yellow color after drought
I created the Bonhe Stress Score (table 1), Bonhe Stress Level (table 2) and Bonhe Preoperative Risk
Stratification for Bonsai (table 3)

Table 1: Bonhe Stress Score

FACTOR POINTS
Weak tree 5
Wiring and bending ¥ 3
Branch pruning 3
Root pruning 4
Temperature T > 85ºF (29.4ºC) 4
Wind 4
Living environment change less than 1 year 4
¥: if major bending (separating, wiring and bending the only live vein), it will get 5 points
Table 2: Bonhe Stress Level
SCORE RISK LEVEL
≤4 Low
5–6 Medium
7–9 High
≥ 10 Very high
Every factor is assigned points. Points are added up basing on which factor is involved. For example,
Weak tree (5 points), branch pruning (3 points). Total point is 5 + 3 = 8. In this case, the risk level of
doing this work is high.
*To be convenient, you may use this calculator: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j0-
h_PisKYgvyJfT0gScmYCcWtyJucjfX4eeFpuVpbk/edit?usp=sharing

Table 3: Bonhe Preoperative Risk Stratification for bonsai

FACTOR QUESTION Yes No
Tree is healthy £
Temperature T <85ºF(29.4ºC) @
No wind £
Environment change more than
a year §
Rain after transplanting ¥
Total A
The Bonhe Preoperative Risk Stratification for bonsai is used to decide if you should work on one
particular tree at this moment.
Each factor will be assigned either +1 or -1 based on the answer. If yes, it will be +1, if no, it will be -1
Except:
£: if weak tree or windy, will be -2
§: if less than a year, will be -2
¥: Use this factor only if planning for transplant. If No rain, the answer will be 0. If we can continuously
provide the tree optimal humidity via misty system after transplant, the answer will be +1
Add up the numbers to get total A

@: I don’t use low temperature T < 40ºF (4.4ºC) into risk stratification because the low temperature may
not have a major impact onB the tree health. By the way, who is willing to work on his/her tree amid the
cold weather in the first place?! However, I have been transplanting most of my trees in the cold
weather to get the advantage of “natural hypothermia” effect on the trees as long as it is not too cold
for me. In my opinion, our body is an excellent meter to decide if we should work on our trees or not. If
I feel too hot or too cold in the garden, it is not a good time to have a major work on the tree.

Table 4:
WORKS PLANNED TO DO Yes
Branch pruning
Wiring and bending
Root pruning ¶
Total B
Each work will be assigned -1 except
¶: Root pruning will get -2
If no work done, no need to fill out the form.
Add up the numbers to get Total B
Final result is A + B, if it is ≥ 0, we can safely work on the tree; if it is less than 0, do not do it.
*You may use this calculator chart for your convenience:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oHTZn-
wlJO8gAvgy9aqT8agCNubXRAvK19fWYoTeqzA/edit?usp=sharing

Case 1: Mr. A, who is living in Southern California, bought a large JBP prebonsai from Northern
California. A few months later, he decided to work on the tree in the summer. The tree was pruned,
wired, bent and transplanted at the same time. It turned out to be a beautiful tree. Unfortunately, the
tree died a few months later.
Let analyze this case.
Bonhe Stress Score: branch pruning (3 pts), wiring and bending (3 pts), root cutting (4 pts), temp >
29.4ºC (4 pts). Total score is 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 = 14. So, Bonhe Stress level is very high!

With Bonhe Preoperative Risk Stratification for bonsai:

-tree is healthy +1
-Temperature is less than 29.4ºC -1 (in the summer, temperature is greater than 29.4 degree of
Celsius)
-No wind +1
- Living environment change less than one year - 2
- Pruning branch - 1
- Wiring and bending - 1
- Root pruning - 2
Adding up signs: +2 and -7 = -5
With negative result, Mr. A should have not done those kinds of work on tree at that time.

Scenario 2: In the middle of Southern California summer, there was a master working on a big healthy
California juniper. After cleaning the tree, he pruned some branches back, created a few big jin,
separated the live vein from the trunk, wrapped the live vein with raffia, wired and bent live vein down
heavily. Then a lot of wiring was done on the branches. The tree was turned into a very beautiful tree
after a few hours work. To please the eyes of the audience, he decided to transplant the tree from its
original wooden pot into the bonsai pot. Finally, it became a very nice bonsai to which everybody
wanted to possess it in the club auction.
After a month, the tree unfortunately died under the care of new owner!
Now let calculate risk level of this tree.
. Summer temperature in Southern California is really hot and dry: 4 pts
. Branch pruning: 3 pts
. Wiring and bending: 3 pts
. Root pruning: 4 pts
Total Bonhe Stress Score is 14 which has very high risk level to have this work done.

*Shouldn’t the master have worked on the tree like that?

. Tree is healthy +1
. High temp –1
. No wind +1
. Environment change more than a year +1
. Branch pruning -1
. Wiring and bending -1
. Root pruning -2
Total: +3 and – 5 = -2
With negative result, the master should have not done these works on the tree!

Basing on Bonhe Stress Score, Bonhe Stress Level and Bonhe Preop Risk Stratification for Bonsai, I have
been successfully growing bonsai in the desert type weather.

In summary, to create the beautiful trees for bonsai, we obviously cannot avoid causing stress for our
trees. They need to be trained from the seedling period all the way to the end. However, we need to
consider benefits outweigh risks of our actions on the trees. To get the beautiful tree is difficult, but to
keep it healthy is much more difficult. I hope this new tool will help whoever is new to bonsai grow
his/her trees successfully.

1/31/2021

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