How to grow Bonsai trees indoors successfully

In this video I'll show you how you can grow bonsai trees indoors successfully. So if you live in an apartment without outdoor space or you would just like to have a bonsai tree in your home, be it for the aesthetic of it or just to catch some of that zen vibe, this video is for you. Hi, I'm David, this is BonsaiFly. So I know there are a lot of people out there who will tell you that growing bonsai trees indoors is not possible or at least very very hard. Those people are not completely wrong, but there are ways to grow bonsai trees indoors. And when I say grow, I really mean grow. Not just having a tree sit by your window half dead all year round and then constantly trying to revive it, without ever being able to actually develop the tree into a mature bonsai tree. When I started doing bonsai, I was living in an apartment with no outdoor space. But since I really wanted to do bonsai, I experimented and came up with these two methods that lead to successful bonsai cultivation indoors. Method 1. Pick the right tree species. This might be very obvious for some of you, but if you've never cultivated a bonsai tree be it outdoors or indoors, let me just clarify this for you really quickly. If you're thinking about buying that maple or juniper bonsai tree from your local garden center and just putting it in your living room because it looks nice, don't. It'll die. These trees and most other trees that are commonly used for bonsai cultivation are temperate trees, meaning that they need seasons, especially the cold period, known as winter, in which they go dormant. In your room, that can't happen because it's warm all year round. The tree species that you need to look for are tropicals, subtropicals and arguably succulents. In nature, trees always grow outside. But depending on where in the world you look, outside might mean hot and dry or hot and humid all year long with no cold period. That means that there are trees in the world which don't need a cold period in winter, which is basically the same situation as in your living or bedroom and therefore perfect for indoor keeping. So before you buy a tree, you should look at where in the world it naturally grows and that'll tell you if it's fit for indoor keeping. Trees that are suitable to indoor keeping, like ficus trees, never originally come from a temperate country like Germany, where I live. If you are looking for specific tree species to keep as indoor bonsai, I am already working on an extensive video on that subject and that'll drop roughly in the next month or so, so stay tuned for that. Now on to method number two. Try to recreate your tree's natural environment. After what I've said before, I know this sounds logical, but it's not without a challenge. And because it is a challenge, growing bonsai trees indoors is much more difficult than growing them outdoors. From what I have found, the three major components of creating an artificial environment for your tree are light, temperature and humidity. Indoors, the air is usually much drier than it is outside, which means that the trees need to evaporate more water to keep from drying out. The temperature inside is too hot for temperate trees in winter, so they don't work. But for your tropical or subtropical trees, the temperature inside in winter is actually a little too low. There is also a lot less light inside than there is outside. Dry air plus low temperature plus low light will cause your tree's metabolism to slow down, which can lead to either the tree drying out because it can't keep up with how much water needs to be evaporated, or the tree dying from overwatering because it can't evaporate the water that is in the pot, and therefore the roots rotting. You can see now why trees die when inside. Luckily for you, I know the solutions to all those problems. I found out that if you can provide light plus either humidity or temperature, your trees will thrive anyway. If you can provide all three, of course, that is perfect, but two will work. Now of course, depending on the tree species, one might work better than the other. For example, a ficus will love humidity, but a succulent might not. But one thing they all have in common is that they need a lot of light. So what will absolutely change the game for you when you keep bonsai trees indoors is getting a good growing light. I cannot stress this enough, when I got my first good growing light, and I'm not talking about like a $13 one from Amazon, it completely changed how well my trees grew inside. Ever since I got my first good growing light, my trees have been pushing out new growth all year long. I'll link the model that I use down below for you, but I don't think it has to be this high end of a model. It could be something cheaper as well. Another thing that works very well is a growing tent. It's paired with a growing light and helps with keeping high humidity and high temperature. Even though a growing tent is an awesome product, there's also a much cheaper way of creating a slightly warmer and much more humid environment for your trees if you have a growing light. Put trees that like high humidity in a transparent plastic bag. Then spray it with water and put it beneath your growing light. Make sure the bag is closed at all times, except for a five minute window every day where you open it up to let fresh air inside. The humidity inside the plastic bag can be almost 100% which is much higher than it usually is in the growing tent where it's around 70%. Also make sure that your trees are in a free draining and organic soil like pumice or lava. That along with the five minute window where you open it up to let fresh air in every day will keep mold from forming. Some of my tropical trees like my ficuses or Scheffleras have literally exploded using this method. So to all of you who don't have outdoor space, you can do Bonsai. It is absolutely possible with using these methods. Alright, this wraps up this video. If you liked anything that I had to say, make sure that you like the video and consider subscribing. Let me know how your indoor Bonsai experiences go and see you soon.