By: Dr. Johnny Lightcap, Ph.D.
A little over a year ago, I was the recipient of a targeted ad on social media. Normally I would complain, but that ad directed me to a page where I saw the word cannabonsai in print for the first time. Thankfully the page threw some obvious red flags, but its legacy is that it planted the idea of starting a new do it yourself project in my mind. As a hobby grower, I always find myself dissatisfied with the aesthetics of my plant. The concept of growing for complete aesthetics without worrying about yield or potency was really intriguing to me. As I started reading, I found a whole hobby community populated by wonderful people who not only want to grow for fun, but constantly improve and raise the bar. My research then led me to a $20 dollar book from Amazon containing a wealth of knowledge called Cannabonsai: A Beginner’s Guide.
I would highly encourage anyone interested in the hobby to take the time to read a little about the fundamentals of plant anatomy before beginning. Learning about the various growth nodes (apical and lateral meristems), where they are located, and what their functions are is a huge benefit to coming up with a plan on how to shape your cannabonsai. As bonsai grow, they become root bound to their container which limits their size. Additionally, flower yield is also controlled by the size of the root ball. In past harvests, I naively thought I could increase my yield this way by creating more flowers. However I was only subdividing the yield creating smaller ones. It wasn’t until I started this project that I realized the error in my understanding. I’ve since enjoyed applying these new plant fundamentals in my garden. They’re actually relevant to most plants and gardening in general to my pleasant surprise.
The most expensive part of this project was actually the bonsai pot. After several trips to all the Lowe’s and Home Depots in Oklahoma City, I was not able to find the pot that met my size, aesthetic, and drip tray criteria. I ordered one from Amazon for $30 and my clone is a Gorilla Glue #4 cultivated by Okanna purchased at Origins in OKC for $25. I also used surplus Fox Farms potting soil from my last generation, washed aquarium gravel, and a spool of insulated wire from Ace Hardware. I made the coils by winding the green, insulated wire around a pencil. These coils became the scaffold for my cannabonsai to take shape. Periodically, the coils have to be repositioned to maintain the desired shape and to allow the branches to increase in diameter.
Honestly, I made quite a few mistakes with this plant, but thankfully in this hobby, you can wait a few weeks and they disappear. My greatest regret is not spending enough time each day for plant care and too heavily relying on light automation. I should have gradually bent the plant each day instead of doing a bending session every few weeks. This plant was always cultivated with the intent of being a houseplant sitting in a windowsill, however Ive always been limited by sunlight in my apartment, hence the grow lights. My overhead grow lights always make my plants tall and skinny, so perhaps I may use a grow tent next time around to help the plant grow shorter and bushier. That would be more befitting of the bonsai stature most people are accustomed too. That being said, I believe a 6ft cannabonsai is possible, permitting the pot is large enough. Also during the winter I asked my girlfriend to plant-sit during Christmas and the change in conditions stressed the plant out so much, it threw monoleaves for several weeks. I was able to stabilize it with some nutrients from Green Planet (MEDI ONE nutrient system) that they were nice enough to provide after I described my problem to them. Cannabonsai are temperamental like all houseplants, and a mid winter move to a new environment was not the best idea in retrospect.
Great hobbies leave room for constant improvement, and if I did this the next time around, I would definitely train the roots to grow over a rock. That would be my next goal, but I worry its still beyond my ability so we shall see. I would also love to weave LED grow lights into the branches so that my bonsai could become a true houseplant that was no longer limited by sunlight in the apartment. That is part of phase 2 of my plan but in the meantime, I picked up a new do it yourself hobby that spun off of this one: plant decorations. I realized in the course of doing this that most plant decorations don’t really fit my style (and the ones at Lowe’s and Home Depot are terrible to be honest). This led me down the obvious path which is to paint my own. That’s also a work in progress but that’s part of the fun of having a hobby. Ultimately my dream is to bend cannabonsai and miniature painting together into one hobby community, because I believe people are slowly waking up to how unimaginative most plant decorations are. Until then, I will be patiently waiting in the shadows occasionally posting on instagram (@johnnylightcap).
Special Thanks
Photo Credit: Jayda Perez
Cannabonsai: A Beginner’s Guide by Manuel Oyarce
Okanna Clones (@okannacrops -clone cultivator)
Green Planet Nutrients (@greenplanetnutrients -for helping to revive my plant after becoming stressed and throwing monoleaves)
Origins Dispensary (clone vendor)
