Best bonsai pot for your bonsai tree

There are many different materials used in bonsai pots. You can find them made of mica, terra cotta, stoneware, porcelain, wood, and plastic. Most people use mica and plastic pots when their bonsai is in training.

Mica pots naturally promote stable tempertures for your bonsai's soil. Stable temperatures will allow your bonsai's roots to stay healthy. In addition, mica pots are more resistant to cracking in freezing temperatures than clay.

If you plan on showing your bonsai you will want to invest in a ceramic stoneware pot. Some people also like terra cotta, but stoneware is fired at a higher temperature which means it is less likely to crack in low temperatures whereas terra cotta may. Some have found lower quality terra cotta pots crack when they overwinter their bonsai during freezing temperatures.

Picking the right size bonsai pot

For tall trees:

Pot width = .67*(tree height)

For wide trees:

Pot width = .67*(tree width)

The depth of the pot is generally based on the width of the tree's trunk. A wider trunk should be planted in a deeper pot than a tree with a skinny trunk base. Generally, you should consider getting a larger pot if the trees roots will need to be drastically pruned in order to fit. It is safer to scale into a smaller root ball over time (a few years) instead of drastically doing it at once.

For calculating proportional bonsai dimensions like ideal height and placement of the branches check out the bonsai size calculator.