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BONSAI CARE LOG & TIMELINE

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BonsaiLog

A photo timeline and care log for every tree

Ten years of work should look like ten years.

Bonsai moves too slowly to remember. BonsaiLog holds a dated photo timeline for each tree next to the watering, feeding, repotting, wiring and pruning you actually did, so a decade of small decisions becomes something you can scroll through.

Get it on Google Play

Free for two trees.
Premium from $1.99. Android.

  • Makers & Hobbies
  • Android
  • Works offline
  • No account
The BonsaiLog launch screen: a mature bonsai above the wordmark and the line A photo timeline and care log for every tree

THE TIMELINE

One tree, three ways to look at it

Photos on a tree are dated, and can carry a season tag and a caption. Past a handful, one long list stops being useful, so the timeline opens three ways.

The BonsaiLog scrub view: one photo of The Old Juniper filling the screen, dated April 15 2016, with a year slider running 2016 to 2024 underneath

Scrub

Drag the handle from the first photo to the most recent and watch the tree change under your thumb. The date, the season tag and the caption sit under the image, and a counter tells you where in the run you are.

The photos tab of a tree in BonsaiLog: species, age, pot and acquisition details above a grid of dated thumbnails

Grid

The same photos grouped by year, newest year first, each thumbnail stamped with its month. This is the view for spotting the year you did nothing, and the year the canopy finally filled in.

BonsaiLog compare mode: the same juniper in April 2016 and July 2024, each photo with its own slider

Compare

Pick any two photos and hold them together, each with its own slider. It is the honest answer to whether three years of pinching did anything, and the one you end up showing at the club.

A separate Timeline tab pools every photo in the collection into one feed, newest first, with a filter for a single tree.

THE CARE LOG

Six kinds of care, each with its own fields

A watering note and a repotting note are not the same shape, so BonsaiLog does not pour them into one box. Pick the type and you get the fields that type needs, and nothing else.

  • Watering

    • date
    • notes
    • photo

    The plain one. A date, a note if the soak was unusual, a photo if something looked off.

  • Fertiliser

    • product
    • N-P-K
    • notes

    Which feed and at what strength, so next spring you can repeat the year that worked.

  • Repotting

    • soil mix
    • pot notes
    • root notes

    Free text for the mix, so 60% akadama / 30% pumice / 10% lava survives four years and two pots.

  • Wiring

    • area
    • gauge mm
    • copper / aluminium
    • removal date

    Branch, thickness and metal, plus the date you mean to take it off before it bites in.

  • Pruning

    • type
    • notes
    • photo

    Structural, maintenance or defoliation, with a photo of the silhouette you cut to.

  • Pest and disease

    • issue
    • treatment
    • photo

    What you saw, what you did about it, and whether it came back the following season.

BonsaiLog does not give horticultural advice. It never tells you when to water, when to repot, or when to take wire off. It records what you decided and when you decided it, and the reminders fire only for things you typed yourself, on the date you picked.

The rest of it

Scroll sideways, or use the arrow keys

The BonsaiLog collection screen listing Black Pine, The Old Juniper and Trident Maple with species, photo counts and the last care type logged
The collection, with each tree's last entry
The BonsaiLog global timeline: dated photo cards from every tree in the collection in one feed
Every photo in the collection, newest first
The logs tab of a tree in BonsaiLog showing watering, pruning, fertiliser, wiring and repotting entries with their details, filtered by type
One tree's log, filtered by type
The BonsaiLog care entry editor with the six care types as chips, a date field, notes and an optional photo
Logging care takes one screen
The BonsaiLog reminders screen with two upcoming reminders written by the user, one of them attached to Black Pine
Reminders, in your words and on your dates

THE ARTEFACT

Every tree can print its own biography

Years of entries earn their keep the day a tree changes hands, goes to a show, or outlives you. BonsaiLog builds one PDF per tree, on the phone, with no server involved.

  1. 1 A cover page Nickname, species, age estimate, pot, when you acquired it, and how many photos and entries stand behind it.
  2. 2 The photo timeline The tree's photos laid out oldest to newest with their dates, up to 120 images in one document.
  3. 3 Every care entry Grouped by type, carrying the fields you filled in: the soil mix, the wire gauge, the feed.

The PDF is a Premium feature, and it is also the only export. BonsaiLog has no backup file and no cloud sync, so keep the documents somewhere you trust.

Why it stays on the phone

  • Everything is on the device Trees, photos, entries and reminders are stored locally. The app opens the same way in a greenhouse with no bars.
  • No sign-up No email, no password, no account to lose. Install it and add a tree.
  • Species is free text No dropdown that has never heard of your yamadori. Write what it is, including how you came by it.
  • Light and dark Paper by default, a deep forest theme at night, or follow the system.
  • Built for a tablet too On a large screen the collection and the open tree sit side by side.
  • One banner, one screen The free version carries a single banner on the collection list. There are no full-screen ads anywhere in the app.

Questions

Is BonsaiLog free?

Two trees are free, with a banner ad on the collection screen. Premium lifts the tree limit, removes the ad and unlocks the biography PDF. Every install starts with a 14-day trial of the whole app, no card.

Does it work without a signal?

Yes. Trees, photos, care entries and reminders live on the phone. A connection is only used to serve the banner ad in the free version.

Does it tell me when to water or repot?

No, and that is deliberate. BonsaiLog records what you did and when. It never prescribes timing, because the answer depends on your species, your climate and your soil, not on an app.

What is in the biography PDF?

A cover with the tree's nickname, species, age estimate, pot and acquisition date, then the photo timeline dated oldest to newest, then every care entry grouped by type.

How do the reminders work?

You write the title and pick the date yourself. A reminder can be attached to one tree or left general, and it fires once. Nothing is ever scheduled for you.

Can I get my collection out of the app?

The biography PDF is the export, one per tree. There is no backup file and no cloud sync, so keep the documents somewhere safe if the collection matters to you.

Photograph the tree today

The timeline only works if it starts. Add your best tree, take one photo, and the second photo will mean something.

Get it on Google Play