If you're looking to buy seeds for bonsai - full disclosure - I am writing this series with the intent to sell my own seeds for growing bonsai (see here). At the risk of sounding too sales-pitchy, I am sending an exclusive hard-copy version of this blog series to all my customers. The hard-copy guide will simply guide you through the complicated 10+year challenge of growing bonsai from seed. If you can't wait for our weekly release of future blog articles in this series, you will receive the full guide right away with your purchase of seeds. Thank you in advance for supporting my bonsai work!
Sections
1. Last Week: The Root of All Bonsai
2. This Week: Bonsai Seed Myths
2A. "Bonsai seed kits are a great gift!"
2B. "Bonsai seeds are rare."
2C. "All bonsai are grown from seed."
2D."Growing from seed is the best way to learn about bonsai."
2E. "Bonsai should be pruned often and pruned hard to build their trunk."
2F. "Growing from seed is a waste of time!"
3. Next Week...
2. This Week: Bonsai Seed Myths
2A. "Bonsai seed kits are a great gift!"
2B. "Bonsai seeds are rare."
2C. "All bonsai are grown from seed."
2D."Growing from seed is the best way to learn about bonsai."
2E. "Bonsai should be pruned often and pruned hard to build their trunk."
2F. "Growing from seed is a waste of time!"
3. Next Week...
Stay tuned to this series to learn how to transform these...
Left a Japanese black pine, and right a European beech. Both 2-3 years old. |
A 50-year-old Japanese black pine, grown from seed by Dan Robinson and now on display at Elandan Gardens. |
Experienced bonsai artists are amazed at the enthusiasm of beginners seeking to grow from seed, but we know a grim truth. Unfortunately, most "bonsai seed kits" prey on the ignorance of these enthusiastic would-be-bonsai hobbyists for a quick buck. "Bonsai seed kits" often amount to little more than a scam for beginners because the kits do nothing to teach the owner how to be successful bonsai growers, much less artists. Many beginners get so discouraged by their withering seedlings that they give up on bonsai all together.
Growing a bonsai from seed is definitely harder than keeping a bonsai alive that has already been grown. So if you are thinking about gifting a bonsai novice something which you hope will get them into the hobby, I suggest a young, established bonsai instead (and include a bonsai book for them to refer to easily!). By taking this route, the tree is more likely to survive longer and will allow your gift recipient to learn about and practice bonsai techniques much more thoroughly than they would by only growing from seed. I often suggest a beginner-friendly tropical species like jade or ficus for indoor growing or elm or maple for outdoor growing. However, if you intend to buy seeds as a gift for someone who is already into the art of bonsai, that could be a better fit than someone who has zero bonsai experience.
2B. "Bonsai seeds are rare."
One myth that makes "bonsai seed kits" seem special is the idea that there is such a thing as a "bonsai seed" in the first place. In fact, there are no magic beans for bonsai trees; bonsai trees are not genetically different from their full-sized counterparts, and neither are their seeds. The seeds from a one-foot-tall ponderosa pine bonsai will still produce a 100+ foot tree if planted in the right place. Natural and man-made bonsai are instead small due to constrictions on the volume their roots can fill as well as thanks to regular pruning.
So no, the seeds I or any other "bonsai seed" seller has are not that special. The only sense that they may be special is that I have picked a species that will survive and grow easily in bonsai culture. Some species of trees are certainly more proven in their ability to become beautiful bonsai than other species, but it's definitely worth experimenting with new species! If you can identify the right time to collect mature seeds, you can work on starting your own bonsai without buying seeds from myself or any bonsai seed kit!
2C. "All bonsai are grown from seed."
On its surface, this seems like an obvious fact that all trees come from seed, but in reality, that is not so! Many professional bonsai artists (including many of the best Japanese artists) will never even touch seed-growing in their entire bonsai career! There are several other sources of material to start your bonsai all with their own advantages and disadvantages. This was the topic of our first post in this series "The Root of All Bonsai," so read there if you want to review the alternatives. Often times bonsai artists find other plants in nature, landscapes, or nurseries which we then convert into bonsai.
Many bonsai novices think that pruning somehow stimulates the tree to mature faster. In some ways, this has truth; pruning frequently promotes the production of dense fine branching - this is a technique that can be used for Bonsai Styling on more mature trees when the tree's trunk size is mostly fixed. However, there is a simple reason why this does not result in increased trunk size. Building a trunk is an expensive process, both in terms of sugars needed and energy. Everybody already knows bonsai trees - like all plants - rely on their leaves and foliage to produce sugar for all their functions, so it is the only logical extension that to achieve the fastest speed of trunk growth, one would want to have as many leaves and needles as possible. The more solar panels on your bonsai power plant, the faster it will invest its energy into building the trunk you want to build a better bonsai on top of. The idea of strategic pruning and strategic absence of pruning will also be reiterated in more detail in our future posts regarding the long-term growth plans for our seeds.
I know I've spent a lot of time in this article and in last week's article talking about how time-consuming growing from seed and how beginners may want to reconsider this path as your starting point in bonsai. That said, I don't want you to think that it's a waste of time! I'm here to help taper your expectations and plan for reality. Growing from seed is definitely time-consuming, but whether or not you survive to see the tree become an award-winning specimen does not have to impact whether or not you will enjoy the process! There's also a certain beauty in the idea of creating a living piece of art that you will pass on to the next generation of bonsai artists! That said, even if you only want to invest your time in projects for which you will see returns in your lifetime, I want to emphasize that using the right techniques, we can substantially cut down the time that it takes for a seed to turn into a show-stopping bonsai. Take the following examples below. If you start now rather than delay, you'll be glad you did in a few years!
2D. "Growing bonsai from seed is the best way to learn about bonsai."
This is also a topic that I discussed at length in our previous post, "The Root of All Bonsai," but it bears repeating. Bonsai Growing (like from seed) uses quite different techniques than Bonsai Styling (like when transforming a bush into a bonsai). I'm trying to use these two terms to distinguish the skill sets because in some ways they are very different. Bonsai Growing is focused on creating and framing the trunk and primary branches of your bonsai as the thickness and characteristics of age on these features will change only very slowly once the tree is in a small bonsai pot. Bonsai Styling, however, is a skill set for arranging the branches and foliage as well as carving deadwood on a tree once you're already happy with your trunk and major branches. These aren't entirely mutually exclusive skills, though. For example, you may have some bonsai at home which you previously styled but now are thinking that you would like their trunks or branches to be thicker. Techniques from Bonsai Growing can be applied to plants in a bonsai pot which you wish to add thickness, but it will not be as rapid of a transformation as if the tree was still growing in a large training pot or growing in the ground (more on this in our long-term planning article).
2E. "The more I prune, the faster my bonsai will grow."
Note that these trident maple prebonsai have been allowed to grow 6-7 feet tall sacrifice branches to help thicken their trunks. These trees are probably around 5 years old. |
2F. "Growing from seed is a waste of time, I'll never live to see it mine become a good bonsai!"
How old do you guess this trident maple is? It might be hard to believe, but this trident maple - grown from seed by Dan Robinson - is less than 10 years old! |
3. Next week...
1. Last Week: The Root of All Bonsai
1A. Seeds
1B. Cuttings
1C. Air layers
1D. Urban Collection
1E. Wild Collection
2. "Bonsai Seed" Myths
1B. Cuttings
1C. Air layers
1D. Urban Collection
1E. Wild Collection
2. "Bonsai Seed" Myths
2A. "Bonsai seed kits are a great gift!"
2B. "Bonsai seeds are rare."
2C. "All bonsai are grown from seed."
2B. "Bonsai seeds are rare."
2C. "All bonsai are grown from seed."
2D. "Growing from seed is the best way to learn about bonsai."
2F. "Growing from seed is a waste of time!"
2E. "The more I prune, the faster my bonsai will grow."
3A. Before Germinating
3B. Getting Started
3C. Year 0 Plan - Watch Them Go!
3D. Year 1 Plan - Train the Trunks & Trim the Roots!
3E. Year 2 Plan - Give it more room!
3B. Getting Started
3C. Year 0 Plan - Watch Them Go!
3D. Year 1 Plan - Train the Trunks & Trim the Roots!
3E. Year 2 Plan - Give it more room!
4. Long-term growing plan
4A. Ground growing vs pot culture
4B. Sacrifice branches
5. Bonus Gallery
4A. Ground growing vs pot culture
4B. Sacrifice branches
5. Bonus Gallery
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