Growing Bonsai From Seeds Growing Bonsai From Seeds This is a blog about tiny little seeds and how they grow into tiny little trees. This is a blog about small trees and how I want to grow them.
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Pruning my Ficus Retusa
2007-10-13 20:53:00 I?ve had my fig tree now for five days. It still appears to be doing fine. I?ve watered it once since I?ve gotten it, that was by lifting it from its pot and placing it in a bowl of water to soak, and I mist it every day. I had my first go at pruning it today. I thought it needed to have a bit taken off the top. It looked to me that there were too many branches forming on the top and it was in danger of becoming a bush. I told myself this anyway. I?d had my secateurs for a while now and I hadn?t had a chance to use them! I took off a branch that was growing out of the middle of the top branch of the tree. I used a small piece of blu-tac as a sealant to cover the wound left on the tree. While I was at it I had a go at fixing up a couple of cuts that the previous owner had made. There were two very visible stumps on the trunk of the tree where branches had been pruned. I didn?t think they looked very nice. So I took my secateurs and managed to clip both of them off. What remains is... More About: Bonsai , Pruning
Planting Eucalytpus seeds
2007-10-13 20:33:00 I got more Eucalyptus seeds today. Following the bit of reading I?ve done about them I?ve concluded that my main mistake last time was adding fertilizer. The potassium probably killed off the seedlings. I?m trying the Eucalyptus again this time because, of all the different types of seeds I tried, it was the one that showed some signs of success. Last time around it took about two-and-a-half weeks to see any signs of growth. This is all a learning experience for me. I don?t know if it will be exactly the same again this time or not. Probably not. The one lesson I learned from the last time was not to use potassium rich fertilizer on Australian trees.My method of planting them is the same as the last time. I bought the seeds in a prepared potting mixture. When I got them home I followed the instructions to pierce a couple of holes in the bottom of the pot and soak it in water. When I was doing this I just put the pot floating on top of a bowl with a couple of inches of water and le... More About: Bonsai , Seed , Planting , Seeds
Learning about Eucalyptus trees
2007-10-12 00:25:00 Now that I?ve gotten my first real bonsai I?m starting to think more about growing trees from seeds. I?ve decided to give it another try with Eucalyptus seeds. My starting point was the Hardy Eucalyptus Board which is a straight forward discussion board for people interested in Eucalyptus trees. I find the people there are helpful and willing to answer questions for newbies like myself.Someone on that board posted a link to info about Eucalyptus from which I learned one important piece of information: ?Fertilizing: One word sums it up - DON'T! When it comes to fertilizers, one key thing to remember is that most all Australia plants do not like phosphorus. In fact, phosphorus toxicity is a real challenge in growing some Australia plants. Phosphorus is the middle number of the N-P-K ratings found on fertilizers. We have found that most of the Australia plants we grow receive sufficient phosphorus from the soil and no additional fertilizers are needed. ? As soon as I read this I... More About: Trees , Bonsai , Learning , Rees , Earning
Me and my Banyan tree
2007-10-08 21:43:00 I am now the proud owner of a fig tree. A seven-year-old Banyan (Ficus Relusa) Tree bought today in the newly re-opened Bonsai Shop in the Powerscourt Shopping Centre in Dublin. A fig tree is supposedly an excellent choice for an indoor tree and it has the honour of becoming my very first bonsai tree. Now that I have it home I have just realized how terrible the lighting in my flat is. This is not helped by my main light being out of order at the moment so I?m relying on lots of side lights all on at the same time. I have my fluorescent desk lamp back in service beside the tree to provide as much light as possible for now.This is the trees first night in my flat. I?m not going to do anything else with it now for a couple of days and let it first of all settle into its new surroundings. According to the information supplied with the tree it likes warm conditions and should be kept between 12 to 26 degrees Celsius. The guy in the bonsai shop recommended that I not water it for a...
Small leaves and fig trees
2007-09-25 16:15:00 I've been thinking a bit lately about leaf reduction in bonsai, just trying to work out how it happens. In the course of my searching I came across this useful page about fig trees from forums2.gardenweb.com/forums The process of leaf reduction is still a mystery to me. It seems to be a procedure to avoid until you have developed more experience but it strikes me as one of the most fascinating parts of bonsai. More About: Small , Trees , Bonsai , Leaves , Fig Tree
First lessons in Bonsai
2007-09-19 22:15:00 This is very much the end of Phase One of me and bonsai. This phase started with me walking into a bonsai shop in town in July and marveling at all of the wonderfully shaped and ancient looking small trees and wanting one. I instinctively felt that I would prefer to grow my own tree from the beginning rather than to just buy one off the shelf. It wasn?t just the price difference that made me think that, but it did help! When I bought my first seeds I was aware that it would take some amount of time before I would have something that I could call a bonsai tree, but in my mind this period of time was some four or five months. At the most. I didn?t realize that we were talking about years before I would have material to train into a bonsai. -(more) More About: Bonsai , Lessons
Oak trees surviving (barely)
2007-09-15 00:27:00 The situation is pretty much unchanged since my last post. There is no change in the status of the oaks. They haven?t gotten worse or better. There has been a slight yellowing in the leaves of the older oak, which wouldn?t look out of place outside where Autumn leaves are beginning to fall. The tree-lined footpaths outside are already starting to get cluttered with leaves. I like to delude myself that this is why the leaves on my oaks are fading and maybe I?m right. I?m still misting them every evening to give them some respite from the dry, unnatural, indoor atmosphere. I think it may be time to pull the sheet up over the eucalyptus seeds and pronounce them dead. The one little seedling I had is still bent over and quite clearly a goner. None other have sprouted. On the plus side the fact that I got at least one seed to germinate is proof that growing trees from seeds isn?t a complete scam even though it may be harder than I first thought. -(more) More About: Trees , Barely , Rees , Vivi
Sean: Destroyer of Small Trees
2007-09-10 21:21:00 I have been a bonsai-ist now for two months and I have been a complete failure so far. Of four different types of seed that I have attempted to germinate only one, the eucalyptus, sprouted. For two months of inflated electricity bills and molly-coddling I only managed to get one little seedling. But when I saw that little seedling it all felt worthwhile: Here was my very own tree that I could grow from a seed and then train into a bonsai. As soon as I saw the little sprout I thought I had succeeded. I came home this evening and my little eucalyptus seedling was slumped over. It was small anyway and I would often have to scan the surface carefully to find it. But when I checked on it this evening on getting home I stared and stared at the surface of the pot and turned it around several different angles. I couldn?t find it. It was as if it had disappeared. Of course it hadn?t. After some more searching I came across it, lying almost flat. -It?s stem appears broken. I don?t know wh... More About: Small , Trees , Sean , Rees , Destroyer
Oaks. Then and Now pics.
2007-09-08 14:50:00 I'm not proud of this but this is what my oak sapling looked like when I got it: And here it is now: What's really terrible is that I think it's starting to look a bit better. -Here's the younger of the oaks when I first potted it (six days ago): Here it is now: :( I already know that indoors is not the proper environment for them, but I'm hoping I can make them survive in it until next spring at the most when I plan to have some garden space to put them. I went into town today and I found a hardware shop on South Great Georges St (Decwells) that sells the flower pots with drainage holes that I was thinking of. I got them and some compost and have the oaks repotted in them now. I was surprised when I was repotting them how dry the soil was in the terracotta pots. I was so concerned about overwatering them and drowning them in pots with no drainage holes that I underdid it. In fact the soil at the bottom of both pots was bone dry. Possibly this is the whole ca... More About: Then
Tasmanian or Queenslander? Either way it wasn?t a bud.
2007-09-08 13:56:00 The Internet is a wonderful place. I was worried because my Tasmanian Eucalyptus (Citriodora) seedling had lost its little red bud. It turned out upon inquiry that I didn't have a Tasmanian Eucalyptus (Citriodora) and that whatever I had, it didn't have a red bud to begin with! I had searched on the Internet and found a lot of information about Eucalyptus but not the specific question I wanted. Then I found a message board dedicated to Eucalyptus - Yes, dedicated to Eucalyptus! I'm not knocking it; just marvelling at it! - The Hardy Eucalyptus Board (http://members3.boardhost.com/eucalyptus ) and asked the question that was plaguing me. I posted my message last night and when I checked the board this morning, like a child checking under its pillow for the tooth fairy, a guy called Gus had posted a response!His opinion (and of course this is where you have to be careful when you?re getting advice from the Internet) was that the red ?bud? that I saw was in fact the outer layer (... More About: Lander , Mania
Doggie-paddling in the shallow-end of Bonsai
2007-09-07 21:19:00 The oaks are unrecognizable from the fresh young things that I brought into my house. The leaves are shriveled and feel like they?re ready to crumble when you touch them. Nevertheless, there does seem to have been some improvement. I got my spray bottle yesterday. I bought a spray bottle of insect repellant and emptied it out. I?m using that now to spray water onto the leaves. I?m at risk of overdoing it at the moment. Basically as soon as the droplets from the last spraying have disappeared I do it again. This works out at around once every hour in the evenings when I?m home. I still haven?t come across any garden shop around the city centre in Dublin. The little terra cotta pots that came with my seeds and that I used to pot the oaks in don?t have drainage holes and I think that that?s just wrong. I?ve been into a couple of hardware shops which have various bits and pieces in stock but I still haven?t found one selling ordinary plant pots with drainage holes. Yesterday I was s... More About: Bonsai , Paddling , Allo
Man or Squirrel?
2007-09-05 23:56:00 Since I appear to be on a bit of a roll at the moment, what with Eucalyptus seeds germinating etc, I?ve made my decision on the great question of storage or planting of the acorns and horse chestnuts: planting. I?ve planted two acorns on their side in a pot about an inch beneath the surface.I found some useful information about growing acorns on the web. A couple of sites are pasted below: Collecting, storing and planting acorns http://www.phytosphere.com/oakplanting/ac orns.htm Growing Oak Trees from Seed Oklahoma Cooperative Extension http://osuextra.okstate.edu/pdfs/F-5031we b.pdf I then went googling for information on planting the horse chestnuts. The first site I opened was titled ?growing chestnuts?, which went off to a good start, but reading it quickly turned into a slasher novel as it went on to describe good ways to roast and eat them! I searched for several minutes, which is a long time in this information age, all of them fruitless. There were plenty of sites about g... More About: Squirrel
Eucalyptus shoots. Oak dying?
2007-09-05 22:16:00 The oak saplings are still not looking good. The big one is about the same as yesterday, but the smaller one is getting worse. Whereas yesterday the small one had merely droopy leaves, now they are as shriveled as the larger one. On my lunch break I went searching for some items to improve their chances. I was looking for some pots with drainage holes, fertilizer and a spray bottle to mist the leaves. I?ll admit I?m not a great shopper. My shopping is limited to a few places that I know my way around. I didn?t have much time during lunch either.In the end all I could find was liquid lawn fertilizer. I?m hoping this helps. I?m sure it can?t do any harm. I applied some fertilizer when I came home. I watered them yesterday so I?m aware of the danger of drowning them but they look like they need some nutrients so I added the fertilizer. I?m hoping it?ll give the roots something to reach for and that they?ll start digging in. When I was buying the fertilizer I bought some secateurs wh... More About: Dying , Shoots , Shoot
Why is My bonsai dying?
2007-09-05 13:09:00 by Randy Clark, Charlotte, NC I found an interesting article from the North Carolina Bonsai Learning Centre on the Bonsai Web-Ring (Bonsai Learning Centre). It's pretty relevant to me at moment. I'm wondering what my oaks will be like when I go home this evening: The expression "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," applies here. It's not difficult to grow a bonsai, but it requires that you understand some of the fundamentals about how to take care of them. It's like buying a tank full of tropical fish. You need to understand how to take care of them or you will have dead fish very shortly. If your tree is dying, a number of possibilities present themselves:__ Possibility #1 - You have made the gods of bonsai angry! SOLUTION: Try burying a dead squirrel under the front porch of your house during the dark of the moon. This usually pleases the gods of bonsai. If this does not work. Get another hobby... Sorry about that! Just kidding. Possibility #2 - Your bo... More About: Dying
Shriveled, dryed-up leaves
2007-09-04 23:03:00 I spent a good part of the day in work today thinking about oak trees. When I left the flat this morning it was 6.30 and still just starting to get bright. The leaves on the oaks were slightly curled up. I put this down to a night-time reaction. Do leaves on trees not curl up during the night like they?re going to sleep or am I just getting fanciful and stupid? Anyway, when I came home this evening I went into an instant panic when I saw the curled up, shriveled remains of the leaves. The older of the two was the worst affected and its leaves really were shriveled up. The younger ones leaves were only just beginning to droop.I didn?t check the soil before I left this morning; I just assumed that the water levels would be high enough since they were first potted and watered only on Sunday night/Monday morning. From what I?ve read it seems that over-watering is a problem so I was trying not to overdo that. When I got home this evening though and saw them shriveled up I checked the... More About: Leaves , Aves
A walk in the forest
2007-09-03 23:09:00 My weekend trip to Donegal included a nature-walk with my girlfriend in a grove of mixed trees on Saturday. We started off collecting acorns and horse chestnuts because they were the most readily identifiable seeds. You?d never guess I was from the country as I followed Michelle?s footsteps carefully around the wood; or that I was a grown man when I realized that the small plants growing at the bases of the trees were ?baby trees?. This is the smaller of the two. I like the way the trunk divides and there's already a branch formation beginning. We ended up collecting, as well as acorns and horse chestnuts, some oak, sycamore and ash saplings. I now have a couple of the oak saplings potted in my flat. The other oak, sycamore and ash saplings are being planted outside near Michelles home. I realize that having oak saplings growing inside is completely the wrong type of climate for them. It?s partly vanity; just in order to see an oak sapling growing in a pot in my flat. There?s s... More About: Forest , Walk , Fore
No more Pink Silk Tree seeds
2007-09-03 22:56:00 I gave up waiting for green shoots today and excavated beneath the surface of the pink silk tree seed potting mixture. As I feared with them they were completely rotted away. I take this as my first lesson from growing seeds; too much water is not good. I am sorry about this because I thought it would have been a good option for growing indoors.When I first discovered the mould on one of the seeds I also noticed that one of the seeds had started to show signs of breaking out of its casing. I didn?t think much of it at the time. My reaction was to put it back in the fridge because it hadn't finished being stratified for the specified number of weeks. What I've read in the meantime tells me that once the seeds begin to germinate then that's enough stratification! The additional weeks of moist chilling probably did for the seeds and insured that the rot set in. Oh what I?d give for a little germination now! It is tempting to go out tomorrow and buy more and try again but I'm wonde... More About: Pink , Tree , Silk , Seed , Seeds
Eucalyptus seed germination
2007-08-28 22:04:00 Eucalyptus seed germination More About: Germ , Seed , Mina
About the California Redwood
2007-08-28 22:03:00 Tallest living things on earth. Average 250-300 ft tall, some over 360 ft. According to fossil records, redwoods once covered the northern hemisphere about 100 million years ago. The advance and retreat of the ice ages slowly contained the redwoods to isolated groves in Calif ornia and China. Coast redwoods depend on the foggy conditions of the North Coast as insolation, keeping them cooler in summer and warmer in the winter. The Redwoods themselves contribute to the fog by transpiring up to 500 gallons of water per tree per day. The average annual rainfall on the North Coast is from 50-80 inches. Rich alluvial soils, deposited by periodic floods create the best soil for growing the biggest redwoods. About the California Redwood
Germinating Maple Seeds
2007-08-28 22:02:00 So you plant maple seeds and they don?t come up and you think ?stupid seeds?. Rather than cursing the seeds, think instead of what their problems are. Look at it from the seed?s point of view. The seeds are normally shed in the fall when there are still some nice warm and damp days ? ideal for a seed to sprout. Let?s say they do sprout in autumn ? the delicate seedlings then face a winter of frost damage, crushing snow, uprooting by floods and frost heaving, predation by mice, birds, insects, eelworms, fungi ? you get the message. In other words a maple seed would have to be crazy to germinate as soon as it hits a warm damp seedbed. The same problems are faced by a wide range of temperate-region wild plants. Germ inating Maple Seed s More About: Seeds , Mina
Germinate, damn you!
2007-08-28 22:00:00 It?s been a week-and-a-half now and so far there are no ?green shoots?. I?m starting to worry. I did some searching on the web last night about the germination of various species. I have good reason to be hopeful about the eucalyptus. It seems that its seeds are quite good germinators. Average time is about two weeks. I had thought I read somewhere before that germination time was about one week so that was why I was beginning to worry. Nature doesn?t happen like clockwork so it may not be exactly 14 days but something like that anyway and what it means for me is that there is still hope.I read a bit more about stratification, which was required for the Japanese Maple and the Persian Pink Silk tree. I hadn?t thought too much about it before; just that by watering and refrigerating the seeds it copied the cold and wet conditions that they experienced in nature and then that by moving them from there to a warm dark place they would get the hint that spring had come and it was time to ... More About: Damn , Nate , Germ , Mina
Tree the fourth: Sequoia sempervirens - Californian Redwood Tree
2007-08-25 19:09:00 It's recommended as an indoor tree by the Montreal Botanical Garden. Canadians don't lie. Right? Calif ornian Redwoods are the tallest living trees on earth. Just the thought of growing one of these as a bonsai is fascinating!The others have been in the press now for a week and there's still no sign of shooting. I know it's still probably too soon but I got these Redwood seeds today to keep hope alive. They don't require any stratification so once I soaked them I put them straight into the hot press and turned the heat on! When I was reading about them on the web I came across an unpleasant fact. Unpleasant to me who is trying to grow trees from seeds anyway. Californian Redwoods can produce up to six million seeds a year but less than 5% of these germinate. Of those that do germinate only a few survive and grow into seedlings. Odds like this are a little discouraging to me since I probably only have three or four seeds in my little pot. The Unique Sequoia Sempervirens More About: Tree
Knowledge of Bonsai
2007-08-25 15:45:00 Growing trees from seed has a charm that begins with the joy of germination. It continues as each seedling progresses through its tender stages to become a promising sapling. This potential fully fledged tree, given the correct care over time, can become a bonsai. A tree that has been under your personal supervision for its entire life. Trees from seeds - bonsai the slowest way More About: Bonsai , Knowledge
The Green Pages of the Montreal Bontanical Garden
2007-08-25 14:21:00 Some good information here on the differences between indoor and outdoor bonsai and a list of the most common indoor species. Indoor Bonsai More About: Garden , Montreal , Green , Pages , The G
Day Four in the House
2007-08-21 23:30:00 I watered the seeds today for the first time since putting them in. The advice on the leaflet was to water them every three days. Web-sites I?ve visited have said that this every-three-days advice is given just to make the process seem easy and the best thing to do is to water when necessary.I watered the seeds today for the first time since putting them in. The advice on the leaflet was to water them every three days. Web-sites I?ve visited have said that this every-three-days advice is given just to make the process seem easy and the best thing to do is to water when necessary. The soil felt dry this evening on top so I dipped each of the tubs into a bowl of water. I really don?t know what I?m doing so I don?t know if it?s too much or not. My method of watering is to put the tub floating on top of the bowl with a few inches of water and let it sink to the bottom. I then take it out again. I?ve been keeping a close eye on the seeds; taking them out every day for an inspection. Th... More About: House , The House
?It?s unnatural!?
2007-08-19 19:18:00 It seems like I haven?t thought this out at all. Every bit of advice I?m getting from internet forums now is that I should have started this in the spring. It?s like the old joke about someone asking directions and being told that they shouldn?t start their journey from here! The basic problem is that Japanese Maple trees drop their seeds in the autumn, they lie dormant for the winter and then in the spring they start to grow, this continues through the summer. In the autumn they begin to slow down again and in the winter they enter a period of dormancy which continues until the following spring. This dormancy period is essential to the trees, maybe something like sleep to us.It seems like I haven?t thought this out at all. Every bit of advice I?m getting from internet forums now is that I should have started this in the spring. It?s like the old joke about someone asking directions and being told that they shouldn?t start their journey from here! The basic problem is that Japan... More About: Natur , Natura , Ural
Internet forums visited:
2007-08-19 19:18:00 Bonsai Help Talk Bonsai Forum The Helpful Gardener Bonsai Forum More About: Internet , Forums
Citriodora - Tasmanian Eucalyptus Tree
2007-08-18 19:42:00 This makes three. Hopefully at least one of the species will find my hot press comfortable! More About: Tree , Trio , Mania
Germination day
More articles from this author:2007-08-18 15:35:00 If any of these seeds make it out of here it might count as a miracle! I had designated today to be G-Day for the Japanese Maple seeds, it being six weeks since I first soaked and refrigerated them. The instructions said to allow between six to ten weeks and it was hard enough to wait six weeks so once the clock started ticking towards midnight last night I decided to go for it. In fact the clock had a fair bit to go towards midnight; it even had a bit to go towards ten o?clock last night when I moved them. I had imagined an orderly progression here and that the Persian Pink Silk seeds that I bought three weeks ago would go into the hot press in another three weeks at which point the Japanese Maples should be starting to sprout. To keep up the momentum of this progression I bought some Tasmanian Eucalyptus (Citriodora) seeds today with the intention that they would begin their journey three weeks after the Persian Pink Silk.If any of these seeds make it out of here it might count a... More About: Germ , Mina 1, 2 |
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