Most veteran bonsai-ka who actually start a bonsai from seed usually have several pre-established bonsai that (s)he can work on while the seed grows, so that the first 3~5 years of waiting does not seems all that long. Beginners rarely have this option.
Its a common post that pops up here and there in forums :
"Hi,So lets answer those two basic questions:
I'm new to bonsai,
Where can I buy bonsai seeds?
How do I create a bonsai from seed?"
1. Where can I buy bonsai seeds?
First of all bonsai seeds does not exist, it is a marketing hoax to get gullible beginners to buy seeds.
What you buy is a normal tree / plant seed that you could have easily collected in fields, gardens and by the roadside.
Products labelled "Bonsai Seed" are often overpriced and misleading.
Bonsai is an horticulture technique, just like aquaponics.
Sure bonsai can produce flowers, fruits and seeds, but those will not give you another bonsai if you manage to make them germinate. They will produce another tree/plant!
What will turn your sprouting seed into a bonsai will be:
a. Your horticulture skills [ specially not to kill it during the germination/sprouting period, and keeping it alive for the rest of its or your life ],
b. Your bonsai knowledge [ of when to apply techniques to create and improve root, nebari, taper, girth, flow, ramification, leaf reduction, etc ],
c. Your artistic sensibility [ YES Artistic sensibility - Bonsai IS all about creating a living art-piece at the end of the day, not just another stick in a pot! ]
So you can either buy those seeds from the net [ ebay, amazon, special bonsai websites ], in nurseries or like I said above, pick it up in fields, gardens and by the roadside.
2. How do I create a bonsai from seed?
Creating bonsai from seeds are sometimes described as being quick or easy or fun or for beginners on many sites selling seeds or explaining how to create a bonsai from seed.
As a "beginner" who actually gave it a go, here's a quick summary of what to really expect when starting a bonsai from seeds:
1. It is not quick, it is actually extremely slow and painstaking and the resulting sprout/plant is very fragile in the beginning.
2. It is not easy, its actually pretty easy to f**k it up. Starting from seed to actually get a good material later on requires you to have a good grasp of what makes up a bonsai to guide the seed into producing those characteristics.
3. It is not for beginners! Sure you can have a got at it, but if you don't know when to nudge the tree in the right direction here and there, you'll just be wasting your time.
So here is a condensed "Growing Bonsai From Seed For Dummies" guide-through:
-2 / -1 yr : Seedy Potter - The seed that survived!
You're just wasting time here, no bonsai excitement in view, only basic horticultural skills needed to keep the seeds alive and kicking.
Stratify it, plant it, wait for it to germinate, wait for it to get strong enough for transplant, cross fingers and anything else that you can cross and hope it does not die on you.
00-03 yrs : Game of Patience - Watch it grow!
Do some basic root works: Get rid of taproot, spread the lateral roots in a desired radial shape to become future nebari.
You can forget about ramifications at this stage, because the main trunk is usually way too thin.
You need to let it grow, grow, grow and thicken, thicken, thicken.
Oh and stick it in the ground or a training pot! :)
Keep the bonsai pot inside the closet for now.
04-12 yrs : Congrats you've got your first pre-bonsai material, worth more or less what you could have get hold of in a nursery 4 year ago.
Wire the trunk, give it some basic shape and flow.
Choose your main branches, sacrificial branches, get rid of the rest.
Start on ramification, you know that thing you can start straight off when you buy a plant from nursery.
Continue to improve on root ball and nebari.
You can take out the bonsai pot from the closet now, don't forget to dust it off, but don't just add your tree into the pot yet.
06~20 yrs : Turn your prebonsai material into a bonsai masterpiece - If you can!
This is where the real bonsai work will start.
Further reduce the root-ball to get it to fit into a bonsai pot. If you've missed training the root just too bad, you'll have to start it all over.
Further promote the nebari to give an aged look to the tree. If you've missed the training from the earlier years to develop the nebari, then you're in for another series of years of training.
Get rid of sacrificial branches, if possible at the right time so as not to have to that process all over again.
Refine ramification, this should impact on the leaf size in the end.
Use your artistic taste to get it in shape, this is where the "Create a masterpiece - If you can!" part comes into action. Like walter pall wrote in a reply on one of his post: "The difference between good and world class is millimeters"
Place your miniature tree into your pot, yes you can finally do it.
And you get your first bonsai after some 12~20 years. That was quick was it not?
The years are just an approximation, it could take you less but generally it will take you much more to create a bonsai from a seed.
So why should beginner get away, at least for the first 2~3 years from starting from seeds?
Actually you can start by planting the seed and allowing it to grow for the next 2~3 years while you get some hands on experience with established nursery plants.So the real question would be "Why not to start into Bonsai solely with seeds?"
1. Well for starters beginners usually don't have a clue at how a bonsai ticks!
I am sorry, but its true!
If you can safely tell :
- when to start working on roots,
- which roots to cut and which to promote,
- which branches to leave and which to cut off,
- when to prune without killing off your tree,
- how to prune your tree [ yes some trees have a specific method of pruning ]
- how to avoid reverse-taper [ that's a nasty stuff that easy pops up if you're not careful, and its tricky to rectify it ],
- how to promote girth without distorting the tree,
- etc
Then go ahead and start from a seed.
But most of the time, you won't be able to tell when is the right time. That comes from practice and experience that a beginner can only get quickly when working with nursery plants.
2. Don't waste your learning time!
When you buy a nursery plant, you usually buy a trunk and some 3~5 years head start. You will still have to work on the roots and the ramification and the leaf reduction process.
When you're starting from seed, you start from -1 year at least. There will be no "bonsai action" so to speak for a long long time. This means you will practice nothing bonsai related for at least 2~5 years!
Its like learning to play a game, learning the rules and all the theory and all for 2~5 years before actually giving it a try!
3. You won't be able to leave it alone!
I know from personal experience and from others that when you start in bonsai, you want to work on the tree, be part of its growth. But when starting from a seed you have to leave it alone and let it grow.
Don't cut leaves, don't cut branches, let it grow. When starting from seed, you are actually growing a trunk and roots! That's all you want to grow from quite some time, and the only way to do that is by allowing the plant to grow.
At this stage either you snap and get fed up with bonsai, or you go into denial and think that the stick in a pot that you're growing is a bonsai.
4. Start with something from your neighborhood.
Most beginners that looks for seeds to begin with seems to look for the most exotic, most foreign seed possible. They tend to look for something that they would not normally find in their immediate environment and that is a huge flaw.
Start off with a plant that grows in your back garden, in your park or on the side-roads specially if its your first time starting off from a seed.
To conclude
Well that was light reading :)To sum it up, basically if you are new to bonsai, get away from the idea of starting the learning process from a seed. Its time consuming and you don't get any real bonsai action until you get a decent prebonsai material!
On the good side, if you manage to pull it off and create a bonsai, there is no doubt that you will feel some elation at the success.
