New bonsiaer in Texas

[RentaPig311]

Hello all,
I'm located in Texas and am new to bonsai. I was looking around and saw tons of awesome bonsai trees. I was especially interested in a cabernet grape tree but read through reviews the ones ordered from corporate online stores died quickly. Not knowing if it was lack of skill or bad trees I started looking around and ended up here. Although I would still love to get my hands on(and keep alive) the grape tree I decided it would be more rewarding, educational and of course more cost effect (if I was to murder a tree) to start from seeds. I have the following seeds on the way. Mini citrus orange, japanese red maple bamboo, cider eucalyptus gum, and japanese blue wisteria vine. I have been keeping various poison dart frogs and exotic terrarium plants for years but have no clue what I'm doing with bonsai. I hope this forum turns out to be the great resource it appears to be. Side note: any plans for this board to go tapatalk?

 

[BonRy_an]

Only down side is starting from seed will take years before you will get to anything resembling a pre-bonsai 5 or so years I read I might be wrong though. (starting tree years and lots of hardwork before becoming bonsai). If you don't mind waiting for them to grow then you are all good, but you wont be able to work with a tree for a very long time and it will feel more costly to murder the seeds that took 5 years to grow to a workable state v.s. $10 at Walmart.

You can go ahead, and plant the seeds to get them going, but I would look for a wild, nursery, or store bought material that is ready to go (as I have been told) to get your murderings in before your seeds arrive.

Here is a link that will be very beneficial to you. http://www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basics_Seeds.html

Good luck!

 

[RentaPig311]

I have no problem waiting a few years for these guys. It seems rewarding to me. I know it is something I want to do eventually so figured I'd start trying now while I'm still young...ish. There were some cheap bonsai at my local nursery I was tempted to get my feet wet with but they were seated in rocks not soil. I read one article that said not to buy these as they will likely die. Would be possible to repot them and keep them alive?

 

[Adair M]

Were the rocks glued on?

To the uninitiated, true bonsai soil looks like "little rocks". In fact, the term "soil" is misleading as most non-bonsai people equate "soil" with "dirt".

Bonsai soil is inorganic. No "soil" or peat moss or pine bark. It looks like an aggregate of very small pebbles. The size of a pea, roughly.

Is that what you saw the bonsai planted in?

 

[RentaPig311]

It was not glued down I made sure to check that. You actually gave a pretty good description of what it was. I think I need to introduce myself to the search function. I got starter soil type stuff and those biodegradable pots to start my seed in. Covered in a basic garden started dome. This under a 6500k light has given me great results with most plant seeds but then again I have never tried tree seeds. I guess the bonsai soil comes once they are actual trees and not just saplings.

 

[daygan]

I guess the bonsai soil comes once they are actual trees and not just saplings.

Although I think good bonsai soil probably does well for saplings as well. Granted, most of the time, saplings are just planted in the ground for a few years to increase trunk size, but if a sapling were in a pot and planted in bonsai soil, I think it would be a pretty healthy way of growing it. In China, I've even found diatomaceous earth (which many in the west recognize as a good bonsai soil) sold online as a starter soil for seedlings. That's gotta say something...