New to bonsai - Unplanted and clueless

Sternbigfoot30

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Hello all. I'm new to bonsai and even newer to this community. I've been looking through these threads and you guys all seem to be very informative and helpful, but I see very few posts regarding starting bonsai from seed. I'm very excited to be starting this journey BUT I have no idea what I'm doing.

So that being said can you guys give me some advice and in addition perhaps some resources to help me along the way?
I purchased a bonsai planting kit off of Amazon from a seller named garden republic, initially I was concerned about the quality but to my relief it seems to be adequate. (I can fill in with photos later if it would help)

Anyway. This kit came with seeds from four different breeds of baby trees, as following

Black spruce - picea Mariana
Brazilian rosewood - jacaranda mimosifolia
Flame tree - delonix regia
Bristlecone pine - pinus aristata

I live in NE Florida, it's very hot and humid. Can you guys give me any info on these plants, germination process, indoor/outdoor, how long to give sun, frequency of watering. I'm also not sure if I'm going to plant all four at the same time. likely not. Any tips on which to start with would be helpful.

TLDR: I'm going to plant bonsai and I don't know how.
 

sorce

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Welcome to Crazy!

Pics of the seed might get to em ID'd .

Sometimes they aren't the advertised seed.

Did you get a few of each?

I'd plant half em now.

Sorce
 

Traken

Shohin
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Welcome aboard!

Starting from seed is definitely a cool way to grow a tree, as you have total control over it, but one thing to bear in mind is that it's definitely not a fast process. There's no such thing as a bonsai seed, as bonsai are just actual trees, handled in a way to miniaturize them. You should definitely grow the seeds, as it'll be a really cool way develop trees, but you may also want to do some research/look into developing bonsai from nursery stock and things along those lines as well. You can never have too many trees. ;)

Bonsai Mirai has a really cool beginner series on Youtube that has some really good information about selecting a tree and the next steps you can follow for the slow process of developing them into eventual bonsai..
 

Sternbigfoot30

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Welcome to Crazy!

Pics of the seed might get to em ID'd .

Sometimes they aren't the advertised seed.

Did you get a few of each?

I'd plant half em now.

Sorce

Hey sorce, thanks for the reply. To answer your question yes I have quite a few seeds. I believe they gave me enough for "Two rounds of planting"

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Sternbigfoot30

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Welcome aboard!

Starting from seed is definitely a cool way to grow a tree, as you have total control over it, but one thing to bear in mind is that it's definitely not a fast process. There's no such thing as a bonsai seed, as bonsai are just actual trees, handled in a way to miniaturize them. You should definitely grow the seeds, as it'll be a really cool way develop trees, but you may also want to do some research/look into developing bonsai from nursery stock and things along those lines as well. You can never have too many trees. ;)

Bonsai Mirai has a really cool beginner series on Youtube that has some really good information about selecting a tree and the next steps you can follow for the slow process of developing them into eventual bonsai..

I think I may do that as well. I can buy a tree and have some experience by the time my trees are grown.
And yes I'm aware and trying to become prepared for this investment...
Thanks for the info, if you stick around the thread i would love to hear any more insight you have.
 

Traken

Shohin
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I think I may do that as well. I can buy a tree and have some experience by the time my trees are grown.
And yes I'm aware and trying to become prepared for this investment...
Thanks for the info, if you stick around the thread i would love to hear any more insight you have.

I'm pretty new myself, having only gotten into everything last year, so I'm hesitant to overstep my experience, but this place is a wealth of info, and there are a ton of very experienced, knowledgeable people here. Definitely read everything you can, and I'm sure other people will hop in and offer good advice, especially regarding starting from seed.
 

Bonsai Nut

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Welcome to the site!

If you want to see some crazy... there is an entire FORUM for people who are participating in a 6 year - Japanese Black Pine from seed Contest.

We're about 18 months in at this point. Fun to see what people have been doing, the various methods, and the results.
 
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Hello all. I'm new to bonsai and even newer to this community. I've been looking through these threads and you guys all seem to be very informative and helpful, but I see very few posts regarding starting bonsai from seed. I'm very excited to be starting this journey BUT I have no idea what I'm doing.

So that being said can you guys give me some advice and in addition perhaps some resources to help me along the way?
I purchased a bonsai planting kit off of Amazon from a seller named garden republic, initially I was concerned about the quality but to my relief it seems to be adequate. (I can fill in with photos later if it would help)

Anyway. This kit came with seeds from four different breeds of baby trees, as following

Black spruce - picea Mariana
Brazilian rosewood - jacaranda mimosifolia
Flame tree - delonix regia
Bristlecone pine - pinus aristata

I live in NE Florida, it's very hot and humid. Can you guys give me any info on these plants, germination process, indoor/outdoor, how long to give sun, frequency of watering. I'm also not sure if I'm going to plant all four at the same time. likely not. Any tips on which to start with would be helpful.

TLDR: I'm going to plant bonsai and I don't know how.
Welcome, got the same kit about 9 months ago, I have 3 regias, 4 spruces and one pine left. The kit is a nice intro, it gives false hope though, it is fun to grow from seedling its just a labor intensive process. I started acquiring dozens of nursery stock trees since then, junipers, pines, i have over 100 plants and close to 40 trees in 6 months...people talk about crazy here. I didn't know what a yew was 6 months ago, I have 4 now.

I went to Lowes the other day, couldn't leave without a chinese wisteria that was way overgrown, a great little $9 boxwood and a $25 Japanese yew I have yet to work on.

I enjoy working on the trees, its very therapeutic. My advice, buy more trees and experience it all in different stages.
 

Sternbigfoot30

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Welcome, got the same kit about 9 months ago, I have 3 regias, 4 spruces and one pine left. The kit is a nice intro, it gives false hope though, it is fun to grow from seedling its just a labor intensive process. I started acquiring dozens of nursery stock trees since then, junipers, pines, i have over 100 plants and close to 40 trees in 6 months...people talk about crazy here. I didn't know what a yew was 6 months ago, I have 4 now.

I went to Lowes the other day, couldn't leave without a chinese wisteria that was way overgrown, a great little $9 boxwood and a $25 Japanese yew I have yet to work on.

I enjoy working on the trees, its very therapeutic. My advice, buy more trees and experience it all in different stages.

That's great, I was beginning to feel odd for using the kit. I'm glad you had some form of success with it.
You said it gives false hope, why do you say that?
Also if it doesn't put you out of your way, I would love to see your trees.
 

Sternbigfoot30

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Welcome to the site!

If you want to see some crazy... there is an entire FORUM for people who are participating in a 6 year - Japanese Black Pine from seed Contest.

We're about 18 months in at this point. Fun to see what people have been doing, the various methods, and the results.

Thanks for the reply. Do you think I could get any bonsai but advice? Specifically on germination.. what tree I should begin with? all of them? It's seeming like planting them all is the way to go.
 

Potawatomi13

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Not sure about Spruce but know P. aristata will not likely survive where you live:(. They need cold(freezing)Winter temps and relatively low humidity. Suspect the Spruce will not do well either but not sure. Welcome to great hobby and best fortune;).
 

sorce

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That is going to be your biggest problem I reckon....not cold enough for a couple, not warm enough for the others. Maybe?

Grow em anyway!

Then get to digging some local stuff!

Sorce
 

Shibui

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Lots of advice so far but no answer to the question asked - how to germinate seed.
Search online for special pre treatment for each species. Pinus and Picea may need cold treatment to get good germination but the others are more tropical so should not need any pre treatment.
Sow seed (after any pre treatment) in pots full of good quality potting mix. Cover seed by about the thickness of the seed with more potting mix. Water well and keep the pots in a warmish area. Only water when the mix gets nearly dry. Sun is important for germinating seedlings so outside is good but protect your seed from seed eaters - rats, mice, squirrels, etc.
Fertilise after seedlings are a few weeks old.
I generally sow seed in a community pot (all together in one larger pot) then transplant seedlings when they are a few weeks old but many newbies worry about transplant so sow each seed in an individual pot. That's up to you, both ways work well.
Not sure how cold your winters are so you will need local advice on whether the tropicals need protection over winter.
Also not sure how much more summer you have. Maybe keep some seed for spring sowing next year in case there's not enough warm season left to get good strong seedlings before winter?
 

penumbra

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I generally sow seed in a community pot (all together in one larger pot) then transplant seedlings when they are a few weeks old but many newbies worry about transplant so sow each seed in an individual pot. That's up to you, both ways work well.
Most conifers have seedling roots that are too delicate to transplant but most deciduous trees I have grown from seed are easy to transplant because they are more fibrous. Your experience may vary.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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@Sternbigfoot30
Welcome to a wonderful hobby. The crowd here at BNut is pretty active, irreverent, and will occasionally tease people. So far everyone has been well behaved for you. :cool:

The reason you don't see many articles about raising bonsai from seed is because most people start with trees that are already 5 years old or older. The better one gets the older the tree we tend to start with. Raising seedlings is the ''nurseryman's phase'' of bonsai. Going from seed to first styling can be a 10 year process and most of it is just basic commercial nursery horticulture. There are a few things we do when raising seedlings for bonsai that are different than raising them for landscape plants, mainly involving pruning our of tap roots, the rest is pretty similar. So not many write about this phase.
The thread that BNut (Greg) suggested I linked below. There is a lot of info on how different people handled their seed.


How to germinate your seed in particular. The kit was designed for sale all across the USA. One tree in each area would likely do fairly okay, the Bristlecone pine was added for the ''mystic attraction'' that bristlecone pine has, since it is famous for being the species thought to be the oldest trees in North America. Nowhere in North America is bristlecone pine considered easy to grow, and they are so slow growing that IF you CAN grow it, it will take multiple decades to go from seed to a passable bonsai. But the name gets people interested in buying the seed kit, and there is nothing wrong with trying to grow them.

Black spruce - picea Mariana - black spruce is native only to the northern tier of USA states and most of eastern half of Canada. It is a tree of the northern bogs and muskeg. It is used in landscaping, the tree is fairly adaptable, but definitely will need to be left outdoors to experience every minute of cold in Florida's short winter. It may fail to thrive, as you are probably too warm at night for the metabolism of this species. Seed are really fine, I just plant spruce seed on moist peat-perlite blend type soil. Barely cover with additional peat-perlite blend, and set outdoors in full sun. Water daily, or mist surface daily. Some would cover with a dome or saran wrap, and keep in bright shade until you see the seed start to pop up. Then remove wrap and or humidity dome and a week or so later shift into full sun.
Spruce like moist, but not soggy soils, they dislike getting bone dry, will usually wilt and die as young seedlings. Adult, over 5 year old trees are more drought tolerant.
You have enough growing season left that you couple plant seed immediately, or wait until next spring. Store seed cool & dry, preferably in the refrigerator.

Brazilian rosewood - jacaranda mimosifolia - Popular as a street tree in Brazil, and in frost free areas of South Florida. - soak seed in water for 24 - 48 hours, sow about 1/4 inch deep, tamp down seed bed. Germinate in full sun. You are running out of growing season, you might want to wait until spring to plant. The leaves of this tree are compound, makes them difficult as a bonsai, but not impossible. They also make an attractive potted patio tree, bring indoors to protect from hard freezes.

Flame tree - delonix regia - Another zone 10 tropical street tree. Beautiful flowers. Soak seed 24 hours, any seed that sink, plant about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, set in full sun. Seeds that are still floating, change water to refresh the water, allow to soak another 24 hours, plant those that sink. You can take a file, and cut a nick in the seed coat with the file, then soak again. Change water daily until all have sunk. Plant seeds that sink. Flame tree also have compound leaves which make them difficult for bonsai. They are popular as bonsai in Indonesia, but there the climate is warm enough that they grow better. They make an attractive patio tree that you need to protect from hard freezes.

Bristlecone pine - pinus aristata - no stratification is necessary - soak seed 24 hours, plant about 1/4 inch deep, tamp soil (peat & perlite blend) germinate in full sun. Very slow growing, even for the nursery trade, it takes 16 years to produce a 4 foot tall tree. Bristlecone is native to high elevations, above 10,000 ft thru to tree line in New Mexico, Arizona, & Colorado. They need intense full sun, but at the same time, need cool night time temperatures. At high elevations it can reach 90F in the day and drop to low 50 F at night. When grown in areas with warm night time temperatures bristlecone is prone to be weak growers, and eventually subscum to insects and disease. There is genetic variations in seed, so you might get lucky. Plant them and see what grows.
 
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yoooo, welcome. i live in florida as well. if u want to grow something easy to start, bald cypress are native, fun, hardy and grow fast. find a bald cypress tree in ur hood and wait until winter, grab seeds from underneath. they look like chestnuts. youtube has some ok videos on how to split open the pods. wear gloves, don’t touch ur clothes, very sticky sap. wrap in wet paper towels in a ziplock. place in fridge. plant them in feb in potting soil. they have a high success rate and love our insane weather. for added success, they like to chill in a couple of inches of water during summer. also, cop a few different species starters from kaedebonsai. cheap and really healthy. good luck
 
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