Newbie Delonix regia "Flame tree" sprout advice please

[Johnson_uk]

Hi All,

For christmas a friend got me one of those "grow your own bonsai" kits. In general normally these sorts of items are a money making scheme so i assumed none of the seeds would be viable. However i've managed to get a pretty healthy Flame tree sprout growing and was hoping someone could give me advice on how to care for it until the time it gets prepped for bonsai.

Is there any steps i need to take other than keeping it alive for a few years? I.e. does it need any specific pruning before its potted properly or should i just leave it to do its own thing for a few years?

Attached is a pic of it in its current state.

Thanks a lot for the advice,
Johnson

 

[Anthony]

Johnson,

can you get some local trees.
Delonia, is not a great candidate for Bonsai,
Apologies,
Anthony

* also known as Flamboyant

 

[Johnson_uk]

Johnson,

can you get some local trees.
Delonia, is not a great candidate for Bonsai,
Apologies,
Anthony

* also known as Flamboyant

Hi Anthony,

Thanks for the reply.

I'm also cultivating some local trees at the same time but since i have this as well i figured i might as well give it a shot. From what i've read they can be troublesome to look after but there are some people that have had successes.

Johnson

 

[Clicio]

Hi All,

For christmas a friend got me one of those "grow your own bonsai" kits. In general normally these sorts of items are a money making scheme so i assumed none of the seeds would be viable. However i've managed to get a pretty healthy Flame tree sprout growing and was hoping someone could give me advice on how to care for it until the time it gets prepped for bonsai.
Johnson

Congrats, it looks very healthy.
I am growing some Flamboyant myself, but I am in a tropical country so that's easy here.
As @Anthony has said, they are difficult for bonsai so I started to bend the main trunks pretty early to get some good movement. Much later I will work on reducing the leaves size, if it's possible at all.

 

[0soyoung]

Much later I will work on reducing the leaves size, if it's possible at all.

Just curious what you have in mind. I have a pepper tree with compound leaves. I threat them (the leaves) as 'pick a size' by cutting them to multiples of leaflet pairs (i.e., cut back to 2 or to 4 or to 6, etc.).

 

[Clicio]

Just curious what you have in mind. I have a pepper tree with compound leaves. I threat them (the leaves) as 'pick a size' by cutting them to multiples of leaflet pairs (i.e., cut back to 2 or to 4 or to 6, etc.).

To be quite frank, I haven't the slightest idea...
But now I can try your way and see if it works. Thanks!

 

[eascusa]

I got some Flame tree seeds for Christmas as well that came in a kit. But my seeds wont come up. I did everything it said to do. Did you guys do anything special to get yours to come up. How much water? Sunlight? Fertilizer? I am so frustrated. Any advise. I live in zone 8b or 9a. Not sure which one. I live in the Mojave desert in california. Is it too dry here? Or warm? Although I planted it in early February when it is still cold. But indoors. It hasn't gotten a chance to get hot yet. Is there anything I could do to get the seeds to root? Can you put the seeds in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel for a while like you would for beans to get the seeds to root? Thanks

 

[Anthony]

@eascusa ;

shift to seeds of the Tamarindus indica [ Chinese or Indian stores ]
makes a great Bonsai. or the Texas Ebony [ was Pithicellobium f. ]

Delonia rex, is branch poor and leaves / flowers are huge.
With thread grafting you can get 6 branches.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Clicio]

I got some Flame tree seeds for Christmas as well that came in a kit. But my seeds wont come up. I did everything it said to do.

I have some growing in Brazil, but this is a native tropical here.
Sowed by the end of winter by soaking the seeds in hot water - 50°C - letting them submerge for 24 hours.
They sprouted 10 days later.
Warm weather, rich soil, they are growing fast.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I got some Flame tree seeds for Christmas as well that came in a kit. But my seeds wont come up. I did everything it said to do. Did you guys do anything special to get yours to come up. How much water? Sunlight? Fertilizer? I am so frustrated. Any advise. I live in zone 8b or 9a. Not sure which one. I live in the Mojave desert in california. Is it too dry here? Or warm? Although I planted it in early February when it is still cold. But indoors. It hasn't gotten a chance to get hot yet. Is there anything I could do to get the seeds to root? Can you put the seeds in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel for a while like you would for beans to get the seeds to root? Thanks

It's a jungle tree from Ceylon and Madagascar, so don't waste your time. Look around the desert for natives like Mesquite, Desert Fern, or several kinds of Sage, all of which can be spectacular. Anything with woody parts can be trained as bonsai, and something that can live on its own near you has a leg up on anything your import. Put your snake boots on and wander around out there and you'll start to notice a bounty of bonsai not yet spoken for. As you dig it up, pay attention to the soil it's in and bring a bucket of that home with you for "potting soil". Get more sophistacated over time. First order of business: keep one alive in captivity.

 

[Iowa newbie]

I got 3 of them from the same kit, yes I'm a sucker too, I fell for it. All 3 of mine are doing well, sowed in November for some stupid reason, one is indoors, one is out and another dropped all of its foliage in the transition outdoors but its backbudding well. They get large quickly, I have yet to prune in any way, had them in small pots and they quickly outgrew that. Potted them in some bigger one gallon sized pots and we will see what happens, I also got 4 blue spruces from that kit that are doing well and one bristlecone pine seedling left. As much as people have a negative opinion about these kits, I found them as the "gateway drug" into bonsai. Ive since acquired about 2 dozen different trees, junipers, boxwood, mugos, yews etc. All in training. Gotta head to blains this morning to get soil components

 

[eascusa]

I got some Flame tree seeds for Christmas as well that came in a kit. But my seeds wont come up. I did everything it said to do. Did you guys do anything special to get yours to come up. How much water? Sunlight? Fertilizer? I am so frustrated. Any advise. I live in zone 8b or 9a. Not sure which one. I live in the Mojave desert in california. Is it too dry here? Or warm? Although I planted it in early February when it is still cold. But indoors. It hasn't gotten a chance to get hot yet. Is there anything I could do to get the seeds to root? Can you put the seeds in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel for a while like you would for beans to get the seeds to root? Thanks

I don't know if you did this or not but I had the same exact problem and was also VERY frustrated. I finally dug the seeds back up and scratched them with sandpaper. It wasn't easy to do because the outer shell is quite hard. I also had them soak in water overnight before I put them in the dirt the first time. But it didn't work until I literally scratched them and even nicked their corners a bit. Did you do this?

 

[eascusa]

I got 3 of them from the same kit, yes I'm a sucker too, I fell for it. All 3 of mine are doing well, sowed in November for some stupid reason, one is indoors, one is out and another dropped all of its foliage in the transition outdoors but its back budding well. They get large quickly, I have yet to prune in any way, had them in small pots and they quickly outgrew that. Potted them in some bigger one gallon sized pots and we will see what happens, I also got 4 blue spruces from that kit that are doing well and one bristlecone pine seedling left. As much as people have a negative opinion about these kits, I found them as the "gateway drug" into bonsai. Ive since acquired about 2 dozen different trees, junipers, boxwood, mugos, yews etc. All in training. Gotta head to blains this morning to get soil components

It sounds like we both got the exact same kit. I finally got my flame tree to sprout after scratching the seed. I actually had to nick the corners because the outer shell was so tough. Now the problem is that it's dropping its leaves and branches! It doesn't seem to want to have more than two branches at a time. But I am actually, writing to you because you said your spruces were doing well. I got three of mine to come up and they grew to about 2 1/2 inches. And then stopped growing. That was almost 1 1/2 years ago. The poor guys just won't grow and their little trunk is sooo thin. I looked up bonsai soil and mixed some good stuff up and put them in that. They are in a well-lit window but without direct sunlight. I have moved them around but the same thing happens. Nothing! I also put one outside before it got too hot and it died quickly. So now I only have two. It gets very hot here in the summer and freezing in the winter. So, I'm not sure what to do about that if I was to put them outside. I don't know what they can handle. Obviously, from that one dying in only 80 and 90 something temps, they don't take heat well. Any advice? Oh, and I never did get the bristlecone to come up. very depressing! That one I really wanted. The other my mom has and is doing somewhat well. She said it's also dropping its leaves a lot though. In the pic below even though this was almost a year ago they look pretty much the same.

 

[sorce]

money making scheme

We actually don't make any money on it.

It's just how we get you addicted to growing small trees.

We just want you to be called Crazy like us.

Welcome to It!

Sorce

 

[KelcieMichelle11]

I got some Flame tree seeds for Christmas as well that came in a kit. But my seeds wont come up. I did everything it said to do. Did you guys do anything special to get yours to come up. How much water? Sunlight? Fertilizer? I am so frustrated. Any advise. I live in zone 8b or 9a. Not sure which one. I live in the Mojave desert in california. Is it too dry here? Or warm? Although I planted it in early February when it is still cold. But indoors. It hasn't gotten a chance to get hot yet. Is there anything I could do to get the seeds to root? Can you put the seeds in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel for a while like you would for beans to get the seeds to root? Thanks

Hello! I am new to bonsais also, we just potted our flame tree it grew extremely fast! But in the beginning I will say we had to soak the seeds longer than 48 hours. The thing that really kick started it was on the 2nd day since we saw no real change in the seeds, we put the seeds in hotter water around 120F. We also clipped them on the ends very slightly only a smallll amount and then we put those cups of hot water with the clipped seeds on a heating mat that was around 70-80F. Ours have been indoors the whole time! After 24 hours of the seeds sitting on the heating mat (soaking a total of 72 hours) you could see the growth coming from the clipped parts of the seeds! Its like white fuzz is the best I can describe lol! Just google delonix regia seed soaking or whatever and Im sure it’ll show it!! As soon as we saw this, we potted them as directed by our kit! Then we also kept them on a heating mat while in the soil, around 70-80 and we did a grow light too! They werent that expensive at all, our mat has a nice thermostat I totally recommend that. You can control the temp. The light also cheap, you can do a little research to find your best option. The two were about a total of 40 dollars. Works wonders! Ours were sowed about 16 days ago and we just transplanted into new pots today! With a nice new bonsai soil! Anyway I recommend the heat! Totally helps! Good luck!