Shinjuku's JBP 6 year contest entry

[Shinjuku]

After reading these forums for a while, this is both my first post and my entry into the contest.

I'm pretty new bonsai, and I've learned a lot from reading what everyone else has written here. Even though I probably don't stand a chance of winning, I thought I would jump in and learn with everyone else. Based on feedback from @Dav4 in another thread, it's not too late in the year to plant seeds, so here I go!

I ordered 100 seeds from TreeSeeds.com since other people had good experiences with them.


I received 356 seeds . I have no earthly idea what I will do with 356 seeds - maybe just keep them cool and dry and plant more later. I don't have the space or experience to take care of that many trees, so I decided to plant 32 seeds since I was able to get 32 little pots that fit into two trays for cheap.

I soaked the seeds in water for 24 hours, and at the end, there was only one floater.


I put them in a damp paper towel (with the floater inside its own damp paper towel) inside a ziplock bag, and put them into the refrigerator. And now the waiting game begins.


Thank you to everyone who has posted so many pictures and instructions to help out folks like me.

 

[Aaron the Great]

Welcome to the forum. I look forward to watching you and your contest entry grow. I will be starting late also as soon as my seeds arrive. Even if we lose the contest, we still win by gaining a few years of personal growth and valuable experience. I am also new to this forum, but I have already learned all you need to do is ask and your question will be answered. Best of luck to you.

 

[Shinjuku]

Today was the big day to plant my seeds. I stratified 32 seeds for 25 days. None of them started to sprout, and they looked exactly as they looked when I put them into the refrigerator. I planted them in standard potting soil. After putting the soil in the pot, I poked little holes about 1/8 of an inch deep or perhaps just a hair deeper with a small screwdriver. I dropped a seed in each hole and gently covered the hole with soil. Since those 32 seeds took up only half of the pot, I also planted 32 seeds that soaked for 24 hours but were not stratified. That filled up the whole pot. I put a blue straw on the side of the pot that has the stratified seeds. So, I should have good data to compare stratified vs non-stratified (though my sample size is rather small).

I'll keep them outside in shade for now so that the soil surface doesn't dry out too quickly. I'll keep the soil moist, monitor, and hope for the best.

 

[Shinjuku]

Today was a big day - my first seedlings sprouted 10 days after being planted! I planted 64 seeds, and 8 of them sprouted today. 7 of the sprouts had been stratified for 3 weeks, and 1 of them was not stratified at all. It's too early to draw conclusions, but early indicators suggest that stratifying makes the seeds sprout faster, but it's not mandatory.

I know that most of you guys got a 7-month head start on me, but I think that the 2nd sprout from the left is going to give all of you guys a run for your money.

 

[Fonz]

I know that most of you guys got a 7-month head start on me, but I think that the 2nd sprout from the left is going to give all of you guys a run for your money.

View attachment 202666

Damn, that looks like a winner indeed, I might as well throw in the towel.

 

[Shinjuku]

In early to mid August, my seedlings began to have a problem. They developed a big curve at the bottom of the stem. Within 2-3 days, that curve shriveled up, and the seedlings died. Here's a couple of pictures.



The problem was "damping off fungus" since I kept the organic soil too wet, even though I kept them in a lot of sun.

I think this is 'damping off' fungus. Soil is too wet.
Spray every 2 - 3 days with 2 tablespoons 3% peroxide in a quart of water, will likely nix it, but do let that medium dry out a bit.

I followed 0soyoung's advice, and that solved the issue. Out of the 64 seeds that I planted, 8 survived (12.5% survival rate), as you can see here.


Today (Sept 2nd), I repotted the 8 seedlings into an inorganic mix of lava, pumice, and perlite. Unlike a lot of folks, I didn't trim the roots. I decided that since I already had an 87.5% death rate on my seeds, I didn't want to do do anything else that seemed risky. Next spring, I'll plant more and do the trimming.

Typical seeding.


Seedlings after repotting into the inorganic mix. The one that sprouted that was not stratified is in the pot in the lower right corner.


If you look closely, the 2nd one from the left has WINNER written all over it.

 

[Shinjuku]

Here’s a three month update since I planted the seeds. The one in the gray pot on the right was not cold stratified, and it’s still the slacker of the group. It reminds me of the one guy at work who just does the bare minimum to get by while everyone else works hard.

At any rate, things continue to look good.

 

[Shinjuku]

It’s been almost exactly one year since planting my seeds, and here’s the update that all of you have been dying to see.



In early spring, I repotted them into smaller pots with smaller (1/8 inch) substrate, equal parts of lava and pumice.

During the growing season (mid February through mid October or so), I’ve given them liquid Miracle Grow every two weeks. They get full sun almost all day with some dappled shade in the later afternoon. (Note: I only put them on the concrete for the picture.)

The one lazy slacker continues to do the bare minimum to survive, it seems. It’s the front left one from the seed that was not cold stratified. That suggests that cold stratification promotes health of the seedling, but with only one data point, I can’t draw any conclusions yet. I’m still holding out hope that it’s going to be the “late bloomer” of the litter.

My plan is to repot them into larger pots in early spring to allow for more root growth and eventually wire them to get done nice movement.