Suggestions for a bonsai from seed

[Starfox]

For me growing from seed is an addiction I just can't shake that started well before I got interested in Bonsai, I'm always going to do it and now I have the added bonus of potentially getting some bonsai material out of it eventually.
It's a win/win situation really so I see no reason not to at least try it out.
But it is a lot of work, maybe if you can keep the numbers down(I can't ) it is easier but it is satisfying.

Just pick some species that you like/want and get cracking.

 

[music~maker]

I knew there was more.

Always pegged you for an open mindeder!

Sorce

Very much so. At my core, I'm a tinkerer and an experimenter, and I always encourage others to do the same.

But having been down that path, if a new student came to me and asked how to do bonsai, I'd hand them a cheap tree or two to work on, not a packet of seeds. If that same student came back to me a year later, told me they now had a dozen trees, and wanted to experiment with seeds to broaden their horizons, they would absolutely have my blessing. And if somebody insists that they want to try seeds first, I'd give them the caveats and tell them to go for it.

So for me, it's not about squelching creativity or instilling dogma or elitism, or any other bullshit like that ... it's 100% about guiding new people down what I see as the most efficient path to learn. Other folks may think differently, and that's totally fine. That's just, like, my opinion man ... ;-)

I do have a fair amount of experience nudging people in the right direction on this stuff, but there's always more than one way to skin a cat, and I'm always open to hearing about it.

 

[Occams Hacksaw]

Great discussion!

The biggest problem with newbies is that they like to bite off more than they can chew. They are excited and often misinformed. This can easily lead to disappointment and they never come back to it again. I'm willing to bet that nobody is here because they want less people doing bonsai, and totally understand the caution.

I can step back and recognize that I'm excited and biting off a good chunk. But then that little devil starts whispering, "You've done horticulture for half your life. You've probably trashed hundreds of full grown plants and thousands of seeds/sprouts. You know better than to put expectations on a plant, but if just one out of a hundred makes the final selection, you'd be years ahead on it".

He makes a compelling argument.

If anything, this discussion has confirmed that only focusing on seed is not a good idea for beginners. We can all agree on that, right?