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Buying Bonsai nursery stock

 
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     Propagation
     Nursery stock

 

 

Nursery stock are young garden plants sold at garden centers, which can sometimes be very suitable for Bonsai purposes.

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Buying Bonsai nursery stock is a fast way of ‘propagating’ a tree and you can start right away with its training. Although it can be hard to find good material, it is an rather inexpensive way to find suitable trees. One major drawback is that starting work on an older tree (instead of growing a tree right from the start) usually means you will have to remove some large branches with visible wounds as a result.


Where? Good quality nursery stock can be hard to find, try looking at smaller family owned nurseries instead of at large commercial stores. Some Bonsai shops sell high Bonsai-potential nursery stock, but this comes at a price much higher than at small nurseries

When? Nursery stock can be bought throughout the year, but most material is offered from early spring till late summer.

 

Example of a purchased nursery stock (raw Bonsai material)What to look for? Hard to explain, your skills to find potential material will improve once you learn more about growing Bonsai. However, key aspects to look for are the species of tree, shape of the trunk, tapering of the trunk, the tree’s branching structure and its Nebari (root flare or surface roots).

And then? Place the newly bought nursery stock outside (unless it is an indoor tree obviously) and keep it damp, but not wet. The trees can be fertilized using normal quantities as described in the fertilizing section. It depends on the season in which you buy the nursery stock whether you can start training the tree right away. When bought during the early spring you can prune and repot trees immediately, but if you buy trees later in the year you’d better wait till the next spring with any serious pruning.

For reference material about training nursery stock for the first time, check the case studies part of this website. Or read the Bonsai styling pages for background information about techniques like pruning, wiring etc.

 

 

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