I'm really interested in small bonsai, and I'd like to plan out creating some while I'm otherwise stuck in the dead of winter. Info on creating them is surprisingly scarce. As far as I can tell there are two main methods- growing from seed and keeping it small, and air-layering a nice looking portion from a larger tree. Which one would you be more likely to recommend a relative beginner?
Air-layering I basically get the idea of. It seems like the faster method but easier to screw up. My big question is how would you keep a tree small from seed without damaging it too much? As far as I can tell tree seedlings basically shoot straight up before developing any sort of structure, and you would think that trying to do any sort of training or pruning on such a young tree would just kill it.
I guess this also applies to growing non-shohin bonsai from seed, it's something I've generally been confused about.

As far as I can tell there are two main methods- growing from seed and keeping it small, and air-layering a nice looking portion from a larger tree.

Where did you hear that? You got one of three methods that I can think of.
Shohin (and even Mame) Bonsai are just like regular Bonsai, only smaller. Of course there are slight differences in how often you water, etc. but you obtain the tree itself through the same methods as regular Bonsai.

I would definitely not recommend growing for seed, as it takes a long time to do; you do not just keep it small, you let it grow and cut it back, otherwise a good, thick trunk would never grow on the tree.


Air layering is a lot quicker than other methods and it results in you having two trees. It is fairly complicated, but worth a shot if you have a suitable candidate to air layer.



The final method is collecting a plant (from the wild, a bonsai nursery, or even a garden center) and turning it into a bonsai. This is what most people do nowadays, as most of the waiting is already done, and it's possible to find really good trees for cheap.



You may notice a general theme with those videos
Ed

Seedlings are a lot tougher than you think. Typically, seedlings loose most of their roots and get wired into shape when they are a few months old. And they survive this without a problem.

Your questions are effectively.. How to bonsai. Whether a bigger or a smaller bonsai, you want the same thing. A tree that shows something of age; a tree in miniature. If you cannot find the info, I would recommend taking courses. Or look deeper. There are loads of websites dealing with creating bonsai.