Hello!

I just took up the art of bonsai as a hobby as a way to rehabilitate myself this December and am loving all the information I have been reading as well as the beauty of these trees. I have a few questions all of which somewhat relating to each other.

1. I have a Taiwanese Maple seedling (girth is about the width of 2 toothpicks) and a Japanese holly of about the same size. I just wanted to know what your guys' opinions are about potting them In big pot vs planting in ground. Is there any significant difference between the two?

2. What are your views on planting the maple In a bonsai pot for the remainder of its time as it grows and gets trained obviously with fertilizing, pruning, repotting.

3. I also picked up some great looking stone pines at Home Depot during a Christmas sale, I have read that these aren't really "bonsai" material but thought I'd try it anyways. These trees have probably 1-3 years growth, the tree is tapered and the base of the trunk has a girth of about an inch and a half. I read these trees take on an umbrella type form when mature and currently my trees shape is similar to a christmas tree. Should I go ahead and put this in a bonsai pot or let it grow a bit while training and what not.

Thanks for any and all help! I live in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area, East Bay to be precise.

1. The only real differences that I know of are that you can easily get plants out of pots, but they won't grow as fast. Also, you can move potted plants around if needed.

2. If you do that it won't grow into usable material for way longer than just keeping it in regular pots, it may never reach a stage where you can begin to work on it.

3. The most common answer to a question like that is 'let it grow' but we can't really be sure unless you can upload some pictures of the trees that you have.

I don't really think that you can start a hobby such as this for just one month, unless I misunderstood and you wish to continue after December is over. At any rate, don't rush into working on material as it may just end up with a few skinny little shrubs in bonsai pots - wait a bit and make something that you'll be proud to own.

Hope this helps,
Ed

The reason for growing in the ground is time. It is very much quicker to get trunk girth by years. Growing in a big pot is nowhere near as effective or quick. This applies to any size of bonsai that is wanted. Each year the tree can be worked on in the ground, and dug up and the roots pruned. Trees can just as easily be dug from the ground, being in pots is no more convenient.
If you only have a seedling then there is nothing that you can do to it for at least 5 years and that is in the ground, in a pot it will be at least double that or more.
Look at Japanese nurseries, they don't do it for nothing

Lol yes, I do plan on continuing this hobby as long as I have breath. Thank you for the help! Much appreciated.

I have attached a pic of the stone pine I was telling you about maybe if it could give you an idea of where it is l.

Well, I suppose it's worth a try seeing as you've already bought the trees. They really aren't easy to care for and the mature needles can get up to 1 foot in length, so I can see why you said that they aren't good for bonsai purposes.
The only advice I can really give is to clear up the dead branches and old needles then try to shape it and keep it alive.
This is the best specialized care guidelines I could find:

bonsaiwiki.wordpress.com/tree-list/itali...ne-pine-pinus-pinea/

One last thing to remember is that you shouldn't expect a specimen bonsai out of it; neither the species nor the material is very good, I'm afraid. You may still be able to make a nice little tree out of it, and I'm sure it would be important to you as your first(?) tree.

Ed

It is completely un pruned and untrained, so a long way to go. Impossible to see how thick the trunk is, first thing to do is find a front and clean the trunk so it can be seen, then remove quite a lot of the branches that are not needed. Again it isimpossible for me or anyone without seeing the tree properly to say which ones. Only you can do that.

Pot vss full ground growing..

IF you grow in a pot, make sure you repot as soon as a stabe rootbball starts to form, and repot in a pot one size up. Do not be tempted to put a twig like yours in a huge container; The plant will grow very slowly of die. Pot culture is different in the way water & air move around than full ground. Go visit a nursery: They repot trees that are grown in containers in this way too. There is only one reason why a nursery would want to repot trees several times a year; Becaus it makes (economic) sense.

Benefit: You can rotate, the growth will be more contrlled. Experts can actually see the difference between container grown and field grown bonsai. As the pot limits the growth of roots, they typically higher in number, and less extreme than field grown.

Field grown is a lot faster than pot grown.

Middle ground is using anderson flats. I would expect them to give you the best base.