Hi!

I was wondering if I can use regular garden shears such as rose cutters etc. to prune and trim my fairly young podocarpus?

I only have one plant as of today and it's my first bonsai, and I would love to have a real bonsai tool kit one day, but it's too expensive, and I've barely started my bonsai journey.

Any tips on cheap, affordable, reasonable and easily available alternatives to bonsai tools?

Yes, I have the cheapest tip : don’t buy anything yet for at least a year. If this is your first plant I know you are eager to “bonsai the shit out of it” but first try to keep it alive for a year. Take that time to study bonsai, and look at your plant from all sides. Horticulture ( plant health) first, everything bonsai-ish after. Bonsai is a marathon, not a sprint, nothing you need to do or buy “now”.
Don’t buy anything labelled bonsai yet : it’s mostly overpriced because it has bonsai written on it. Normal general fertiliser will do, normal gardening tools will do . Once your knowledge and experience expands you will know what to buy

Agree with lucR almost completely. There are a couple of sheers made for cutting flowers that have a flat anvil and one blade. Don't get those.

You will want to cut some tiny twigs off. The garden shops don't sell anything for that, but you can use small scissors for that. Those made for cutting thread will dull real fast. Those made for cutting toenails will last forever.

For cutting wire off, you will have to get the real bonsai tool. There isn't anything in the garden shop.

I still use that kind of cutting pliers that electricians use for cutting wires. I Think it is called diagonal side cutting pliers or something similar in English. Sorry, non native speaker here. Anyway, havent seen any reasons for upgrading yet.

Tropfrog wrote: I still use that kind of cutting pliers that electricians use for cutting wires

Did that too for quite a while.
And have been using electrician pliers for ages too: replaced them with actual jin pliers only last month, and only ‘cause adding them would have avoided paying for shipping, so they almost came for free.
After 7+ years into the hobby...

Yes, a pair of sharp scissors, garden pruning shears, bamboo chopsticks and pliers.

On the other hand, there's always Kaneshin to save you by the end of the day!

See below:

www.bonsaiempire.com/forum/tools/10748-s...e-your-tools?start=0