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Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 9 months ago #50318

  • leatherback
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Just a thread for fun.

People often look down at those growing bonsai from seed. It takes too long (true!) and you will never have a tree to show in your lifetime (Not true).
So.. Don't be pushed in a corner, but show off what you are growing from seed.

I will start off with this larix. Been growing this for .. 7 years I think from 2 year old seedlings.

As it was in 2015:


Last winter:


Today:

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Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 9 months ago #50325

  • Auk
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I do not look down on growing from seed. I actually look up to it. It's good to grow from seed, but many people think bonsai are grown by keeping seedlings small in a small pot, which is not true. There's so much more to it... but as you have demonstrated, if you know what you're doing, you can get pretty good results.

This grew from seed. I did not plant it, it just came up in a bonsai pot that had another tree in it. So, I pruned it, it grew, I pruned again, it grew more, I pruned...
Not much of a plan, really, I just kept pruning. If you say it's more topiary than bonsai, I'm not totally going to disagree :)

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Last edit: Post by Auk.

Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 9 months ago #50326

  • leatherback
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I believe that for a great root over roch, you need to plant seedlings on top of the rock. So that is what I did with this trident seedling. Seeds were planted in 2017. Seedling put on the rock that winter.
april 2018:
Today, june 2019

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Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 9 months ago #50331

  • Clicio
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Oh, hold your horses, guys! Great projects from Auk and Leatherback.
But yours are MUCH more advanced than mine!
I have Jacarandás, Ironwood, Pines, Maples, BRTs and Tamarinds growing up.
Well, I need to take new pictures as my seedlings are much bigger by now, but I will start by posting my youngest Brazilian Rain Tree.

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Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 9 months ago #50348

  • SubjectToChange
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Sooo ... here is my retirement projects (some of them), got more seeds to do come autumn/winter.

Got japanese elm, acacia, jasmin waiting to show their face, (if the seeds i got from china is correct) and some misrable looking wisteria (these was left with someone while I was hospital and they were not aware of their needs) but they will bounce back, already doing so.

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Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 9 months ago #50367

  • Felidae
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Just an other lemon tree... (18 months old from seed)


Here I would appreciate your help... Currently I cannot even see if this want to be a tree or a shrub. Young Sycamores could have similar appearance, but I wouldn’t bet for it.
We just call it “The Seedling Under the Ginkgo”.

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Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 9 months ago #50426

  • lucR
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Ok, my turn..
I collected this acer pseudoplatanum as a young seedling, only two leafs. They sprout everywhere around here, and thought i'd give it a go mainly because everyone says its an impossible sort for bonsai.No refinement, leafs are huge and stay that way, for a plausilbe bonsai it has to be a big tree, ...If it didnt work out i had a nice test tree...
Because it had a big taproot and not much else i applied a tourniquet and planted it in the garden for two years, without much attention.When i dug it up i was very pleased with the tourniquet method: nice radial roots above the tourniquet. Cut off everything below the tourniquet and planted it in a small pond basket on a flat piece of thick rubber ( did i say this is my test tree..:-) )







It grew like a madman and i needed todo something about the indeed big leafs and very long internodes ( internodes longer than the tree itself...). So in order to adress this i tried a different approach: everytime a leaf became full grown i cut it off. The result is and smaller leafs, and really short internodes, and refinement.Doing this i can easily manage the direction and thickness of the branch ( cut off one side, or two, or let one side grow a bit longer. The tree is now int its fourth year, and about 25 cm tall. Its siblings that i didnt touch when i collected it are now about 3 meters tall..

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Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 9 months ago #50690

  • leatherback
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NIce. THat is going places Luc!

This is an exposed roots crabapple I am growing from seed. 3rd year now I think.

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Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 7 months ago #52057

  • SubjectToChange
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So this crazy one went bonansa (or see crazy)

This happened in a couple of months

Starting at back with tamarind, then flame ( delonix regia) Cashews, Bao Bab and last ones jacaranda.

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Showing: Growing from seed 4 years 5 months ago #53697

  • leatherback
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A zelkova, 3rd year from seed. Growing fast but not thickening up as fast as I would like to :)

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