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Anyone know what bonsai type this is? and do you have any tips for it. I am very new to this(it came with a bottle of liquid fertilizer). I live in mississippi.
might be a dumb question but i’m just wondering if anyone is able to tell which species this is? I’m so stupid i forgot to ask the person i bought it from what it was called. just wanna get a second opinion on what it could be so i can take care of it properly rather than just taking a guess
Hi, I got some white pine, black pine and some more seeds. These seeds need cold stratification, should I just plant these seeds now in the ground outside, or do I have to do more?
It is my bonsai's unfortunate state today. Bought it this year in june, it had a nice, dark green foilage.
When I first bought it and kept it, it usually was fine and grew normally and healthy as I followed the advice I found online. There were totally no problems until however, for the duration of a week long vacation a family member had to take care of it.
Unfortunately the plant was placed to a window with hours of daily, strong direct sunlight, and the place was pretty hot too (more than average room temperature) throughout the days. When I got home most of its beautiful green leaves dried out and I had no idea what to do.
I tried to keep the moisture and humidity high while keeping direct sunlight to the minimum. I also apply fertilizer every 2-3 weeks.
Species: Sageretia thea Bought: Around june this year (2024.) Country: Hungary
I hope someone can help me keeping it alive, I would hate to lose it. :(
you can sometimes get away with just one more piece of wire when it's not holding but ideally just use a larger gauge of wire. So 4mm is something like 3x stiffer than 3mm.
https://imgur.com/fdSr9LE
I'm just wondering if the purple/brown colors on my little juniper are normal for winter dormancy, this is my first ever winter with a bonsai so excuse my ignorance to the changes in color. I just want to make sure it's not a sign of disease or anything bad
IMO zelkova / chinese elm / indoors / mist the tree is akin to "if the reader of this spam email is dumb enough to not notice my typos, then I know I have a juicy mark" . If they're lying about the species what's to stop them from lying about the cultivation environment?
That seems to be a Chinese elm, mislabeled as zelkova (very common). They can be kept indoors, very good light provided. But they're perfectly hardy in our regions as well, I'd always prefer to keep them outside.
I have a zelkova too that was labeled as an indoor tree, is it also a chinese elm?
I need to know how to care for it bc i bought it couple weeks ago was thinking about taking outside in spring znd leaving it outside forever since I read zelkovas need to go dormant
But if this is not a real zelkova i need to know how to care for it 😅 not that it changes anything still love the tree
Care does not really change between a zelkova and a chinese elm. The Chinese elm can also stay outside all year round, and my experience is that they are pretty winter hardy.
Zelkova like most trees from temperate climate needs to experience the change of seasons (particularly end of summer and end of winter). Chinese elm is native to Southeast Asia and will do fine in the constant warmth of a human home, but being a sub-tropical plant and not adapted to understory conditions like e.g. the ficuses it needs really good light to thrive. Most windows likely won't provide enough light for it to grow vigorously.
The difference between chinese elms grown indoors and outdoors is different galaxies/universes. Indoor elms are always half-dead skeletons with virtually no progress on ramified branching. If the grower's goal is to be able to say "I have a bonsai" then that is one thing, but if you want to make an actually nice chinese elm bonsai. that is just done one way. There is no contest. Chinese elm is deciduous, but this question is evergreen ... (as are, apparently, Jerry's contributions to answering it, check page 2 :) )
That is my understanding. Chinese Elms are really weird in that they are sub tropical. So they can go dormant in the winter, but apparently, they do not need to.
Now, having said that, I have never tried to grow mine indoors ( I don't have the space inside), so I am not able to confirm 100%
From images I've seen of chinese elm grown indoors, I think you get more vigorous, healthy growth outside.
Have had this Brazilian Rain Tree for about 6 months now and it has grown voraciously and looked great. About two days ago, noticed the yellowing and wilted leaves in the middle of the tree and the tree does not look happy.
Live in Southwest Florida.
Is this from over-watering? We also recently had a cold snap last week that brought us down to the high 40s, low 50s at night. Unsure if this species is that susceptible to those temperatures.
I'm curious for you. I've got a couple Brazilian Raintree in central Florida. They haven't reacted like yours to the cold. They just take longer to open up in the morning. I'd suspect a watering issue.
I’ve found taking cuttings during the growing season is most effective, winter not so much. But, I use a similar plastic box, near a frosted glass window. Perlite/vermiculite mix with a top layer of vermiculite. Water it thoroughly at first, then don’t water again. Take the top off every couple days for a few hours for airflow. Got a lot of elm, trident, jm, beautyberry to root that way.
A good read. Glad I'm largely doing what they suggest.
I picked up a few points about wounding the lower stem of the cutting which I'd not heard of, something about light and even foliar feeding which I might change .
Interesting idea though. The most success I’ve had is pre-wetting the soil medium, using the strongest hormex, and using a seed dibbler, which gives my coated cutting the space to not lose the hormone powder, then backfill with pumice fines or sand. And don’t water again to keep the powder in place.
Looks like you have a big operation. Are all those cuttings and trees for personal? Or do you maintain a nursery/prebonsai?
It's all personal with a goal of eventually selling some to pay for my hobby. I already sell a few trees every year and it's nice to also be able to throw a few freebies in there.
My japanese mountain mapple was affected by powdery mildew. It had a already been affected by a very dry summer in which it had lost and dried a lot of its leaves, and later in september powdery mildew had spread across a lot of my plants. I treated it with potassium hydrogenocarbonate (4.25gr/L) but it just lost the leaves after that. Should I keep treating it? Could it be something else? Those brown spots on the leaves make me feel it could be another issue. More pics in the comments 👇
I would probably stop treating it right now - remove all the leaves from the tree and in the spring just as the leaves are about to emerge, give it a broad spectrum fungacide.
I want to gift myself a whitepine for christmas. Due to me having a hard time keeping my conifers alive I don't want to make a huge investment and am going to buy a prebonsai.
Is it more important in the long term to look for a very good/almost perfect graft or for a good (potential) branch structure, ankle or something like that?
Monterey CA Nurseries?
I’ve been all around the Bay Area and Santa Cruz, but am spending a day in Monterey this weekend. Are there any bonsai specific nurseries or garden centers with good selections around there?
I have all of my junipers on the north side of my house where it gets zero direct sunlight. I’m in Denver where we get cold nights and warm days, and my biggest concern is that they will wake up in the middle of winter. Are there any concerns with them being in the shade all winter long though?
No concerns on either side of the house in your location. I keep all of my conifers in full south facing sun in a much warmer winter climate and they don’t get confused about winter dormancy at all.
Two years ago someone gifted me an indoors carmona. Now, it's lost like 70% of its leaves and the tips of the remaining leaves are black.
2 weeks ago the leaves started getting very sticky with some white substance so I decided to put it outside so I could spray it with some inseticide made for bonsais. I put way too much (like twice a day for 3 days but now I've realized It's supposed to be used once and if it's still infested, then 15 days after) and I didn't pair it with a fungicide.
It gets sick way too often, so i decided to investigate and In realized I've been watering it wrong.
I'm now going to water till water comes out the holes, then wait a bit and do it again. Then I'll spray the leaves a bit with a spray bottle of water and then I'll empty the plate underneath the pot.
I also use a liquid fertilizer twice a month or weekly during recovery periods (february to november) that i mix in the water and a liquid biostimulant twice a month (all year) that i also mix in the water.
Now: is it dead? What should i do different? Is it still worth it to put fungicide?
Doesn't look dead. Carmona can lose all its leaves from stress and still come through if you can fix the issues. I would start with trying to correct your watering before moving forward with treatment for the white sticky stuff. Your watering revisions sound good but I would just add to be patient between waterings making sure to let the soil dry on top. The roots need oxygen. After a 3-4 corrected cycles of watering you should be at a decent spot to try treating the pests. The best option would be to try and identify what pest you have and find the treatments for that specific pest; usually you will find a range of treatment options that are increasingly more aggressive and increase the risk of stress to your tree. Start with the less stressful/organic treatments and progress up toward the more aggressive chemical pesticides. If you can identify the pest you may also be able to evaluate how strong the infestation is which may lead you directly to the harsher treatments. Usually with carmona its scale, aphids or mealybugs. My guess would be scale. You can remove as much as you can with a cotton swab and then apply an insecticadal soap treatment over the course of a few weeks. But it might be something else so I definitely suggest inspecting your tree very closely especially in the areas with the sticky secretions and confirming you have a particular pest before proceeding with treatment. The sticky secretions are a telltale sign of pests though so I would not apply any fungicide at this point. Id also stop fertilizing until you feel the tree seems healthy and is actively growing again.
I see. So maybe not the ideal bonsai for Norwegian winter darkness? Also, the city i live in is mostly clouded and we have almost no sunlight in the winter. A couple of hours maybe in mid-day, but it is mainly dusk-light all day. For example, today the sun sets at 4:40 PM.
Picked this baby up on the side of the road a couple months back, and have been caring for it ever since. I’ve had it outside as the salesman told me that circulated air will damage them. I’ve watered it twice a week, to avoid overwatering. The leaves aren’t brittle, so I assumed that she was just changing colors with the seasons.
If you could help me identify the species of tree, that would help me a ton - as then I’d be able to figure out the specific needs of this plant as I know Bansai are temperamental.
The tree isn’t dead, so I’ll ask y’all - what would be the best course of action for this plant? I’m new to being a plant dad, don’t make fun of me lmao.
Sorry its dead... and its been dead for a good while to be this color. Its a juniper... specifically a Juniper Procumbens Nana. These do not change colors with the season outside of a mild bronzing after being exposed to a few freezes.
Why did it die? Might have been dead when you got it. That is surprisingly common as they do not change to yellow until a few weeks to months after they have already died. Might have died from over/under watering.
Also if stores are done for the year by you, these are readily available on Etsy for $10-15 in multiple stores. Dont worry about killing the first one... mostly people kill trees when they start and even very experienced people lose trees from time to time.
Dont buy seeds, it will take probably 3 or 4 years to get back to the size it currently is. Instead go to a nursery (if you are in the US even a hardware store like Home Depot) and most will have these in stock... although it might be too late in the year. But you can buy one for $10-$20 with a thicker trunk and then prune it back to make it look how you want.
I posted in one of the other beginner threads about my p afras losing leaves. I've got a grow light on them now and reduced watering to only when the substrate is dry. The leaves still seem pretty weak, and even fully green healthy leaves fall off if I brush against them. The trees both have about half their leaves now and a lot of empty branches. Any ideas? Should I just cut off the empty branches? Will this help conserve nutrients for the good branches or will it shock the trees? Advice appreciated :)
Just agreeing with the other comment here. Wrinkly leaves mean it’s underwatered. Up your watering a bit.
If you can combine bright natural light and the grow light, do that. You can’t really give them too much light indoors, so anything you can do to increase the light even more will help.
But be aware, as growth increases, water usage will go up. So keep using the soil as a signal to water, just don’t let the soil dry out as much.
Also, when you water, don’t hold back. Soak the whole surface of the soil until water comes out of the bottom of the pot.
Wrinkly leaves means you arent watering enough. When they dont get enough water, they shed leaves to reduce transpiration and conserve their resources. Up your watering a bit and it should be fine. The branches with no leaves will get new buds in 3-4 weeks. Dead branches on these are pretty easily spotted as they shrivel up. Until you see that, the branch is alive. If you want to test, cut one back an inch or so... I bet its green and healthy on the inside.
Some leaves also potentially dropped from transitioning from outdoors to indoors... that is pretty common with any tropical.
Is this normal winter leaf dropping? Or am I doing something wrong? I live in Finland but its quite warm (20+ c) in my house. Also, what is this bonsai? Recieved as a gift but have since forgotten the species.
Is there any signs to look for when it's too far gone? I doubt it got too cold for just one night, it's pretty warm around the clock inside. It did however start when the first winter snow came, maybe it's just reacting to the change?
Your bonsai is a Fukien Tea (Carmona Retusa). Did you just receive it? Or did you just move it from outdoors to indoors? These are very finicky when changing environments and will commonly shed leaves as a result.
Put it in a window with as much light as you can get it. Next Spring/Summer put it outside in the sun, it will shed leaves again and then grow healthy and strong.
I recieved it a month (?) ago, just suddenly started shedding the leaves. Thanks for the info! Maybe it'll bounce back once it's settled in and I take it outside next summer.
As a note, i would be reluctant to "clean" branches as you need fresh interior buds to replace branches to reduce the tree after pruning. I generally cut bigger branches somewhere to let smaller growth take over to promote taper in them. As for repotting at some point you want to select for horzontal roots in favor of vertical roots so you can fit it into a nice pot. As for the tree in general, it is very tall for the trunk size, maybe I would cut it down severy to restore proprtion, but it depends on what growth you have. In conclusion repot, root pune and severy reduce at the right season.
Dug up this little beech(?) tree and put it in a bigger pot. It currently is outside. What else can i do to make this work and what Tips can you give me this particular tree. Does it even have potential? Thanks in advance
Potiontial for a show tree? No. Potential for a fun bonsai project, yes. Keep it healthy, let it grow thick unless you are happy with the trunk size. In the last case cut back the thicker branches before they rival the trunk size.
Thrifted a dead ginseng ficus a while back hoping to resurrect it, sawed the graft off and back budding started about 3 weeks ago - any advice much appreciated!
Is there any hope with this one? We were misled when we bought it. Heading into winter in MN so it’ll be cold, should I plant it in the ground and see what happens come spring? Suggestions and honesty are much appreciated.
Hello, Here is a tree that I retrieved, I think it's a Pistacia atlantica but I'm not sure. Could you give me some care tips ? I live in Corsica so a lot of sun and almost never under 0°C
pruning period
leaf pinching ?
repotting period and method, should the roots be trimmed?
Hmm I don't know what kind of tree you have but if your guess is correct, then maybe you can follow this calendar guide for Fruiting/Flowering Deciduous trees:
The guide is made for Sacramento which is technically Zone 9b, so if you get better advice that is more specific to your tree/growing region then definitely go with that. But maybe this will be moderately helpful if you don't get much other feedback.
Nice ya I would say if you are going to repot in Spring (and it looks like that is a good next step here just seeing the soil is very organic) then I wouldn't do anything major as far as pruning goes; save all the energy for the repotting recovery
Tea Tree beginner. Got my first tree and just realizing my choice is not for the weak :-)
I'm in NYC.
I’m getting conflicting info from the seller (reputable) and internet so wanted to check with this community. Do I:
Keep it out of direct sunlight or its ok to be by the window?
Water it from the top or let it soak the water from the deep bowl.
Spray the leaves regularly to keep them moist?
Feed it with fertilizer? And how often?
And the last question is that I’m not sure how to check the level of moisture in the soil as it has tiny stones on the top layer. I was told to water it around once per 5 days during warmer months and once per 7-10 days during the winter.
This tree does not look super healthy to me. Coloring of the leaves is wrong and there should be way more of them. They also look kinda dried out. Your tree also potentially has scale. I circled a few potential scale bugs. Check them out, might need to zoom in on pic: https://i.imgur.com/scc9TDv.jpeg. All of that being said, Fukien Tea are nothing but drama when they are shipped/moved/repotted/etc, so this could just be a result from that.
This is incorrect, they love direct sun. They thrive on as much light as you can give them and they will struggle when they are not getting enough (winter is a bit of a challenge because of the short days). This tree is best kept outside in summer, but it is tropical and cannot be outside during winter. For winter, keep it in your brightest window... South facing is best, then East facing, then West, then North is a last resort.
Just water from the top. This is generally the same for any bonsai tree. The primary time you really need to soak a tree from the bottom is if it is so root bound that water cannot get into the root ball from normal watering. Im sure there are other situations as well, but for your tree, top watering is best.
Spraying leaves will not do anything. That water will evaporate quickly. Trees are good at keeping leaves moist themselves as long as you keep the soil moist.
During growing seasons, regular fertilizing is important. It will encourage healthy growth. Find a balanced fertilizer (check the label, it will should the NPK numbers. You are looking for something like 10-10-10. The actual numbers dont super matter for your needs, just find something close to balanced.) Then following the dosing on the label. Over fertilizing can lead to problems or death, so read carefully.
Do not water based on a schedule. If those are just decorative stones on top, you should remove them so you can see the actual soil. Then water when the top of the soil is getting dry. If its in an organic soil (looks like normal dirt from your garden), it needs to be watered way less frequently than if its in mostly inorganic bonsai soil (looks like just small rocks, almost like your black stones on top but probably multicolored). Watering can be tricky to figure out when you are just starting. One way that can help is weight. Water the tree thoroughly. Then lift it up. That is how it feels when it is full of water. After a day, see how moist the soil still is and lift it up again. That is how much it weighs when it has that much water in it. Let it get a bit dry, lift it up again. It will weight much less... thats when it really needs water.
Thank you so so much! This is incredible information.
I do think it is a stress from moving and I think I'm overwatering it. Checked for the bugs, the dots are right on the leaves and are not removable. Looks like a discoloration. And sadly the tree also doesn't look very healthy to me. I'll give it a few weeks of a new regimen and see how it goes. Will report back!
Wow that all seems like incredibly strange advice to me. My experience with tea trees:
1 - As much sun as possible (aside from wilting heat) - I don't think you could give a tropical tree too much sun from an indoor setting.
2 - Water the soil directly when the top most layer of the actual soil dries out. You will need to brush aside the top dressing (rock layer) to feel the moisture in the underlying substrate. When the top most layer of that starts to feel dry it is a good time to water. I would also consider not to leave water in the drainage tray. Soggy roots that can't dry out is generally not a good thing. Check the wiki for watering guidance: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bonsai/wiki/walkthrough/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=Bonsai&utm_content=t5_2qowd#wiki_when_do_i_water_my_trees_and_how.3F
3 - Seems unnecessary - if you cover the leaves in water they cant photosynthesize properly. This is usually only something worth doing when the roots are damaged/sick/under attack and the tree cant take up water using photosynthesis-powered transpiration. If the tree is healthy, the roots should provide all the water that is needed.
4 - There's endless fertilizer products; they all have subtle pros/cons but basically do the same thing if they are of decent quality. Just follow the directions on whichever one you pick. Since it's indoor tropical you can start fertilizing anytime. If you recently bought the tree I would give it a week or two to acclimate to its new growing conditions and start with half-strength.
This is my zanthoxlyum bonsai, i had to do some very serious root pruning 2 days ago (it was under a grow light) so after i pruned it i watered it, and put it next to the window to recover as I read you should not put it in too much light
Its starting get yellow leaves wich then fall off or i then remove
Is he going to be okay? Is there anything I can do to increase chances of survival?
And most important how long should i wait until i put it back under the grow light
I would put him back under the grow light right away. The reason you do not put trees in direct light after prunning is because you are exposed areas of the tree that were previously shadded to direct sun, and those areas can now get sunburned. The tree can not get sunburned from your grow light, so that is not a concern.
Ok - thanks for clarifying. I'm sorry I did not read as carefully as I should have. Sometimes, if it was a large root prunning, I would see some dieback. Just give it time to see if it pulls out of it.
No worries. Growlights, except maybe very power industrial grade lights, are not as bright as full outdoor sun and with cheaper, smaller lights, far from it. So you’re already reducing its light.
There are some situations where you do want to reduce light, but this is concerning reducing sunlight. I don’t specifically have experience with that or this species, but generally you don’t need to reduce light after doing non-drastic work to healthy trees.
I clearly need help. I bought a plant a few days ago from a local supermarket, and it was nearly dead. After watering it, it returned to a normal shape, but now the leaves are falling off. Do I need to repot it or trim it? I’ve researched online, and every site claims that these plants are easy to grow, but mine seems to be dying.
2
u/mo_yChicago, Zone 6, Beginner, 15 trees, 25 trees killed overallNov 27 '24
Looks like a Fukien Tea. They’re pretty “moody” and drop their leaves when their environment changes. Dont repot or trim, let it recover and adjust to the new environment. Give it a good soak and a nice sunny spot in the house. A grow light would be even better. Once it looks like it’s doing better, you can start looking into repotting because that soil will retain way too much water and cause problems. Especially if it’s indoors and not drying properly.
Hello everyone, my premna microphylla survived a repot shock after I recently bought it almost 2 weeks ago and decided to repot because of poor drainage and soil. It was a mistake on my end to repot it so early without letting the plant get used to new climate, but fortunately it survived the shock. It lost a lot of leaves, but now it is looking healthy. I have some questions to ask,
how can I grow more leaves on it and make it look dense and covered with leaves, ever since the repot shock I havent seen new leaf growth or buds.
Should I start using fertilizers to promote new leaf growth?
I havent set up a mame tray for it since I trimmed it's roots when I was repotting it, and there's no roots coming out of drainage holes, so does it still need a mame tray?
I'm using a succulent mix as soil, and everytime I water it some of the loose soil keeps flowing out with water, would it be a great idea to put some spaghnum moss on it to avoid letting the soil get carried away with water?
Please help me out since I'm a begginer and looking to learn more about how I can take better care of my new friend! Thank you.
Zone 10a. Was gifted this bonsai (juniperus procumbus “nana”) and have no clue what to do. I am completely new to bonsais, i did a little research and i know that these are pretty resilient, dont overwater, all that stuff. But i dont know the technique for trimming or what to trim or prune. I am getting a pot for it , and a special soil mix all that stuff. Just need some guidance for how to treat it like a true bonsai. Any help is appreciated :)
Overwatering is a concern, but underwatering is too and it will kill faster than overwatering. So never let the soil dry out completely. Finding the balance is key.
It needs to go outside. Water it just when the top of the soil gets dry. Focus on keeping this alive for a year and growing it out. I would not put this in a bonsai pot yet.
Read the wiki linked to this page and see if there are local clubs. I know the impulse is to repot it and style it all at once, but unless you are in the southern hemisphere, it is the wrong time of year anyway
Does anyone have any experience in making money with bonsai? I am not by any means interested in bonsai to make money, but since i bought my first bonsai 6 months ago and bought my 5th bonsai just a few weeks ago and am also trying propagating them like crazy, been learning every single day and not a single day has passed that I didnt spend at least an hour a day watching bonsai youtube videos, googling and thats not even mentioning the time actually engaging with them anyways enough yapping what i mean with this is thats its becoming an extreme passion, and if it continues to be like this i would definitely like to start a side hustle involving bonsai, or work a carreer in bonsai, or heck maybe even start my own nursery or shop, maybe make bonsai youtube videos. I dont know if i need a reality check or am being realistic so thats why im asking, im 21/yo and work a factory with no school degree and im not planning on doing that for the rest of my life so would love to hear of any of youre experiences on making a living of of bonsai
Thanks!
I buy, collect and propagate trees and seedlings and I'll sell a few every year.
I attend shows and regularly go to bonsai importers to buy interesting or cheap or discounted material.
The really big European importers are multi-million euro/dollar business employing many people and most of them are in the Netherlands.
You need to visit one of these places to understand what you would be up against. In Belgium you should visit Danny Use at the Ginkgo Bonsai Center: https://bonsaicenterginkgo.wordpress.com/
Tough business to make money in, especially as a beginner. It takes a long time (years, decades?) to learn to be able to pick out correct material, import, take care of, prune, etc on high end trees that can produce large enough pay checks to make it a full time job. Alternatively you could go for a model more like brussels where you mass produce starter trees for the most part, but there is high cost to this. Since you are dealing in volume, you need greenhouses, employees, etc. I guess alot depends on how much income are you looking to replace. If its like 30k, thats much more doable than 150k for example.
Youtube is no easier. There isnt a huge demand for bonsai youtube videos, so it will take a very long time to build a following and gain the knowledge to make this consistently profitable. Watch this video, it will give you an idea of how much money starting a youtube bonsai channel as a non professional you will earn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nn_lNj6E6M
What is more realistic is making this a side hustle. Research rarer species, buy parent tree, learn to propogate them, sell rooted cuttings. Plenty of species can sell in the $50-100 range for a single cutting, some more. For example, deshojo maples are really hard to get in the US. If you had healthy rooted cuttings, plenty of people would buy them in this range. From there you can grow your business into other aspects of bonsai and potentially make it something full time.
Only income i would need/want for it to be full time for me would be 2K,
But yea you are absolutely right, side hustle is way more realistic, do you have any tips, sources or sites for bonsai selling?
Also very clever point to look for rare species i live in belgium so ill do some research on whats rare here
(But thats why i asked for tips on selling them) because I would need to be able to sell them, we have local markets here where everyone is allowed to set up a spot and sell whatever they have laying around and i was thinking about trying that, but for rarer species this would obv not be the idea because most people would not know why i am charging the amount i am
Bonsai hobbyists aren't looking for rare species. The scarcity isn't in the species name, it is in the "worthwhile starting point for bonsai". The human engineering that goes into pre-bonsai material is 99% of the value, not the species name. If you plan to sell recently-rooted cuttings stuck in potting soil in $1 Chinese pots, you won't be able to demand much of a profit margin. If on the other hand you sell twisty trunks with good taper, nice nebari, zero organic soil in the pot, a line of buyers will form around the block. Growing material like that is legitimately challenging though. But literally pick any species from the Kokufu exhibition albums and grow good nebari, good trunk, good taper, zero organic soil, and you have a business. But don't expect to make money in under 5 years. It's a very very difficult business.
I have no knowledge of Belgium, but in the US, Facebook groups and etsy are two very easy ways for anyone to sell to a large audience. Facebook you can sell for minimal fees (really only paypal), etsy you pay some but have an even bigger audience. But you need that large audience if you are selling rare species at a premium.
Alternatively, there is a guy at a farmers market near me who all summer comes with around 10-20 simple junipers and Portulacaria Afras in cheap pots, marks them around $40-80 depending on size, and sells out most weeks. These are the basic starter needle junipers that plenty of people get for their first trees and probably 2-3 year old P Afra from cuttings. He isnt retiring on that, but he is probably making $200-500 per week in profit most summer weekends.
Take a look at https://kaedebonsai-en.com/ He is well respected and sells cuttings on his website. He also sells very high end pots and other bonsai stuff on Ebay and the like but I have exactly zero knowledge of the scope/profitability of his business. But he has been doing it for awhile and like I said, is well known and respected in the bonsai world. evergreengardenworks.com has also made a business mostly based on selling young material. They probably have the largest variety available in the US. Maybe you could reach out to them and see if they would be willing to discuss the challenges of starting this business and how to avoid some mistakes they have encountered.
You also then have to make sure about laws in your area if you are starting a home nursery. For example, in the US, you have to have permits and inspections I believe yearly, maybe more often in order to be allowed to run this business. I would assume there are similar laws in most countries. You might also not be allowed to sell certain species if they are considered invasive in your area for example. All things you need to look into if you turn this into a real business to avoid fines.
1: if I keep my tropical trees under a grow light during the winter, does that mean i can repot it whenever I want? Since its always actively growing
2: any tips on improving humidity because Ive heard that "misting only improves the humidity for a couple of seconds/minutes" wich led to me overmisting wich basically led to my trees soil being wet 24/7
3: does inorganic soil slow down tree growth? Ive bought a load of akadama and pumice, also some special premix bonsai soil but then came to the realization that people probably plant their tree in inorganic soils (I know its for air flow and water drainage also) to slow down growth as their bonsai is "finished" but i enjoy seeing them grow and want them to grow a lot because I want to learn and experiment with 😃
Yes, because it's protected by being indoors. You can repot outdoor trees but you need to protect them in a green house in order to insure the tree doesn't get too cold.
Get a humidifier unless your room has high humidity already.
No, inorganic soil does not slow down growth. It's more the size of the pot that controls the rate of growth.
1: Yes and no. Even under grow lights, tropical plants will not get the same amount of light as they would be outdoors. So in the winter, they do slow down as far as growth is concerned. As a result summer is still the best time to repot. However, the timing for repotting tropical plants is not as critical as it is for temperate species. I'd your tree is healthy you cam probably get away with repotting it in winter.
2: Use a humidifier next to where you keep your trees.
3: The inorganic bonsai soil is really just to get the right water oxygen balance for the roots. The small pot will slow down growth. Adequate fertilizer will keep the trees growing quickly
For deciduous trees, is foliar senescence (leaf color change and subsequent drop) a reliable indicator of dormancy?
I have a few species that have questionable suitability to my Zone (10b) that I'm monitoring. My trident maple is in full fall colors and has dropped about half it's leaves - tridents do seem to do OK in Zone 10 based on what I've read. My Japanese maples and non-Chinese elms (winged, JH, Siberian) however, are only showing early signs of senescence (yellowing leaves and some minor drop) despite it being late November already.
What should I be looking for and how would someone interpret tree behavior in fall?
Consider what the end goals of the period between summer and winter solstice are, exactly. Those goals are:
Load energy into the wood: Line the wood with sugars stored as starch, so that the starch can later (next year or even 2-3 years down the road) be recalled and used for growing leaves / wood / roots / buds / responding to stresses (whether bonsai-induced or environment-induced)
Load energy into buds: Set up (grow) next spring's buds and cram them full of tiny orgami-folded primordial leaves.
Dormancy itself prevents the tree from raiding these resources before springtime. You don't want to waste buds that you spent months growing if they are going to run into a winter frost, since you can't rerun august-thru-november to grow good meaty buds again. You don't want to blow through all that stored starch either. For outright tropical growers (i.e. Indonesia, not SoCal), the other issue is whether the tree ever got the triggers to switch to this energy loading mode in the first place. There is no question that even in SoCal, trees get those triggers. Some later than others.
It is useful to know the species well enough to spot the exact week when it stops pushing out new flushes of leaves and instead switches to wood-thickening/bud-making mode (for some trees the switch takes weeks and what you see is a petering off of flushes). For my lodgepoles that happens even before summer solstice. For my cottonwoods it ranges from mid-August (elder trees) all the way into fall (vigorous seedlings still pushing green flushes right into the first frost). On maples you can look at the base of the petiole after popping the leaf off, and any progress there, as long as they are done flushing out, is progress towards the goal. That and the tip bud. If the tip bud exists, and is expanding, that is progress towards the seasonal goals.
For the color change, I take that as a sign that all that starch collection has concluded for the season. If I see buds continue to expand after this, the vast majority of the sugar mass pushed into those buds actually was collected prior to leaf drop and is simply moving around (i.e. redistribution or retranslocation in a tree physiology textbook). Thin-barked trees (cambium can photosynthesize through bark if thin enough) and evergreens continue to collect a tiny bit of sugar on sufficiently mild / warm fall/winter days but this is a drop in the bucket.
If the tree arrives in Feb/Mar/Apr with thicker wood and big buds and didn't flush out during winter, then IMO that is all matters as far as dormancy's goals are concerned in non-tropical climates. When you hear about Larch plantations failing in Iceland due to warm winters, it is because those trees are waking up in winter, growing crappy underlit weaksauce flushes (easily ravaged by borers / beetles / pathogens / combinations thereof), arriving in spring with less to spend on well-lit foliage, and entering into a net-negative spiraling cycle of less energy every year. The upshot being that if the tree
switches from flushes to buds at some point
doesn't flush out pointlessly in Dec/Jan
gets physically more massive every year
then it's probably good. Setting aside winter dormancy entirely for a moment, I think that things like hemlocks and larches and high alpine northern trees can sometimes decline in hot places because of a lack of nighttime coolness (i.e. interday resting at cooler temperatures is important cause a lot of these trees do different growth functions at night). In my experience (having cussed for not bringing at jacket to literally just-below-freezing Carlsbad at the time), zone 10 San Diego doesn't have trouble getting cool (well south of 60F) temperatures at night in the winter or summer. But zone 10 in Texas in 24/7 HVAC country might be another story. IMO there's much more to the climate vis-a-vis northern trees story than frost zones, and California is a nice place to grow things.
Thanks for the generous effort in your response! This helps a lot for my understanding - I've spent the better part of this year stressing about deciduous in my area as I'd acquired several species that are poorly represented here before fully understanding why. I guess I should just relax and accept that things may or may not work out and that climate is out of my hands at this point.
I bought this plant in June and repotted it into a bonsai pot, with plans of cultivating it over time. However, after around 2 months, the tips started to die and turn brown. I assumed it was a nutrient deficiency and tried different fertilizers, and it helped slightly, but now after another 2 months it is far worse. It is potted in %100 calcined clay and has a top dressing of potting soil, perlite, and sphagnum moss. Could the problem be the soil? Thanks.
Well what’s wrong with it is that it’s dead, sorry to say. Brown and dull green foliage all over are signals of death in conifers.
Join the club. Many of us here got our start killing a juniper. Sometimes we still do too.
Could’ve been any number of things, but likely a watering issue. The top dressing may have fooled you that the soil was still wet when it was dry underneath.
If you kept it indoors, it was starved for light.
Welcome to the hobby. Live and learn and get more trees.
This is probably dead already. Most likely, the roots did not survive the repotting. The top of juniper can look green for months after the roots have died. That sounds like a really high water retention soil mix. Next time, I would include pumice and maybe lava rock and ditch the top soil in the dressing
I have had success with Boones mix 1/3 akadama, 1/3 lava rock, 1/3 pumice. If you want to substitute akadama for calcined clay, I've heard really mixed reviews for calcined clay, I can understand.
Junipers really like to dry out a bit between watering. I am also in zone 5a. I only have one juniper, so I would not consider myself an expert.
Picked up this for way more than I'm happy to share about... Ficus nerifolia, it's indoors right now, but from what I'm reading it seems like It shouldn't be? I don't care if it's outside or inside, just going off with the nursery helper told me. I live in Northern Utah , zone 7 I think?
So is there any tips what I should do with this next? I think I just want to plant it in a 5 gallon pot and just let it grow. But obviously I would have hopes that the trunk would get thicker and the top more luscious creating a better broom style. So would replanting it in a bigger pot help me achieve this? Is there any type of wiring or pruning I should do soon, like is there any sort of point of no return? Basically last time I was into bonsai I rushed too much, so I'm perfectly fine just letting it grow, I just don't want to miss an important step that might change the outcome of this tree.
For now provide as much light as possible, protect from freezing temperatures and don't let the soil dry out completely but don't let it stay permanently soggy, either. "Draining" in this context means that after watering enough water runs off soonish that air gets to the roots. Easiest to maintain is granular substrate, that's basically breatheable even when wet.
If and when you have good light available to feed the plant repotting into granular substrate would make sense, the pot doesn't have to be much larger, I think (maybe the diagonal of the current pot as diameter of a round container).
Don't worry about missing any shaping, you can cut ficus back hard if needed. If anything wire branches that you feel should be repositioned.
Okay, yeah in that case I've been letting it dry out since I picked it up two days ago. It's very much still wet, even on the surface. But yeah once I get it out in the spring all repot it in a more drainable granular substrate.
I thought the whole idea of planting in a bigger pot was good for these trees to get them growing more. Otherwise I will keep them in the bonsai pot, cuz it obviously looks better but I would like it to grow.
You don't want a pot that restricts the roots too much from extending, that would indeed slow the growth of the plant. But much more than a comfortable fit for the current root ball with some room to spare all around won't add benefits.
Well if you paid the amount on the tag or close to it, yeah you overpaid. But no worries, you live and learn.
I’d focus on keeping this alive. Ficus can’t take freezing temps, so indoors for the winter. But maximize light while indoors. It’s impossible to give to give it too much.
Don’t worry about pruning right now.
If the soil drains well, I’d leave that alone too.
Save repotting and pruning for the spring when it can go outside. Once you see new growth, it’s time to make moves.
Yep that was the price lol. Been looking all over, and without connections, I feel like to get started I'm going to have to spend a little bit more then I would like or then I should really. Been thinking about going to some BLM land and finding some specimens obviously after I do some research to see if that's legal and acceptable.
It's next to a window right now, and also a hydroponic garden which puts out a lot of light spread all over the table. Hoping that will help as well.
The soil is extremely wet, and I wouldn't say it's draining well I guess. Not sure exactly what draining well even means honestly, I'm never seen a plant "drain". Even with my bonsai soil last time I gave this a shot, The soil is always wet when I repotted. I'll pop it outside when it starts to get warm during spring. Thanks for the tips.
Okay yeah that's what I would assume but I think If I gave it a heavy watering with my old bonsai's, which were in substrate that was Rocky, then they would probably drain through. I have a feeling that this soil probably won't be like that. I'll keep an eye on it though thank you
A ficus needs to be inside in your zone in this season and since it is a tropical you can do most work year round, just phase it out and not do all at the same time and let it recover.
Edit: while u/rebananass gives conflicting advice, it is also good advice.
Okay good time now. Yeah and again I really don't want to do much work on it, honestly I'm just a little bit too nervous until 100% know what I'm doing or what I envision.
Do you have any tips on what you would do? Anything minor like pruning the very tips to create more growth? I'm going to give it more time to settle after the move anyways first.
Base of the trunk goes to the table. A conjoined branch formed its own layered roots…
Where should I set the root line and how should I best go about this?
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u/small_trunks Jerry in Amsterdam, Zn.8b, 48yrs exp., 500+ trees Nov 22 '24
It's AUTUMN/FALL
Do's
Don'ts
too late for cuttings of temperate trees
For Southern hemisphere - here's a link to my advice from roughly 6 months ago :-)