bonsai 101: what are bonsai seeds?

I want to talk a little bit about bonsai seeds. Sometimes you see these things on eBay these “bonsai seeds”. The fact of the matter is that they are just seeds for whatever species of plant they're selling. Sometimes you see these kits at big-box stores in Hobby Lobby. They sell a bonsai kit which comes with a pot and soil and seed. Guess you're supposed to plant the seed in the potting soil and grow a bonsai tree. but these are just seeds for Japanese Black pine or what not. 

Ponderosa pine

It will take years for the seeds to grow to resemble anything like a bonsai. This is so especially if the plant is kept in a little pot its whole life. Sometimes when I tell people that I make bonsai they tell me about their experience with these bonsai kits. Some of those seeds never sprout. The truth is that for the novice some seeds could be hard to sprout. Some of the seeds need cold stratification, scarification, or warm stratification.

I'm not saying you should not buy them, but understand what you're getting into. They are just regular seeds. The fact of the matter is that a bonsai tree is a plant that somebody cultivates by pruning, wiring, and fertilizing. The seed itself does not a bonsai make.

Brazilian rain tree

So when you buy these bonsai seeds just understand that it's going to take a lot of years for it to develop into anything that might come close to looking like a bonsai.

I grow trees from seeds. One of my favorite things to grow is Moreton Bay ficus or ficus macrophylla. These trees get pretty big and very quick. However, it takes a good number of years to get to a size worth showing. I am talking shohin size. Then you have to get the branching out right, the ramification. You can't do that on a young macrophylla until you cut the top tip part right where all the auxin is. When you cut that part it promotes more Branch growth but it slows down the growth of the whole tree over all.

Moreton Bay Ficus

So, I want you guys to know that there are no seeds that grow into a bonsai. A bonsai comes from someone dedicating time and care in developing a plant so that it becomes a bonsai. 

bad branch location on a bonsai-Ficus

What do you do when you have a massive trunk but the branches are not in the

right place?  If you are talking about a Ficus then make it bald. That's right cut off

all the branches. Do not leave anything.

This sounds like harsh treatment, but desperate times call for desperate measures. One

day I was out collecting Ficus from where I work which happens to have a lot of pine

trees. In those pine trees, little birds deposit ficus seeds and they grow. They can get

pretty big if the landscape people do not get to them. So, one day I found a really big

tree that was as thick as my forearm, I'm not a small guy. The problem was that all the

branches were growing from one side. The side that was facing the tree had no branches. The ramification looked very bad. But the trunk was thick and one

of the hardest things to do because it takes a lot of patience is to thicken a trunk.

I tried growing it out for a while. But had no success because all the smaller branches started growing from all the bad branches. It only had bad branches, to begin with. I didn't want to throw this tree away I had collected it made it into a cutting and it was growing. It would be a

waste to throw this tree away, so I chopped off all the branches.

I had noticed when I cut the branches from another Ficus that they would sprout out

new smaller branches all over. I also noticed that if I left a longer nub of a bad branch

there would be new growth there. That would be bad as those branches would also grow

in a bad spot. So, how could I make branches grow in good spots? The only way was by

removing every branch and not leaving long nubs.

At first, I saw no new growth, and yes I was scared that I might have killed the tree.

That's always in the back of your mind. But one day I saw little buds coming out from the

tippy top of the tree which is great because I don't want branches growing just anywhere

on the tree. They all started to grow where I wanted them to.

Not only were they growing where I wanted them to, but they were growing in large

quantities. So many that I had to cut some of them off because I knew that the tree really didn't need that many branches.

I left just enough branches so that they were in a good position, and they would have

room to grow. I wired the lower branches just to give him some shape these are going

to be my longer branches. I'm not going to prune these for a long time. In fact, I'm not going

to prune any branches until some of them get to be as thick as a pencil. The reason

I will not prune them now is that that will slow down the growth.

.As you can see growth is fantastic. I want those branches to grow, grow, grow.

Aerial roots when you live in a desert.

What are some features that you like on bonsai trees? I love aerial roots on ficus trees. They start out thin, but when they bury themselves in the soil they get fat quick. They add lots of character to the tree.

To be frank, growing aerial roots was a mystery to me. Sometimes I would see them grow on some of my Ficusses. Then one day after a heat wave killed some of my trees I decided to install a “drip irrigation” system. They actually make sprinklers in 180 degrees, 90, and 45-degree heads. I installed what you might call an overkill of sprinkler heads. I did not want to lose any tree to thirst.

I turned the sprinklers daily. Instead of mostly the soil getting wet the sprinklers would wet everything. I am talking about the leaves, trunks, and all. Also the brick wall, the wood stands, and the ground soil. I was changing the microclimate. Where I keep my trees I have little to no wind. It’s like a little alcove.

After about 4 weeks I noticed that some of my ficusses had a bunch of aerial roots coming from the trunk.

That is how I stumbled upon aerial roots.

I believe that consistently wetting the whole tree helped create aerial roots more than just the higher humidity.

I had seen pictures of Scandinavian ficus bonsai. They are kept in grow bags. That is a plastic square bags with artificial humidity and light. The winters are harsh up there. Also, daylight in winter is very short. They keep these “exotic” trees in these bags to protect them. Because the humidity is high and the temperature in the bag is relatively high the ficus produce aerial roots. The roots were few though.

In fact, when I saw that I was going to make a mini greenhouse out of wood and clear plastic to try and replicate it.  

I live in Los Angeles, CA. We have had some very warm summers and wet winters (wet for LA, don't laugh at us Seattle) the last few years. The rain was not enough and when it did rain the temperature was too low to do much ariel root growing.

The summers were hot enough but because LA is at the edge of a desert it was never humid enough.

Aerial roots widened the trunk

I want to emphasize that the roots were not growing from the branches. Not every Ficus produced aerial roots and not every tree that made aerial roots produced the same amount.  Even among the same species namely ficus microcarpa, there were differences.

I never use straws to grow the aerial roots. They will not "dry out" if they get wet every day. 

What Ficusses produce aerial roots?:

• Chinese Banya-F. microcarpa
• Moreton Bay Fig-F. macrophylla
• Port Jackson Fig-F. rubiginosa
• Peepale Fig-F. religiosa
• Burtt Davyi
• Weeping fig-F.Benjamina

What can help make aerial roots?:

• Warm temperature 80f or higher
• High humidity
• Spraying the trunk daily
• Right species of Ficus
• Even within the same species, it varies

You might have noticed that most of the aerial roots like to grow on the underside of lateral parts of the tree. The underside.

Cheers

What Ficus Microcarpa has taught me

I have been working with a lot of ficus microcarpa this year. I have learned a few things (and I realized I have many more things to learn).

I have posted many times before on how resilient ficus microcarpa is. Many times I thought I had killed a tree. All the leaves would drop. It would look so sad. I would set them aside to discard later where i would forget about them. Then I would find them some time later with little green buds pushing their way out of the bark. That's not to say that some have not died all the way (The Princess Bride, anybody?). I have bent trunks to amazing curves. I have potted trees in the smallest of pots, I have pruned all but a few short branches and these trees keep coming back. I have seen pictures of abandoned ficus bonsai which have broken free of the pot and have become full size trees.

Epiphytic Ficus Microcarpa

Something I have noticed about FM is that there is a big difference in pruning green branches versus pruning hardened or lignified branches. Knowing what happens can help in bonsai design. When you cut a green branch it will die back to the node just below the cut. You can cut a foot  from a node it will still die back to the first node under the cut. The benefit to this as I have seen is two part. First, as the branch continues to grow it will heal without a scar. Yes, that type of pruning heals fast and if you remove all the dead tissue it will heal smoothly.  Second, I notice that if you cut the bud while the leaf is still small the leaf will pretty much stay the same size. You can get amazingly small leaves like that.

Cutting bigger lignified branches is a different story. A lignified branch is a branch that has become woody. These branches can bud anywhere along the branch. That means that if you cut it short it will bud somewhere in the vicinity of where you wanted it to bud. You may also get multiple buds. That means more branches, more ramification, and more leaf reduction.

New branches started growing after I cut the original branch

There is some differing opinion on what I am going to say next. Please keep in mind that this is a post about ficus microcarpa. If you leave a branch uncut it will thicken faster than  if you prune and let the new branches grow. Here is an example: I let a new branch grow to cover a bald spot on a tree. I did not prune the branch until it got to a thickness close to the other branches. So far so good. Yet, at the same time I have branches that are six month older. These branches i clip because I am trying to develop fine ramification. If these two branches thickened at the same rate I would have incredibly thick branches with exaggerated taper, which is not the case. An uncut branch will thicken faster than branches that are pruned.

Thinner branches on top are older than the bottom branch that has been wired

A great thing about ficus microcarpa is that they are ready to grow aerial roots. All you need is moisture. Here is what I do. I add ground bark to the pot to the height I want aerial roots to grow. Then I water as usual. In as little as a week you will be able to see aerial root buds. Leave the bark (or sphagnum moss, or anything that will keep the trunk moist) on for as long as you want. I have a tree that grew aerial roots very low on the trunk. Now the tree has buttressing roots. I know in cold climates where you keep ficus indoor in special light and humidity grow containers have a high number of aerial roots because the humidity is so high. I have not grown aerial roots from branches yet. I am devising a plan as i write. I will put moss on said branch and will wrap it with mesh. The mesh will help me regulate humidity through spraying. It might be easier to wrap it with plastic, but why make things easier on me?

Aerial roots

Ficus microcarpa love fertilizer. Ficus microcarpa want to grow. I have seen growth as little as two days after fertilization. I fertilize at the fertilizers manufacturers recommended full strength. The ficus love it. I fertilize every two weeks. However, some times I have fertilized weekly. I have seen amazing growth. I do not fertilize any cutting until I see a few leaves. I figure if the cutting has leaves it has roots. The more roots the more fertilizer it absorbs the faster it grows.

Before, (March 24)

After, (May 23)

I have taken cuttings of varying sizes from epiphytic ficus microcarpa. Some have been the thickness of a pencil and some 4.5 inches in diameter. I would say that 99.1 percent have survived. I have taken cuttings from a FM tree. I have had 60 percent success with those. I always plant cuttings in bark. Bark retains little water yet keeps things moist. Bark has barely any nutrients, so after the cuttings have rooted I put them in composted soil i buy for two dollars American from the big box store. Even the huge cuttings I have taken I have put in bark.

Large cutting

That is all I can think of for now. If I remember anything else I will add an update. Cheers.

Oh yes, more info here: http://www.bonsaihunk.us/