Hunting or Growing From Seeds

Growing from seed is the best way to create a Bonsai. You have practically all the control in its development. However it will take a lot of time to develop Bonsai from seeds. Depending on the type of tree and the final Bonsai size, this could range from 2-6 years for mamae (3 to 6 inches height) size to 40-120 years for a large (1 meter height) size Bonsai. These are very rough estimates. The longest period in developing a Bonsai is during trunk and nebari (root formation) development. You must consider the average human life span when you create bonsai or you may not see the fruits of your labor. To give you an idea, I enumerated several steps in creating a Bonsai from seed below.

Growing bonsai from seed to form a shohin or small (11-12 inches) Bonsai:

1. Germinate the seed (1 week to a couple of months)

2. Plant in nursery pot and let it flourish (1-3 years)

3. Do Preliminary wiring for trunk movement then replant on the ground or in a bigger grow-out pot and let grow (2-4 years). Do not forget to remove the wires when the wires start to bite the trunk.

4. If the trunk is about or more than an inch, transfer to a training pot. Do a trunk chop 4