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Hello All,

I am new, only been into bonsai for about 6 months, I have a 2-3 year old juniper that is doing well but was a gift that was already 2-3. I decided I wanted to expand, and wanted to try growing from seed. I bought one of those infamous kits online. I am not expecting greatness, but moreso looking at it as an opportunity to learn. I planted 10 seeds of each, after scarification through hot water for 24 hours. It has now been 25 days. I keep the soil moist, and have them sitting on a heating pad for 12 hours through the day. They maybe get 2-3 hours of direct sunlight if that, but there is indirect sunlight, at least enough indirect sunlight for my bamboo. I have bought bigger pots, and different soils(a 33/33/33 akadama, pumice, lava and a 40/20/20/20 akadama, pumice, lava, pine bark) to be prepared, but think it may be awhile before I should repot them. But I am very new, so I am not sure when growing from seed when the first time you repot is. A lot of the trees said to repot every 2-3 years. Is that the same for seeds, or should I be repotting at the 1 year mark or earlier even?

Pinus Thunbergi - Has 7 of the seeds starting to sprout. I have read that with seedlings, they may fight each other for nutrients, and these ones are all what I feel is pretty close to each other. Should I be repotting, or trying to prune the weaker ones to give a better chance to the seedlings?

Acacia Dealbata - I have two sprouts, but up until yesterday they were upright. Now they are both "fallen over" or leaning against the edge of the pots. I am wondering if they are getting too much heat? Or too much water? Or what are some causes for seedlings to fall over? And if I should give up on these two seedlings and hope for other seeds to germinate?

Jacaranda Mimosifolia/Picea Mariana/Gardenia Jasminoides - its been 25 days. The kit said to expect germination between 15-40 days, so I have been holding out hope until day 41. On these ones, are there specific growing conditions that may have limited germination?


I have 10 more seeds for each, and plan on trying again with each one. But trying to learn from my mistakes to improve my odds. I live in the PNW, it is planting zone 6a/6b/7a here. But currently we have been getting about 5-6 inches of snow once a week. So I am afraid to put them outside, and wonder if I should wait closer to spring to try the 2nd batch. Also, I am assuming that I shouldn't be treating 5 different species of trees the same, that they have different growing conditions. Ie. As I understand it, the Jacaranda/Gardenia/acacia are more tropical or sub tropical trees, so they'll have diferent growing conditions then the pinus/picea which are found in similar climates as mine. I have tried doing research on each one. If the 2nd batch doesn't go well, any recommendations for tree species I should try in my planting zone?

I am not expecting one person to come through and answer every question I have. I just want to take every bit o information/wisdom I can and try to learn, as I am loving this hobby and want to keep exploring it. So I will appreciate every little tidbit of help, whether it's links to videos or reading, or advice, or your experiences. Even if you offer help on just one of the species, I will still be grateful!! I am happy I found this community.

Thanks for reading this.

A seedling can grow for some for almost a year on those pots if single, the best time to move them is when the roots are taking over the soil that takes a few months...

Btw, by the moment a seedling grow leaves it needs light, so, soon it will need more...
See how the acacia shot long sprouts? It's seeking for more light, so it fall over because it's too long.

About other species, to be short, it's up to taste, but generally, at least here, is easier to grow native trees, as they are more suitable to our enviroment, when we pick exotic trees, we accept the challenge. But I think you are already realizing it, look the trees that grows around you, in your neighborhood, city, state...

Buying specialced bonsai substrate when only have newly sown seeds is very devoted. I put my trees in bonsai soil when they are ready for bonsai pot. Havent started from seed, just garden center materials. Most of them is 5 years in normal organic planting soil or in ground. It is not bonsai soil that makes a tree a bonsai, but it makes it easier to maintain a mature bonsai in a shallow pot.

Albas wrote:
Btw, by the moment a seedling grow leaves it needs light, so, soon it will need more...
See how the acacia shot long sprouts? It's seeking for more light, so it fall over because it's too long.

Thanks for the info, that definitely makes sense. So sunlight is more critical than having a heating pad? If so, is it worth looking into the grow lamps with artificial sunlight?

I plan on keeping them outside once grown, like my Juniper stays outside even during the snow, but it seems to handle it fine.

Tropfrog wrote: It is not bonsai soil that makes a tree a bonsai, but it makes it easier to maintain a mature bonsai in a shallow pot.

Hmmmm, then I may have either just gotten ahead of myself, or put too much focus on the soils. But I can adjust my thinking, the way you put it here, is very helpul for me. Thanks!

Last spring I dug up a dozen maple seedlings in the northern side of the house - that means growing in the ground but with practically no sun. I left some in a flower bed, which means fairly decent dirt type soil. They got water when it rained, and when I watered the lawn - that means no where near every day.

The ones I dug up went into pots with a mix of perlite and lava rock on the south side of the house, with the bonsais. (Some of the pots were large styrofoam drink cups.) They got water every day, some fertilizer after a month or so. And, they got sun all day long. Some of them were in the shade of larger trees, but some got sun most of the day, and in Alabama the sun is pretty intense.

This turned out to be a controlled experiment, which I hadn't intended, but I got anyway. The results were that the ones in the sun were at least twice as tall as the ones in front. The ones in front had trunks a millimeter or two thick, The ones in back were three-four millimeters thick. The ones in back had pretty decent fall colors. The ones in front went from green to brown and fell off. There are some pictures on a post I made last fall.

So, the obvious answer is: sunlight, and regular water on well draining soil.

And, BTW, they all sprouted from seeds off of a tree in the front yard which had dropped seeds everywhere, with no assistance from me in stratifying, etc. Nights were a little cool in March/April when I dug them up - that means in the 40s F, which would be 5-10 C, but they all got them, and all survived.

Sunlight. Lots of it.

How close together did you plant them?

I am wondering because I have these little 3'' pots with multiple seedlings in them. I think that the seedlings may be fighting for nutrients, so I was wondering if I should prune some of them or try removing some of the seedlings so the strongest seedlings can take off so to speak. The booklet that came with the kit indicated they might fight for nutrients. But I also trust the advice of those here, than those selling the kits on amazon.

They were growing at odd spots in the yard, feet apart (that is, a meter or more), mostly.

I put them in odd pots available, clay pots 3" or so (7-8 cm), some in styrofoam cups or other drink cups (with the bottom carefully punctured), and one in an old ugly "bonsai" pot because I couldn't find anything else that day.

I gave each pot one biogold pellet every 2-3-4 weeks, but that is not what made them grow so much, I think. It was the sun and the regular water, helped by the perlite/lava rock mixture.

Probably they would do better in individual pots, so they get more root room and so that they don't compete for water or sunlight.

Competing for nutrients is easily solved by fertilizing. But these pines are not interfering eachother. They are tiny still.

This is competing, broadleave (tridents) which grow up to 50cm in their first year. Half of these stayed in this tray the whole year (And stayed small, only 10-20cm by the end of the year, where the ones I potted individually in late spring shot up to half a meter.

So I did a little digging, since the Gardenia Jasminoides/Picea Mariana/Jacaranda Mimosifilia didn't sprout.

In the pots of Picea Mariana/Jacaranda Mimosifilia , some of the seeds looked potentially dried out, or otherwise looked the same as when I sowed them.

But in the Gardenia Jasminoides, one of the seeds looked more like a virus under a microscope than a seed. With bright greenish mold? growing on it. So, is this a situation where I left the heat pad on for too long, or watered too much? Or could this be the soil not having enough air in it? Or is this how the seedling will look before it sprouts? If it is some kind of virus or mold, does that mean the soil is bad, or not reusable?

I have 10 more seeds of each, but planned on just sowing them into the same pots with the same soil. But I have also bought some substrate, some organic soil(peat moss + perlite), and some black lava rock. So I am wondering if I should try mixing some of the lava rock with the organic soil to add air? Or just reuse the same soil, but water less, or less heat pad, or less light, or maybe I need to open my windows to let airflow, or turn on my humidifier? I have also attached a photo of my current setup (heat pad, full spectrum light, and tools/water bottle). I plan on moving the setup outside once, spring is here, but we are under a weather alert, and expect 20 inches of snow in two days.