Another beginner seeking advice

[LittleStar]

Hi everyone,

I'm a complete beginner when it comes to bonsai, I know much advice says start with an established plant to get the feel for it, but I have a lot more joy out of growing from seed, I'm patient enough to wait it out, but will robably buy something already established, if not bonsaid, to play around with.

I don't want ask all of my questions, as there are so many I need answering, but would very much appreciate being pointed in the direction, either on site or elsewhere online, of a almost step by step from seedling to bonsai.

One of my biggest questions is regarding trunk thickening. I assumed pollard ing was the ay to do it, but then I can't really find anywhere online that says specifically, most sites just assume I should know everything and go straight to the branch training... But then I found that some trees need to be thickened differently, via sacrificial branches and the like.

One of my seedlings (three actually) is a giant sequoia, I'm hoping to bonsai it, but I believe it comes under the pine category, because it doesn't bud back easily (parroting something I read somewhere else, but I don't actually know what that means...). So if I'm not pollarding it, I'm thickening via other means. My specific questions for here then are which methods should I use for my sequoia and when should I start. It's about a year old and the biggest of the three is maybe a foot tall from the base of its small pot, they have been grown inside on my windowsill throughout last winter (I'm in the UK) and did fine.


So how and when to trunk thicken, and any step by step information is what I'm looking for I think. Thanks very much

Also, sorry about any typos, I can't go back and change them on my iPad

 

[Janson]

Trunk thickening will be the first step to almost any bonsai. Learn to care for the tree and let it grow!

 

[M. Frary]

Are you an arborist? I've never seen the word pollard in here?
And do you mean pollard in in the landscape tree sense,which is subbing branches or chopping a trunk at the desired height once it reaches the thickness desired?
That's cool. Pollarding. From my experience being an arborist,most people have never heard the word let alone know the meaning.
Welcome to the Nut.

 

[LittleStar]

Thanks for the replies and the welcome.
I'm not an arborist, but I work in a garden centre, and my partner works with a botanist, so the word gets thrown around often enough for me to have picked it up. Is there another word bonsai has for the same action? Or just simply, 'chop it off'?

I mean it in the sense of waiting for the tree to grow to say 1.5 inch trunk diameter, and then cutting it off at the desired height... That was my assumed method of trunk thickening before I discovered other methods.

I do have several other varieties of trees growing from seed, but being the biggest I thought I'd start with my redwoods. Being a pine, does it matter if I use the 'chop it off' method? Another place I looked at suggested something about bending the trunk down in such a way, that a branch became the de facto trunk.

 

[M. Frary]

I don't know a thing about the redwoods except they get rather large if left alone for a few hundred years.
We just call it chopping when we shorten them up.

 

[LittleStar]

Thanks. Any where you can recommend, on or off site, for a step by step for just a general plant, non redwood, then?

 

[Txhorticulture]

I know the word pollarding lol. From knowing not to do it to crepe myrtles.

Red wood isn't in the pine family (pinaceae) rather it is in the even larger cypress family (cupressaceae) I don't know how easily it buds in old wood. Like most Americans I live in a climate where they can't be grown .

Good luck have fun

 

[Txhorticulture]

I do have several other varieties of trees growing from seed, but being the biggest I thought I'd start with my redwoods. Being a pine, does it matter if I use the 'chop it off' method? Another place I looked at suggested something about bending the trunk down in such a way, that a branch became the de facto trunk.

As you alluded to earlier pines are very reluctant, maybe the most reluctant, to bud on old wood. I've seen it on one of my pinyon pines. I know some species are more likely to do so than others. Canary island pine does it quite a lot.

Anyway your first step is let them all grow for a few years. All conifers are outdoor plants.

 

[coh]

Let's make sure we are talking about the right species. Do you have giant sequoia (sequoiadendron giganteum) or coast redwood (sequoia sempervirens)? (And as noted above, neither is a pine...and neither really behaves like a pine)

I am growing both. In my experience (relatively limited, about 5-7 years) both will bud back pretty well on the trunk. Well, at least the ones I have do.

My giant sequoia is relatively young and small and I'm just letting it grow to build up the trunk. It seems to be a pretty slow grower. I'd like to put it in the ground, but I tried that with another one a couple of years ago and it didn't survive the winter. May try again in a more protected location.

Chris

 

[jk_lewis]

I know the word pollarding lol. From knowing not to do it to crepe myrtles.

Yeah. Around here, that's called "crape murder." Still people keep on doing it.

 

[cmeg1]

" almost step by step from seedling to bonsai"
I'm not sure where you live for climate to grow Zelkova.
I've been working on this for a couple years now from seed.
If interested in this I could give some pointers.There is more to it than the pictures convey.
Plus I get to show my mini progression
Thanks!
Here is year one.

 

[cmeg1]

Year two...and this year.

 

[qwade]

Is there another word bonsai has for the same action? Or just simply, 'chop it off'?

Trunk chop is usually referred to in these parts for cutting the trunk. . A little different than pollarding. We would refer to' ramification' when talking about producing dense foliage at the end of branches, as is similar to pollarding.

 

[M. Frary]

Pollarding is stubbing off limbs all the way back to zero foliage. It wouldn't ramify anything because you are only leaving the stubs of primary branches.
Pollarding is used on fast growing decidious trees like willow and silver maple.

 

[LittleStar]

Showing my noobiness, even here there is a lot of technically words at I need to look up before I understand what's being said lol.

My mistake, I found out just after I posted that it wasn't a pine. I used to live with one of the few (I believe) actual redwoods in the uk, right outside in my garden, a very impressive tree, and it looked pretty pine-ish so I always assumed.

@coh, They are all giant sequoia, just over a year old, though I have a couple of dawn redwood, just sowed and germinating 5-6 weeks ago (will take a while before they are ready I guess).

So the consensus is I don't need to do anything with them just yet, except grow them on until the trunk thickens. I don't really have any ground I can put them in, but I have access to a decent range of pot sizes. Is it best to put them up into a slightly bigger pot and let em grow on, and repeat when necessary, or just stick them in the biggest I have and leave them for a few years?

 

[coh]

Generally best to gradually increase the pot size as the roots fill the container. If you plant it into an overly large pot you'll have way too much soil that will stay too wet.