Beginners advice

Kjac081

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Hi everyone. My brother gave us a couple Brazilian redwood bonsai trees he sprouted from a seed kit. We are in the Houston area, so not sure if these should be kept inside or outside. We have them in a window for now that gets good sun half the day, and are spraying with water when the soil feels dry.

Also not sure if I should put them in a different pot and where to find any special soils or potting material that these may need.

Appreciate any pointers. image.jpg
 
I have never heard of Brazilian redwood, maybe it's the same as a raintree. But my first advice would be to let those trees grow for about an year, and then repot them into a well draining soil (pumice, lava rock, perlite, vermiculite, zeolite, bark), really anything that doesn't break down (fast) and that also retains some water, some soils retain more water than others so do your research about the species of trees you have and their needs. Also please don't repot it into a small bonsai pot, it will stunt it's growth and it will take a looooooong time to finally see the tree you invision.

Seeing "Brazilian" in the name kinda tells you what it likes, water, sun, warmth and humidity, I'm not really big into tropical tress, but it may also really need fertilizer. After you repot it (also try not to take too many roots of a young plant), just let that baby grow for a few years.

While it's young you can maybe wire it's trunk to give it some nice movement if you want to, or you can just grow it as a straight tree. Also from what I've noticed from personal experience, when I wire seedlings they tend to grow thicker than a seedling which I dont wire ( I've only notice this on a few sweet chestnuts and on bald cypress).

If you don't have enough time to water these guys or someone to water them for you, I would either combine the well draining substrate with either some peat moss or sphagnum moss. Also, giving your trees a top dressing also helps, I have used fine sand and coco coir and they both do their job, they don't impede my watering (and also the coco coir just looks very nice).
 
Brazilian redwood (Paubrasilia echinata), commom name around here is Pau-Brasil, it's a tropical species, loves water, humidity and heat. Unfortunaly it's not used for bonsai around here because of the leaf size, unlike BRTs, each leaf will be bigger than an open hand when mature.

Folha de Pau Brasil web.jpg
 
Brazilian redwood (Paubrasilia echinata), commom name around here is Pau-Brasil, it's a tropical species, loves water, humidity and heat. Unfortunaly it's not used for bonsai around here because of the leaf size, unlike BRTs, each leaf will be bigger than an open hand when mature.

View attachment 497082
Oh thats a cool looking tree, thanks for showing me it's existence. I think the leaves will shrink enough to make something good.
 
That's not Pau-Brasil, those are "Jacarandá Mimosifolia" or Blue Jacaranda, and yes, I'm sure...
Sometimes also refered as B. Rosewood (Which is actually another species).
Most people don't know this is actually a deciduous tree on it's natural environment, but it rarely goes below freezing around here... So you can keep outside on growing season, but maybe your winter is too much for it.
I don't know how is summer in Houston, but if it is too dry maybe you should protect a little from direct sun.
It's very tolerant to substrates, so you can use some sort of organic soil mixed with rought sand for example, very simple.
 
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