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Originally Posted by bonsainewbie221
im a relitive newbie to bonsai so my input isnt that important. but i think cuttings and cheaper material are a good way to learn alot of the basics and tryin diff techniques and stuff so u dont have to kill expensive stuff while learning. and then when your confident about your ability then save up and buy some nicer stock. just my 2 cents
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Your two cents are worth a great deal, and that's the point; how well are you able to spend those two cents? This has always been the heart of my argument; many that are new to bonsai wouldn't know a good piece of stock if it jumped up and down and carried a placard accompanied by a marching band.
Most people in bonsai have five years under their belt before they start getting a clue about the kind of material they should be using. By this time they have gone through a potting cycle or two, they have probable killed a tree, but--- they have also learned they can keep a tree alive for more than a couple of months.
Until you get to this point it is ridiculous to even consider collecting material from the wild. Pre-bonsai might be an option provided some sort of more advanced guidance has been obtained, but the heart of all endeavours concerning bonsai is in an ability to know good material and how to recognize it.
Some people think that a piece sold as pre-bonsai is automatically a good piece of stock. It is true it may posses some traits like root development or initial pruning but this is not always true. The truth is; there are good pre-bonsai and bad pre-bonsai, but most pre-bonsai are priced quite a bit higher than a similar tree from a nursery. The problem is in learning to tell the difference; knowing what you are looking for and why. These lessons are best learned with less expensive material.
In my experience the best place for a novice to begin is in the nursery trade where the price of material is not so high as to frighten the grower into inactivity out of fear of killing an expensive tree, or discourage them when they do kill a tree. Seeds and cuttings are too slow to provide an aggressive regime of active study. Collected trees are too complicated to collect successfully, and are very fussy to take care of for a number of years before training can begin, and lastly, we have discussed pre-bonsai material and its pit falls for the novice.