Tree nurseries

pwk5017

I was wondering if anyone here has ever placed bulk orders (50 trees is the min.) from large tree plantations? There is a large tree nursery about an hour away from where I live and I was perusing their website and was stunned at the prices and the possibilities. Now, before anyone tells me that a 4 year old seedling doesn't have potential, my purpose with these trees is to turn them into suitable stock. I am currently at college and thus 3 hours away from home for the majority of the year. Compounding the problem I am in a 5 year program. However, I see this as an opportunity to raise stock and hopefully have a large amount of trees waiting to be styled by the time I graduate. I have a family at home that is competent at gardening and so I trust them with being able to sustain trees in the ground. Getting back to the main question, this company offers jbp, larch, Japanese yews, and varieties of scotch pines that have been grown in a seed bed for 2 or 3 years and then field grown for 3 years. All of these trees per unit are about $3. I suppose my final question is, good or bad idea?

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tinto

excellent ides. what do you have to loose $3.

waltr

If you have a secure space and since you have time to let them grow I think its a good idea. JBP, Scotts pine and larch all make good bonsai. They would need some attention a few times a year to prune etc for bonsai stock. Read Brent's articles and blog at: http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/ on obtaining and field growing trees for bonsai.

Cg816

Which nursery are you ordering from, because im from around pittsburgh to.

BONSAI_OUTLAW

I have ordered from Van's pine nursery. The only problem I had were the pines were a little to small to go dirrectly into the ground. You might want to take this into consideration as weeds and grass may overtake your seedlings.

tachigi

3 WORDS...Ground Cloth, Mulch

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Tom

Shady Side Bonsai
Bonsai Vault
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pwk5017

Carino nurseries. Yeah it would be like $120 cause of the minimum order and of course the shipping charges associated with shipping 50 2' trees. Thanks alot for the article, i will definately be reading it. Where in Pittsburgh by the way? I am about 25 minutes south of the city.

ekillians

I have just recently undertaken this endeavor. There's a lot of research and reading to be done first. Although certainly, nothing is stopping you from just sticking them in the ground for $3 and seeing how it goes. I'm about a month away from posting a 'step by step' but I just recently tilled 4 rows of 50 feet for 20 trees I just purchased from Meehans Minatures www.meehansminiatures.com and for about 10 or so I have in pots (they look like sticks, hence putting them back in the ground.) plus some room for my veggies. Just like you, since we're relatively young all we've got is time. Lots and lots. Although the older guys in bonsai have so many years of experience and wisdom behind them (enter certain names from this forum here - hehe) we have a distinct advantage. Unless of course you get some weird form of brain cancer or die in a car accident - but thats a whole different story and perhaps too much dark humor to convey over a typed forum message.

I just recently visited Shady Side Nursery where Tom (aka tachigi) is moving his operation to and learned a lot. Check out a tree farm, ask questions and read up on it. I posted thread earlier, it asks a lot of questions that aren't fully answered but its got some good links in it regardless.

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/f8/open...ance-27801.html

I'm no expert on field growing by a long shot, but I'd be happy to try to help you the best I can. Just post here.

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The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!'
-- John F. Kennedy

Vonsgardens

Since everyone on the thread so far (except Tom and Myself) is a "youngster" you have an opportunity to develop some nice trees over time. Not as long as you think, however, even in cold Pennsylvania. I would suggest not wasting your time buying pine seedlings of any type. Start them from seed yourself. Then you can get the roots right from the start. Most trees grown in the ground never really makegood bonsai because the nebari are not good and the distance from the nebari to the first branch is too great. A number of work arounds have been developed, but these techniques are difficult and frequently unsuccessful.

So, try Schumacher Seeds- one oz of JB Pine seeds will get you several hundred trees for a few bucks, they also have a broad range of Scots pines, mugos, etc.

Just a thought,
John

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