Success At Last!

Bonsai-gecko

About 4 years ago when I first got into bonsai I saw one of those infamous "grow your own bonsai by seed" kits. I had a few "stick-in-pot" bonsai already, but, I bought a kit full of Redwood seeds (Sequoiadendron giganteum ) and tried it out because I just had to have a redwood.

Well, 2 kits and months later I had nothing. I went on to collect more sticks for my pots, and eventually came across the online seed sources. realizing that the kit is a waste of money (pay $10-$14 for seeds I can get online for $1.25) I ordered seeds from seedman.com

I learned that redwoods have a fairly low germination percentage, but finally after planting roughly 60-something seeds I had one sprout. I was happy as my tiny redwood finally started to grow, but by then it was late in the season, and I didn't protect it well enough for the michigan winter. It wasn't strong enough to pull through. That was about 2 years ago.

Well, after taking a year off, I tried agian this year. I was placing an order from seedman for a few other trees. Figured I'd try Baobab, orange jasmine, pygmy date palm, and the reason for the oder in the first place...the impossible to find anywhere .... Montery cypress. I decide to add a pack of sequoia to make the $10 minimium order.

About 6 weeks ago I got the order and planted 1/2 the seeds. Suprisingly, out of 10 redwood seeds I planted 2 came up right away in about 2 weeks! Another one started last week ( 4 weeks later), and just today, I found another little bugger!! Seems I've finally got a good batch! I planted the other 10 last week so I expect even more!

Got 1 baobab, and an ornage jasmine thats 3-4 weeks old too. The baobab is growing nicely, but the jasmine seems to have just stalled. It looks healthy, but hasn't put on any true leaves yet or anything in the last 4 weeks... maybe its growing roots first..wish I knew.

Still nothing on the montery cypress though... not suprising since the packet said 3-6 months for germination... hopefully I'll see one of those in the next couple of weeks...they were afterall the reason for the order in the first place.

Till then I guess I'll just have to admire the little redwood forest thats beginnng

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Bonsai-gecko

Just noticed 2 more sprouts today. Just over a week since planting the second 1/2 of my redwood seed order. I now have a total of 6 sequoia seedlings already, with hopefully more on the way.

I definitly will plan on a grove/forest arangemet for a few of these.

dbz12fan

Congratulations. A good way to get some nice bonsai in much less time than growing from seed would be to join a local club. I am sure that there are plenty of bonsai clubs and study groups around you. All you have to do is put a search in for bonsai clubs in michigan on the internet.

__________________
"Success demands understanding"-Andy Rutledge

Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

jml

How do you feel about stratification techniques?

Did you try anything to improve germination rate? I collected a lot of stuff from several american sites on this subject, such as:

www.wpsm.net

or

"the seed germination database" available in a lot of on-line seed stores, like

http://www.backyardgardener.com/tm.html

... if you take some time to read, the texts aren't that dense.

__________________
JML

(Endemicum Portugalense)

Bonsai-gecko

Obviously with some types of seeds stratification is almost 100%neccesary. I've stratified Gingko and a few others that I've grown from seed. Most of what I tend to grow theese days however are sub-tropicals and tropicals, therefor I haven't had to stratify them . As for these redwoods...The "kit" I bought in the begining had instructions for stratification of these seeds. I followed them and had no success.

The seed I first got to germinate 2 years ago, and the ones sprouting now were not stratified at all. Maybe I just got a great batch this time.... but I'm now up to 8 seedlings out of about 20... I expect a few more will still come up out of the second group of ten that was planted about a week ago.



dbz12fan: I actually do have around 40 something plants these days. Most are seedlings/cuttings,stick-in-pots, etc. but a few are actually at the point where they are starting to show some development and promise. Most of my REAL bonsai I purchased early have passed on over the last 4 years... The whole "learning experience" was a bit cruel to them. However, everyone of those trees have left behind numerous cuttings, airlayers, etc.

I know groing from seed will take the longest, but since I do allready have trees in different stages of development, I don't mind starting a lot from seed too. This way I still have stuff to play with while I wait years for this stuff to get to a trainable level. I'm also in my late 20's so I assume I can afford to wait a few seedlings out.

I have been tossing around the idea of joining our local club for a few years. There are actually 2 in Micigan I know of that are close. I kind of took the first step last weekend and went to one of their annual shows... I was very impressed with what I saw and learned. I'm sure I'll join eventually