How Long Does it Take For Bonsai to Grow?
[WATCH VIDEO] This is a complete Bonsai Beginners Guide (2021) How to start in Bonsai. If you have ever wondered where to start in Bonsai or how to get started you will find the best information in this video to get you off and running quicker then most people who have not learnt this information.
Welcome back to bonsai and i’m josh and today we’re going to be taking you through some of the best tips available to get you into bonsai and on the right path to success in this hobby so stay tuned [Music] okay so in the first section i want to talk about the different levels of trees that are available to you and their role that they play in the bonsai journey gift trees are generally very young material which are usually cuttings from a larger tree most of the time they’ll be small and have somewhat of a basic style due to their young nature not allowing them to be properly styled as bonsai the most popular trees used for this are the juniper varieties like the one i have here as they can be easily shaped into something that resembles bonsai pretty quickly things like maples are very hard to style when young and thus when you see a young maple in a bonsai plot it looks very basic with no bonsai shape at all gift trees are great for being able to get into the hobby at a low price point and have something that you can begin practicing watering basic wiring and general maintenance duties on just keep in mind though that they are young trees even if the label lies and tells you that they’re 10 years old this means that if you kept it in the small pot that it comes in it won’t thicken and grow for a tree to get larger you need to grow it in a nursery pot with plenty of space for the roots to grow if you have a tree like this or you do purchase a tree like this then you can always repot it into a growing container and watch it thicken and develop when purchasing saplings you are basically buying a future bonsai tree sapling is a good material if you want to have a hand in the bonsai process every step of the way you buy a young plant put some initial movement in the trunk and let it grow performing basic maintenance along the way a sapling like this one would be developing for anywhere in the range of two to three years for a medium-sized tree and five to six years for a larger tree in saying that though this is a native that grows quick there are some trees that grow in a snail’s pace including things like shimpaku juniper and azaleas so expect a little extra development time the last thing you want to do with a sapling like this is bring it home and put it up into a bonsai plot you don’t even want to wire the branches the main focus is bending the trunk while it is young and flexible and thickening in and up as the tree matures and gives you more options you can begin to style but doing so now is not going to see any good results if you’re looking to jump ahead a few years there is an option to buy pre-bonsai material this tree is the same species as the last tree you’ve seen but it has been grown for a few extra years and has had some initial work done generally this material is grown in a special bonsai nursery and has had most of the early stage work done to it such as initial movement in the trunk laying the surface roots out to form a nice root flare or nabari as we call it in bonsai and maybe it will even have a good first branch this allows you to begin working immediately on styling and if the season permits even getting it into a bonsai pot when buying free bonsai though you need to look out for structural flaws in the tree such as inverse taper crossing branches or worse disease and insect infestations we have a list of guidelines used for styling trees available on our premium blog which is only 4.99 a month it’s worth checking out that list to help you determine what material is good and what is not to save yourself time and money that 499 investment could save you both hundreds of dollars and also a few years trying to fix flawed material i’ll leave a link in the description below for those of you who are interested now the last type of tree you are likely going to see for sale is a proper bonsai now this could be a tree such as this one which is also the same species as the previous two trees but this tree has been in refinement for around a year and a half now so it is just coming into being a bonsai that could be shown you might get a tree that has just gone into refinement so it will need some refinement work done early on you may also have the opportunity to buy a tree that has been a bonsai for many years and is well refined my advice with this is though if you’re going to jump straight into buying a refined bonsai make sure you know exactly how to care for it and you understand your environment and the tree’s needs as it would be devastating to both the original grower and you if the tree was not cared for properly and dies once again we have resources available in our premium blog that explain what development is and what refinement is and how this changes your techniques and the trees needs so jump on over there after the video ends and check out those articles and videos when it comes to bonsai wire plays a critical role in the aesthetic side of things there are a few key things to understand when starting out and we’ll go through them now when searching for bonsai wire you will come across both copper wire and aluminium wire as a beginner i will stick to the aluminium to start off with as it is both cheaper and easier to apply to your tree without damaging it aluminium is also a little more forgiving if you leave it on a little too long when it comes to wiring a tree as a beginner there is one mistake that all beginners make and that is trying to use the wrong size wire for the job this is either using a piece of wire that is too thick for a trunk or branch or using a piece of wire that is too thin for a truncal branch using a piece that is too thick increases your chances of damaging the tree when applying it as it will be harder to manipulate especially around the thinner material you also risk snapping something if you’re trying to force a thick wire to move without it being firmly wrapped around the branch or trunk using a piece of wire that is too thin will basically do nothing and you can bend the branch but it will bounce straight back to where it came from a general rule of thumb for aluminium wire is to use a piece that is one third the thickness of the branch or trunk you are bending another way you can test if the wire is thick enough to hold your branch is by pulling out about 10 centimeters of wire and pushing it down on the middle of the branch if the branch doesn’t move and the wire bends then it’s too thin if the branch moves and the wire stays straight it will hold another difference between copper and aluminium wire is how the sizes are measured the aluminium you will get sizes in millimeters going from one millimeter up to around eight millimeters with copper wire they use gauges running backwards from twenty gauge down to around six gauge twenty gauge being the thinnest and six gauge being the thickest as mentioned before make sure you select the correct size wire for the job if you don’t have the right size wire be patient and wait until you can purchase the right size as using just whatever you have may do nothing at all or worse you can damage the tree generally you can buy aluminium wire in packs of 100 grams 500 grams or 1 kilo rolls buying 100 gram rolls when starting out will allow you to purchase a larger range of sizes without spending too much ok let’s talk about bonsai tools when starting out we generally buy cheaper tools which is a good idea as this allows you to work on your trees without killing your budget and you can see if bonsai is something you want to pursue seriously as an enthusiast once you’ve decided to take bonsai on as a serious practice this is where proper bonsai tools come into play and working on more mature material should not be done without the proper tools as you can cause more damage specialty bonsai tools are not only sharper than your regular tools but they especially shape to be able to reach hard to access places and also have different shapes for different cuts seeing as though this is a beginner’s guide i’m not going to go through the whole range of tools that are available as just the scissors alone you can get regular scissors root scissors de-candling scissors azalea scissors bud shears and they all come in different lengths shapes and materials so let’s start with the two most common materials bonsai tools are made of this is actually a lot more simple than it seems and i’m going to keep it simple for this guide stainless steel won’t rust allowing a little more ease in your care routine for your tools but the steel is softer so they won’t stay sharp as long as the carbon steel will carbon steel will rust meaning you need to have a tighter maintenance routine with your tools but carbon steel is a harder steel allowing the blades to stay sharper longer for me personally i would rather look after my tools rather than need to sharpen them so carbon steel is my choice when it comes to starting to buy tools at all whether you have decided to buy starter tools or higher quality tools i always recommend just starting out with the basic tools and adding tools to your collection only as you need them i know that sounds obvious but i have seen it time and time again in my own shop that people are buying heaps of tools and don’t know what they are or what they achieve you are better off spending the extra money on things like some new pots or making sure you have each size of wire on hand so what would i classify as basic tools this would be a good pair of scissors a good pair of branch cutters and a good pair of wire cutters those three tools should be able to get anybody working in no time over time you can buy a set of knob cutters root scissors and gin pliers to top off the basic kit generally though those last three tools won’t be needed to begin with to add a little more to that last section when you begin to get serious about continuing on with bonsai and start to buy more and more tools keep in mind quality over quantity a good example of this is you can see those cheap tool kits on amazon or ebay and they come with a whole bunch of tools and will only set you back maybe a hundred dollars depending on where you are and you might only get six months from them before they are even more blunt than they started out due to the cheap soft material but a good pair of scissors will set you back around forty dollars for a quality set and around fifty to sixty dollars for a quality set of branch cutters prices only go up from here for quality tools once again spend the money on quality rather than trying to get more tools for less i have seen some of those cheaper kits come with branch splitters branch splitting is not a beginner technique and is certainly not something i would perform with branch splitters that came in a kit worth a hundred dollars for beginners stepping into the world of bonsai they get hit pretty hard with a plethora of knowledge and techniques and it can sometimes be hard to decipher what to learn when starting and what to learn later on down the track when starting out there is no point learning how to use raffia on a branch as you are not likely to have material that will even need it instead you are better off learning important techniques that will be applicable to you and your practice and adding to your knowledge with more advanced techniques as you grow but as mentioned what are basic techniques to learn and what is the basic knowledge we should learn let’s have a look from the day you get a bonsai is the day you begin watering although this particular technique is probably one of the most advanced techniques at the highest level it is still something we all need to do and is something that takes a good few seasons to get a handle on watering can not be taught as a blanket technique because so many variables change how we water a tree which includes the tree species the soil substrate and our environment but when starting out you just need to learn how to give the tree its basic need for water and make sure you don’t let it completely dry out it is far easier to kill a tree by underwatering it than it is to by over watering it in fact over watering is usually a problem with the soil not draining properly and holding pools of water rather than the person actually watering too many times do some research on your tree species as some trees move water quicker than others meaning these trees will need watering more often research the effects of different soil substrates on moisture retention and drainage to work out how quickly or poorly your mix will be draining and also take notice of your environment to help you choose what soil mix to use do you have lots of rain or hardly any rain is it arid or humid do you get a lot of wind do you get frost all these things can change what your mix should be using and how often you should be watering we do teach all these things in our beginner online master classes so check the link below if you’d like to jump on board when we start out in bonsai we get so excited to prune our little trees but pruning a tree at the right time can be critical to not only the tree’s health but also its aesthetic design if we prune a tree at the wrong time of year we can actually take away a lot of its energy repeating this year after year can eventually kill the tree also with deciduous trees for example if we prune in early autumn we can actually cause the tree to open up its new buds except for the next spring and the tree may not have time to harden off and set new buds before the frost in winter posing the risk of losing branches learning the time of year and proper techniques for pruning your particular species will be paramount to your practice and the future of your trees we cannot just come in and cut our trees without calculating the effects it will have for those of you who are members of our premium blog you just learn all about this and boy is an important one to know from day one development versus refinement the two stages of a bonsai this is something that isn’t really commonly taught but is super important to creating proper bonsai development is the growing stage which uses different techniques growing containers fertilization and soil substrates refinement is the process of refining the tree into a bonsai after the growing is complete where all those techniques change again it is something that every beginner does they buy a small sapling bring it home wire it up and put it in a bonsai pot completely skipping the development process development is where we grow the tree nice and thick and grow lots of branches so we have plenty of options when it comes to styling if you put a young tree in a bonsai pot this will not happen leaving you with a little sapling undeveloped for years if you can start your bonsai journey knowing there are two separate stages of a bonsai’s life then you’ll be ahead of most other people who have not learnt that you cannot create a nice bonsai from undeveloped stock you can buy stock that has been developed for years from specialty bonsai nurseries if you don’t wish to wait the years to start training a tree just avoid buying young stock and putting it in a bonsai pot the age-old argument of indoor bonsai although there are some species which are limited to the tropical varieties that can survive inside this does not mean they will thrive or make a good bonsai these trees are a novelty to sit on your desk but will never become what you see in a bonsai magazine or in proper bonsai gardens if you bought a juniper and was told it can live inside you were lied to as a way to make a quick sail temperate species need to be outside with lots of ventilation and unfiltered sunlight they also need to fill the warmth of spring and summer and feel the cooling off of autumn and the cold of winter some trees will need protection from harsh winters and this comes down to your species and how cold your winter is so researching this is important when it comes to protecting the tree from harsh winters this does not mean bringing the tree in the house unless your house is bringing unheated tree inside when you have a heater going all winter can bring the tree out of dormancy early preventing it from getting a much needed rest from the growing season i know this gets some people upset but i’ll say this if you are serious about bonsai drop the idea of having trees indoors and you are ahead of the curve sure you can have a little focus inside on your desk but consider it a novelty and also have a focus outside watch that one thrive and grow like crazy during the growing season we do have a full video on our channel about why we don’t keep trees indoors if you’d like more information finally i want to leave you with a few extra tips to help you progress much quicker than most in the art and cultivation of bonsai one always learn why rather than just how if we know why we are doing something and why a technique is performed it helps us better calculate how to perform that technique on our own material techniques change with different environments and trees so before doing anything to your tree ask yourself why am i doing this and what result am i trying to achieve this will give you a little more awareness in your work and maybe stop you from making a critical mistake two learn your environment you can learn a lot about bonsai but not all of it will be applicable to your environment and trees this is especially true when it comes to soil substrates you need to learn how to work to your particular environment and learn your trees needs according to what your environment is doing look at things like how often it rains how hot it gets how cold it gets how windy it can be and also how humid your environment is or isn’t number three learn the basic guidelines of bonsai aesthetics learning the basic styling aesthetics of those who came before us gives you a great foundation on how to style a tree following a basic structure of what looks good and what doesn’t keep in mind this doesn’t mean at all that you have to follow these guidelines but by knowing them you’ll be able to create a much nicer tree a lot quicker as you will have something to follow think of it almost like having an instructor with you every time you style to help show you how to get the best out of the material that you have in front of you as mentioned before a full list of these aesthetic guidelines are available on our premium blog once you have a good grip on these basic guidelines you’ll be able to begin to step away from them and create your own desired choices and you’ll have a good understanding on both the positive impacts and negative impacts of those choices but just remember if a design choice will impact the tree negatively horticulturally then always allow the horticulture to win if you have one branch shading another move one branch to allow both branches to get sunlight even if it doesn’t look as good when the branches moved the tree needs to be healthy as the number one priority no matter how far through your bonsai journey you are i hope this basic guide has given you a clear path on how to get into the art of bonsai and what techniques to learn straight up if this did help don’t forget to like share and subscribe as that helps us create more content but until next time enjoy your bonsai journey
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