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cass2828
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Location: Chennai, India

Planning to start a bonsai!

Hi,Guys... Sorry for going undercover for so long. :-() I am BACK!!..... so anyway.. I having a small lemon tree plant.. about 1 feet tall and its girth is about 1cm thick.. I am planning to bonsai it. but.. I don't know how... all the articles and videos I get about starting a bonsaii on the internet is about buying a starter plant and then just shaping it. I want to start from scratch.. Help me out

tomc
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Cass, I'll bet a buck there are twenty guys who sell bonsai. In your local market-place. So buying soil components-pots-tools suitable for where you are should not be a problem.

Or, for that matter trees suitable for training.

Starting out from seed or seedling has some fairly long pauses in the first decade or so. You will first have to grow a stump big enough to work. Which about year four to ten, you will chop at the lowest branch.

Lemons or plum are fair bonsai candidates. Be patient please.

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cass2828
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Location: Chennai, India

thnx Tomc

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rainbowgardener
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The art of bonsai is to create a miniature tree that can survive in a tiny pot, but that gives the illusion of a large old tree that has somehow been shrunk. The biggest single factor in creating that illusion is a trunk that is thick relative to the size of the tree.

This picture is labelled "citrus bonsai." I'm not sure what kind of citrus. But it is an e.g. of what I am talking about:

Image

I don't know what kind of lemon tree you have. Meyer lemons are often used, because besides being sweeter than regular ones they are a little smaller, more proportionate for a small tree.

One trouble with lemon trees as a bonsai, if they are allowed to fruit, is that the fruit remain full sized, disproportionate.

Image

Anyway so what you are going for is a relatively thick trunk. A rough guideline says that the height of your finished bonsai should be about six times the diameter of the trunk. So a foot tall bonsai tree (at completion, not necessarily in the working stages) would have a trunk that is 2 inch (5 cm) in diameter at the base. (Part of the aesthetic of bonsai is also a lot of taper in the trunk.) Once your tree is root pruned and in a bonsai pot, it will add girth VERY slowly if at all. So the time frame tom is talking about is just growing your tree out in a large pot until it has some trunk girth.

Bonsai is the art of patience! This is why people often start with starter trees or trees/ shrubs from a nursery that have already had this growing out period and can be cut down and shaped.

Best wishes! Keep us posted on the development of your tree.



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