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ty guy
- Newly Registered
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- Location: Munster IN, near chicago
help with growing bluce spruce form seed how to bonsai it
I have a blue spruce in the front yard and yesterday I went outside and got a few pine cones and took about ten seeds out. I went inside and I found a baby food jar and filled it half with soil and half with pete moss and mixed together. I put a seed about a centimeter down and then put it in my room in a window. I live about a 45 min from chicago. so it gets kinda cold. What do I do to make it a bonsai?
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opabinia51
- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
- Location: Victoria, BC
First of all I would take it out of the window and place it perhaps in the Garage if there is light in your garage.
At the window your tree will go through vast temperature extremes. This is very bad for a tree. In the garage, the temperatures will be cool and allow your tree to go dormant for the winter.
I am guessing that you have had the tree indoors since it's birth? In which, case simply placing it outside would probably just kill it because it hasn't been acclimatized to the outside. Anyway, the garage would probably be the best place. Perhaps Scott (the HG) will have some advice.
There are several styles that you can choose to make your bonsai tree, take a look at the pictures that Scott and Roger have placed in the site to decide what you want. A bonsai pot will help.
The world is your oyster. You can even choose to do a non traditional style for your tree. Bonsai is just a tree in a pot so enjoy!
(I'm sure that Scott will give his advice as well)
I would also invest in a bonsai book
At the window your tree will go through vast temperature extremes. This is very bad for a tree. In the garage, the temperatures will be cool and allow your tree to go dormant for the winter.
I am guessing that you have had the tree indoors since it's birth? In which, case simply placing it outside would probably just kill it because it hasn't been acclimatized to the outside. Anyway, the garage would probably be the best place. Perhaps Scott (the HG) will have some advice.
There are several styles that you can choose to make your bonsai tree, take a look at the pictures that Scott and Roger have placed in the site to decide what you want. A bonsai pot will help.
The world is your oyster. You can even choose to do a non traditional style for your tree. Bonsai is just a tree in a pot so enjoy!
(I'm sure that Scott will give his advice as well)
I would also invest in a bonsai book
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The Helpful Gardener
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- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Spruce inside? In a word, no. These are cold weather lovers and really need the vernalization (big word for winter).
Seeds should sprout indoors or out; this one needs no pre-treatment. Most in the trade are grafted onto root stock, but that's just to achieve consistent product, not because of any deficiencies of the roots.
The Japanese use Picea yedoensis as a bonsai plant quite often and I think you should be able to do a nice tree with Picea pungens 'Glauca' (the latin for blue spruce). I'd go for a larger tree, as this one likes to grow; I'm thinking at least 2 feet and three would be better. If you want a smaller tree there are some dwarf cultivars like 'Montgomery' or 'Glauca Globosa' that would be even more suitable, but either way it's a nice tree.
Like junipers, this one is best pruned to your basic style choice and then finger-tip pinched to keep shape. Starting from a seedling you could shape the tree entirely by hand; an impressive feat to tell folks when showing it. The Japanese purists say the only good way to grow a pine bonsai is from seed, so that would be a very traditional thing to do...
HG
Seeds should sprout indoors or out; this one needs no pre-treatment. Most in the trade are grafted onto root stock, but that's just to achieve consistent product, not because of any deficiencies of the roots.
The Japanese use Picea yedoensis as a bonsai plant quite often and I think you should be able to do a nice tree with Picea pungens 'Glauca' (the latin for blue spruce). I'd go for a larger tree, as this one likes to grow; I'm thinking at least 2 feet and three would be better. If you want a smaller tree there are some dwarf cultivars like 'Montgomery' or 'Glauca Globosa' that would be even more suitable, but either way it's a nice tree.
Like junipers, this one is best pruned to your basic style choice and then finger-tip pinched to keep shape. Starting from a seedling you could shape the tree entirely by hand; an impressive feat to tell folks when showing it. The Japanese purists say the only good way to grow a pine bonsai is from seed, so that would be a very traditional thing to do...
HG
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The Helpful Gardener
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Let's let it get some size first... 
I think you could cheat and get some more growth out of it by starting it indoors, growing it outside next year and letting NEXT winter be it's first vernalization. BAD for established trees, but you can cheat a little with some seedlings and from what I've read I think this is one of them.
Don't worry about dwarfing it yet, give it time. Patience...
Scott
I think you could cheat and get some more growth out of it by starting it indoors, growing it outside next year and letting NEXT winter be it's first vernalization. BAD for established trees, but you can cheat a little with some seedlings and from what I've read I think this is one of them.
Don't worry about dwarfing it yet, give it time. Patience...
Scott
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The Helpful Gardener
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