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Hi there! A friend of mine gave me a mini jack pine bonsai kit today...it includes a small pot, 4 seeds, and a peat pellet. But it's missing the little instruction manual. I've tried researching how to start this little guy from seeds but am having a hard time finding anything. Can you help me out? Thank you!

try searching the forum - there have been questions about this kit before

howdy,
soak the peat pelet in a 1/2 cup of water untill it expands,put soil medium into supplied pot, bury seeds 1/4 inch below soil surface,place pot on a saucer to catch exess water. keep soil moist and place in a sunny place, repot seedlings
when they reach 2 to 3 inches tall... I still have my instructions
good luck

Did yours work out?

That was three years ago and devin only ever made that one post, so I think the chances are minute that he will respond.

But personally, if I wanted to do bonsai (as opposed to just having the experience of seeing a tree seedling sprout from a seed), I would never start with a seed. IF you can get the seed to sprout and IF you can keep the seedling alive, it will be years before you can do anything but help the seedling survive. If your kit came with a little bonsai pot, do NOT use it. Once your seedling gets to be a few inches tall plant it in a large nursery pot. It will never grow very much in the bonsai pot.

Any serious bonsai folks who decide to try starting from seed, plant a dozen or so of them, to try to ensure that one or two eventually make it to the size where they can become candidates for bonsai.

For the price of your kit, you can get an actual pine tree, a couple feet tall and save maybe five years of waiting to work on it....

Jushliben wrote:Did yours work out?

To try and paraphrase a really dilligent amature who wrote for an article in the (1966 edition) of "Handbook on bonsai: Special techniques"

Makoto Inawashiro wote about a grower and his grandson who grew and developed a maple between 1879 and publication (1966) that the grandson presented to Makoto.

So if 110 years is not an unreasonable amount of time to grow a bonsai out from seed, then hop right on it.

See Pg. 34, "A Tradition of Bonsai Amateurs"