Hello!
I got a bonsai growing kit and have started to grow my seeds. I am new to gardening of any kind but have followed all the instructions faithfully and have a couple of tiny sprouts after a couple of months. my only concern is that the soil is almost completely covered in a white fuzzy looking mould. I don't know if this is normal or if I should do something to deal with the mould issue/how would I remove the mould and better care for my sprouts.
they are jack pine seeds. I water it every day (unless it is sufficiently hydrated) and keep it inside on a window sill that gives plenty of sunlight and is often open which allows for fresh air. I could be doing everything wrong but I have followed the directions from the kit exactly.
Any help would be much appreciated.
thanks, Summer
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Starting from a seed is a very slow way to get to bonsai. It will be years before you do anything except care for a tree seedling.
The mold is a sign that the soil is staying too wet, which I would expect with watering (nearly) every day. What kind of soil is it? Even for a seedling, the soil should be loose and kind of gritty, not completely organic like potting soil.
You can probably just scrape some of the mold off and then cover it with a light layer of dry soil and let everything dry out a little.
But your jack pine, whatever they told you, cannot live indoors. Especially for the winter, it will need to be outdoors where it can experience cold dormancy.
Did your kit come with one of those little shallow bonsai pots? DON'T use it, unless you want your tree to stay skinny and three inches tall forever. Once your seedling gets a little bigger, put it in a regular nursery pot.
IMHO those bonsai kits are just a rip-off; sorry.
In the meantime if you really want to experience bonsai techniques, look around the stores, later in the spring they often sell trees and shrubs that didn't sell at very discounted prices. Get a regular full size tree/ shrub and start cutting it down. Or buy a well started " pre-bonsai" or "bonsai in training" which are often sold on line for in the range of $15 - $30.
The mold is a sign that the soil is staying too wet, which I would expect with watering (nearly) every day. What kind of soil is it? Even for a seedling, the soil should be loose and kind of gritty, not completely organic like potting soil.
You can probably just scrape some of the mold off and then cover it with a light layer of dry soil and let everything dry out a little.
But your jack pine, whatever they told you, cannot live indoors. Especially for the winter, it will need to be outdoors where it can experience cold dormancy.
Did your kit come with one of those little shallow bonsai pots? DON'T use it, unless you want your tree to stay skinny and three inches tall forever. Once your seedling gets a little bigger, put it in a regular nursery pot.
IMHO those bonsai kits are just a rip-off; sorry.
In the meantime if you really want to experience bonsai techniques, look around the stores, later in the spring they often sell trees and shrubs that didn't sell at very discounted prices. Get a regular full size tree/ shrub and start cutting it down. Or buy a well started " pre-bonsai" or "bonsai in training" which are often sold on line for in the range of $15 - $30.
Thank you for all of your help!rainbowgardener wrote:Starting from a seed is a very slow way to get to bonsai. It will be years before you do anything except care for a tree seedling.
The mold is a sign that the soil is staying too wet, which I would expect with watering (nearly) every day. What kind of soil is it? Even for a seedling, the soil should be loose and kind of gritty, not completely organic like potting soil.
You can probably just scrape some of the mold off and then cover it with a light layer of dry soil and let everything dry out a little.
But your jack pine, whatever they told you, cannot live indoors. Especially for the winter, it will need to be outdoors where it can experience cold dormancy.
Did your kit come with one of those little shallow bonsai pots? DON'T use it, unless you want your tree to stay skinny and three inches tall forever. Once your seedling gets a little bigger, put it in a regular nursery pot.
IMHO those bonsai kits are just a rip-off; sorry.
In the meantime if you really want to experience bonsai techniques, look around the stores, later in the spring they often sell trees and shrubs that didn't sell at very discounted prices. Get a regular full size tree/ shrub and start cutting it down. Or buy a well started " pre-bonsai" or "bonsai in training" which are often sold on line for in the range of $15 - $30.