Starting out with Bonsai for 5 USD?

Often when buying Bonsai material, you get what you pay for, right? We purchased a $5 Christmas tree and try to style it as a little Bonsai tree. The material is not fantastic, but with time and dedication, we can make something out of this!

In this first episode, spanning 2 years of development, we planted the tree in a relatively large Bonsai pot (with 20% organic soil and 80% Akadama/Pumice mix) to develop it, and styled the tree twice. We like to thank Clingendael (Japanese garden), Bob Ruitenbeek and Christiaan Yeh (Technical supervision).

Serious about growing your own Bonsai trees? Then consider enrolling in one of our online Bonsai Courses, taught by expert teachers. For the curriculums and free lectures, go to:

[jameslangschied]

What most people don't understand about bonsai trees is the amount of time and care that is put into creating these works of art. I have one tropical tree that is 66 years old. I bought the very stout tree in 1993 from a man who had been growing it in Florida for 35 years. For almost 32 years, I have watered it daily, rewired many times, repotted many times, pinched it, talked to it, admired it, and bragged about it. So, if you create a bonsai tree and take care of it, expect that it will outlive you and your children. And maybe even your grandchildren.

[ilovemysweeties]

This is an excellent channel 👌🏼💋👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼

[BonsaiBlissVN]

The bonsai is very beautiful and you are very skillful.

[spbeckman]

The expensive part of bonsai isn't the plants, soil, or pots, but the daily care. By daily, I mean every day with no exception. The soil behavior needed to train the roots means care is needed in watering. You can't just have a drip line, since the entire soil bed needs water. Perhaps there is an automated means of doing this but it isn't a simple setup.

A 10 year old bonsai, which is just beginning to look good, was hand watered for 10 minutes every day for 365 days, totalling 36500 minutes, which is 608 hours, or 25 days. If your paid minimum wage, $15 per hour in some places, that's $9, 125.

If you figure the time for general care, a 10 year old bonsai represents around $12, 000 in labor.

Then you go on vacation for a week, leave it with your brother-in-law, and he kills it by not watering.

[takiman]

No cut paste? Or did I miss that part?