The Biology Behind Bonsai Trees

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🌳 Biology of Pain: Can You Torture A Plant?

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Who doesn't love miniature trees? The art of bonsai is beloved by so many people around the world, yet there seems to be a lot of misconceptions behind their creation. In this video, we do a deep dive into not only the method of creating bonsai's, but also the science behind it.

I have to give a huge shout out to Kimura Bonsai for helping me with this video:
They give bonsai classes for only $30!

I am not sponsored by them, but we gotta do what we can to support small businesses, and they went out of their way to help me out with this video.

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Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
0:53 Origins of Bonsai
1:58 Bonsai Genetics
2:43 How to Make a Bonsai
4:30 The Secret to Bonsai Growth
5:29 A Cellular Problem
6:04 The Answer
7:51 Closing Thoughts
9:26 How to Go to Kimura Bonsai

[reffwe]

Why recreate adversity? I'm definitely part of that sub-group against bonsai - it's crippling trees for just aesthetics and there's also some weird control issues to unpack around it. Just get some plants that are good for your local wildlife.

[MANSON-Ce]

There are also natural bonsai, they form in small pockets of soil on certain rock formations and are really rare.

[NewFalconerRecords]

A friend of mine has a bonsai store and it's doing really well, in fact he said if business continues in this current direction he'll be able to move into a smaller store soon.

[RoseDragoness]

I like the part that bonsai tree can grow big if allowed and can still make fruit/seed... so we could theoretically save endangered giant trees by making bonsais of them and have a hope that one day... there will be place where they can / their offspring can grow big again.

[Blackjack]

All Bonsai can revert and grow normal if you replant them. Bonsai can preserve rare species by strengthening the trunks and replanting after several years of pruning. And you do not have to deplete the nutrients, all you have to do is continuously pruning, which will increase the strength of the trunk. You can resurrect a whole forest using Bonsai techniques.

[Not_Ciel]

"Trees never ask for a lighter burden, only for broader shoulders"

Now that's an inspirational quote.

[Integer_Overload]

People like to talk about "torturing" trees like they don't cut their grass every week.

[Shadow_Arbor]

As a bonsai enthusiast with many of my own personal trees and a student in his bachelors in biology I found this video really refreshing and well informed. Thanks for making my morning a bit more interesting and my hobby a bit more scientific.

[mimi-fkdp]

Bonsai can definitely grow into full-fledged trees--as a kid, my mother bought a Japanese maple bonsai tree, but had no idea how to care for one. So she would move it to a larger pot every year, for whatever reason, and the tree would continue growing. It is now taller than me and flourishing outdoors!

[YuBeace]

So, a bonsai could theoretically become a normal, huge tree when planted elsewhere. But the question is, is a tree “happier” when it grows way bigger? Or is the tree happy when it’s small too? The obvious answer is no, the tree doesn’t care. Another answer would be “we have no way of knowing.” People like to assign emotions to things, but a lot of the time those emotions are just projections of our own feelings.

People assign the wrong emotions to animals too, even though we know animals can feel emotion, people still misunderstand them and describe them incorrectly. This happens all the time.

So even when we find out trees can experience emotion (and some evidence already suggests this) we would probably still force our own perspective onto them, like we do now.

What we do know for a fact is that plants do what they do, with the conditions they are given. Are they “satisfied” being the tree that they are? I don’t think trees know this concept. I think people shouldn’t anthromorphise their idea of “succes and satisfaction” onto plants. In fact, people already project their ideas of success onto other people and animals who don’t need it. The trees definitely don’t need it either.

[stny]

To the people saying that growing bonsais is torture, I just want to say that many of the training methods are also applies in other tree nurseries, where the trees for parks, streets and gardens are grown. They are repotted, pruned (the roots too), wired and they get limited amounts of nutrients in order to grow into the desired shape. Of course, it isn't neccessary to keep bonsais at such a small size when the trees could become much bigger, but as long as they are kept healthy I don't see a problem with it. I think that few wild trees actually have the resources to grow to their full potential, and especially not the ones that grow in urban settings.

[Denkar]

One thing that the nursery owner got wrong, bonsai's CAN be grown indoors. I'm sitting in my apartment in New England in February, looking at my little lemon bonsai trees that would never survive a winter here. Also, I know of many people at my latitude and above that grow tropical bonsai's indoors.

[mysky]

The nursery my son works at in Japan has trees some so old they aren’t sure their age. They live over 100 years if taken care of properly. His channel is Bonsai Harmony:)

[DennisBottaro]

"Life can be beautiful within the struggle" those words hit home so hard for me just now. I truly needed to hear that today.

[jollygreenwhxre]

i’ve never heard of people being against bonsai, that’s crazy to me. no one who keeps plants ever wants to hurt them, especially bonsai artists considering how much meticulous work they put into caring for them

[YuubiTimberwolf]

Bonsai are also easier to store than a fully grown tree, so it playes a part in preservation.

You could have a full metal rack of 20 bonsai but not a single full tree would fit there

[Bpt]

I am SO happy I watched this. I was one of those people who looked down on Bonsai as a perversion of trees - and honestly, I should have known better. I've been growing things my whole life ( gardens, flowers, pot, trees...) and after some pondering, I think I was anthropomorphizing the bonsai trees. But like the guy from Kimura Bonsai said- it's not as if the tree is unhappy, it just grows within it's constraints. Thank you very much for making this video!

[Planted.Aesthetics]

I do Bonsai art as well. Your first styling of the juniper was superb! Keep going, you are a natural.
I always tell people when they ask me if it hurts the trees when I bend them and wire them. I always point to nature for examples. An avalanche, snow storm, thunderstorm, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc do way more damage to trees than I could ever even try in a life time. There are still trees everywhere!!! They will out live us. We will end up food for the trees.

[hudcat]

I just placed some seeds in the refrigerator about two weeks ago to begin the stratification process for my very first venture into bonsai. Thank you for explaining the science behind it!

[fairuzmaileen]

I have an uncle who's hobby is making bonsais. He's retired and does them for his home, because he loves it. He can make any type of tree into a bonsai, for example tangerine trees, and they look SO cute with the little fruits once they grow adult (they get ripe and you can even eat the little toy-sized tangerines). It is a patience builder discipline... he's the "Sensei Miyagi" in the family. BTW, all his bonsai trees look happily beautifully healthy because he really takes care of them, if they were being "tortured" they would probably die. You need to understand that plants can be adaptable