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I have planted this bonsai one year ago, I bought the seeds from wish and they were labeled as white japanese pine. and I have a few questions

  1. When I take a look at youtube videos about this plant, the leaves dont look like this one, so maybe its mislabbeled bby the seller, is this really white pine?
  2. I moved it 6 months ago from the original location (just a normal pot with soil), to this pot, as you can see there are 2 trees in the same pot, is that ok? or should I remove one?
  3. Do I need to cut leafs at some point? I havent touched it since 1 year ago.
  4. And finally, I just learnt about sustrate, should I replace the soil with sustrate ?ne
Luis Valencia
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2 Answers2

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It is not a pine. It looks like some type of cedar , also a conifer. An American white pine has needles in groups of 5 about 6" long, I am not familiar with Japanese. In America , east of the rocky mountains , eastern red cedar is common. Do you know the origin of the seeds ? Soil is one type of substrate.

blacksmith37
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  • The OP said "from wish". I've never seen any reports about buying seeds from wish, but IMO a fair general description of the site is "everything is dirt cheap, but not necessarily a bargain, and any resemblance between the description and the product may be a coincidence." At least the OP bought some seeds that actually germinated and grew, and they look like they will make a nice bonsai. I would count that as a win :). – alephzero May 13 '21 at 18:45
  • 8ñi used a plant detection tool and. It's actually a cypres – Luis Valencia May 14 '21 at 06:56
  • Cypress I am familiar with drop leaves in winter ; I don't know if that works for bonsai. – blacksmith37 May 15 '21 at 01:09
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This could indeed be Cypress, or maybe more likely Juniperus.

I am growing for over ten years bonsai now (with ups and downs), and I certainly don't want to call myself an expert but I think I can share some tips I have learned along the way.

First tip is to find material in your own neighborhood. For example, I live in Amsterdam (Netherlands), and in the city I can find often some rough wild (neglected) places where I find young tree saplings. Also you can collect seeds. This way you know for sure that you have trees that will do well in your climate. Last year, for example, I collected seeds from cones from Scots Pines and have them growing as saplings now. Moreover, it is for free, you don't have to order from internet (with sloppy sellers, that don't even know the difference between pine and cypress or juniperus).

Second advice is to grow seedling first a few years in normal containers (and repot in larger ones when necessary). I have an Italian Cypress grown from seed (seeds collected in France from the garden of my parents), and had it grown in normal containers for 6 years first. The trunk will grow quickly thicker this way, the way you are now growing it (immediately in bonsai pot), will take many years before it will have a thick trunk. Probably 10 to 20 years.

Last tip is to grow bonsai outdoors. Indoor bonsai is only possible with some tropical species, but even then it is very hard to keep them alive for long.

benn
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