Does anyone have a Bonsai Garden?

I started a bonsai garden last year from seed.

Most of the seeds died but I ended up with one Japanese maple and on Banyan tree. The Banyan tree is about 8 inches high now with leaves on the top and bottom and a wide base.

The Japanese Maple is ten inches tall but only has leaves on the very top, maybe four or five leaves. Neither has any branches cropping out of it. If anyone does any tree gardening from seed I'd love some advice. When can I expect branches to crop out of either?

Also if anyone does it and just wants to share how cool their garden is, feel free. It's one of the most relaxing things for me to concentrate on and greatly helps with my OCD.

The Japanese Maple:



The Banyan:

Just offhand observation, the Japanese Maple isn't getting enough light, producing a "leggy" stem and large leaves. You are also using too much fertilizer or hard water, due to the visible mineral ring around the inside rim of the pot.

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a reply to: ChefSlug

Japanese maples grow very slowly. One I have that is in a pot and is about two feet tall with nice branching is nearly three years old. This year I start clipping roots and branches.

a reply to: ChefSlug

That doesn't look like a maple to me. Maples have serrated leaves. I have two different Japanese maples species on my land.


www.google.com... 34&bih=800&dpr=1.5

That first plant does not appear to be a japanese maple, the leaves do not look right.

a reply to: intrptr

I think your right about the light. I moved it outside and now it gets much more light. It doesn't look like a Japanese maple because the leaf problem, but I can attest from the leaves last year that it is. They were much smaller on the sides. As for the "mineral ring" it's actually a ready pot planter I started the seed in last year. So that's cloth not minerals. Someone told me Japanese maples won't grow in pots but I don't have a ground plot to put it in so it's gonna stay in the pot for now. Next year I'll transfer it into a much larger pot, probably 3 gallon.

You let that "maple" get too tall. You should have trained it well before that. You can't rush these things. Growing a proper Bonsai takes many years.