Thank you for such a great video!! I love all your videos they all help us. But this one is a must see for all beginners and needs to be expanded on, and help everyone understand the how, when and why of growing a bonsai. For me I would watch all the videos I could, and all you see is great trunks, great trees and a small explanation of what it took to get the tree to what we see. This is a great starting point, please keep growing this video. Thank you.
Hi Jelle. I love your videos they're very informative. Only problem with this one is the music is too loud and distracting. Maybe its me but cant hear what you are saying. Keep up the excellent videos 👍
I've watched a lot of bonsai videos and I can honestly say this is one of the best and a great help for a beginner. Must add it is great to be able to enjoy a garden tree as it is grown for bonsai 😬
Foist. Great video Jelle. A big issue with beginners is starting with poor material. Inappropriate trees with large leaves, tiny seedlings that will takes years, trees with long, featureless trunks, or needle thin, multiple spindly trunks with long internodes. Give yourself a fighting chance and start with better material.
Accepeting that your first impression of growing bonsai, were wrong and foolish is probably the moment that turns a beginner into a competent bonsai enthusiast.
I started with this hobby last year. I have many trees, probably around 20 (I should count them) but only two in proper bonsai pots because I bought them that way. The rest grows in flower pots. I care for them, I let them grow, prune them to direct the growth, make cuttings and I´m enjoying that process. Luckily I´ve watched enough videos before I got started, managed my expectations and spent way too much money on tools. I enjoy seeing them grow and thinking about the way I want to develop them. I started out with the expectation that a bonsai in a nice pot is the product of years of development. I enjoy that process and I think if you can´t, then just buy one. Maybe next year I´ll have a few mame bonsai in proper pots because some of the trees I bought last year look promising. But the larger ones will take time. I´m looking forward to that. I think a painting is a great analogy. If you like paintings but don´t like to spend a lot of time painting, then just buy one from an artist. There´s nothing wrong with that. To make one yourself, you have to be able to enjoy the process from the first lines on the paper. And yes, you don´t put it into a frame while you´re still painting.
15 years ago I was too impatient and made all of these mistakes and my plants fufered as a result, so I didn't continue. This last year I've been getting up to speed with a better mind set, taking my time and learning from my mistakes. Thanks Jelle for all your advise, with it I'm really enjoying seeing my plants grow.
Don’t give up! I’ve been doing bonsai for many years...on and off...and on again! I’d get frustrated and give up. But if you’re like me, and LOVE the art of bonsai, you just can’t keep away from it. I’ve made countless mistakes, but I’m learning everyday. Good luck to you and your bonsai journey. Just remember...BE PATIENT and DONT give up!
I agree because I make all this mistakes my self. A being doing bonsai for the last two years and another mistake the new beginners make is buying too many trees. I make the mistake, I had at one point over 60 trees and now I have only 17 trees that in the future will be good bonsai.. Thank you Jelle and great videos by the way!..
Very valid point and definitely the mistake I made for many years. The eagerness to put an 'unformed' tree into a bonsai pot has put a lot of my young material back a loing way - but the journey has still been fun. I do like the analogy to a painting and frame. Nice and relaxed :)
With 20 years of experience growing Bonsai takes a lot patience, dedication, care and love and lets not forget pruning and when cutting your tree branches to the desired shape don't forget to use cut paste to help your tree heal and recover, from my experience for the best results let them grow in the ground with free range for the roots to grow big and healthy and also thickens the trunk over time I will be honest with you it takes many years to master Bonsai so don't give up have a great day everyone.
Very valuable advices. The only thing I don’t understand is why people wants the immediate gratification of a fully mature bonsai. No patience learning how to tend to plants, or to develop one into a bonsai, etc. I am a novice and I want to learn all these things: learning is a pleasant experience and cutting corners is not that advantageous to cut corners… this aside, I’m starstruck by Jelle and all the “dress changes”!during this performance (the t-shirts in this video)! 😉
I think there is a nice balance. I have bought around 5-6 fully formed bonsai from nurseries in my first few years, several part trained trees, and dozens of garden centre material. Dug several yamadori and started numerous from cuttings, seed and air layers. It gives you a wide breadth of material to work on from the off, and a full range of horticulture to learn from simultaneously.
This is literally the best video on bonsai trees I’ve ever watched🙌🏼 it’s so straight forward and the informations are really important for a beginner. That not many other people talk about in other beginner videos. Truly thank you for taking your time and making these type of videos❤️
Thank you for this information. It really puts things into perspective. I like the process of growing a bonsai even though is slow, but I also would like to achive something in short time, so I'm thinking about a mix aproach by working with seedlings in growing pots, some others in the ground, and also I'll look for some plants from a nursery to get a tree with a thick trunk already. We will see how it goes. Thanks!
Great video... Have taken advice before and now have some 10 year old field maples with nice trunks but now they are very tall ... When is the best time of year to make that big chop to cut down to size?
That IS helpful! I made all those mistakes except the Bonsai pot, because they are not available here! Hahaha! I guess we all start out with the best intentions Eh! 😅
Great video mr jelle! Very good information! Wish i saw this video 4 years ago😂. I put the Brazilian raintree cutting you sendt me in a large pondbasket in spring. I think it has dobbel in size. I had do cut it back before i took it. But i shot of again. In the indoor greenhouse
I disagree in part with the objection to small trees, 1, making new trees from cuttings are a super cheap way to get more plants. 2. smaller trees are cheaper and therefore easier for those that can't afford older trees. 3. Bonsai is a life long hobby, sure you might want a few trees with big trunks, but waiting 10 years isn't so bad if you have plenty of trees to nurture along the way 4. sometimes smaller trunks are preferred. 5. smaller and cheaper trees allow you to make mistakes, that last thing you want it to kill an expensive tree because you didn't know a technique well enough No doubt we all want super old and matured trees but there can be a lot of fun found in smaller stock. not to mention if you can stick them in big enough pots or the ground, you'll get the trunk you want soon enough
I love smaller finer trees too. But it is the challenge that people start with a tiny tree and expect it to grow out into a big trunked specimen in a pot in a reasonable amount of time!
Great video. But what's with that sad music in the background. And also it is to loud. I can barely hear your voice. Anyways beside that thank's for all the tips!
I watched this video because I wanted to start a bonsai off my germinated oak seedlings, but after the video I've decided not to do anything with the tree😄
Good video Jelle! You state a lot of great perspectives on this wonderful craft we call bonsai. I'm good at some of those ideas, and not so much on others.
Thanks for this Jelle. Very interesting…I made this mistake when I started and put it in a small pot. Then realised after reading it grows so much faster in the ground…stages, roots!, trunk!, branches!, ramification!….thanks again!
Well... It depends on the specie. My edible figi trees are growing from the seeds in a approx. 3 L pots and they have aprox. 6 cm thick trunks after 6 yesrs. Root pruning, branch pruning, fresh potting mix every year and lots of fertilizers - the recipe of fast growth.
I am an impatient beginner, I must admit. I have learnt a lot from your videos, thank you! Do you think that for a bonsai that will be ready to be potted up in, say, 5 years, it is possible to continue the development in an oversized bonsai pot instead of the plastic bowl? (Service note, the music level here is a bit too loud)
Absolutely. It is what I do with several of my trees when tired of plastic. As for the music,a bit annoying as during editing on my laptop all was good :(
Wonderful summary - wish I saw this vid when I started many years ago!! When I first started bonsai, all info in books was for developed trees - without any reference to how to get them there. Since I love growing from seeds and cutting, as well as observing plant behaviours close up, I still have many small trees - often in large clay pots, but I do this with intention rather than by mistake.
Hahaha, love this comment. I hope you will come to the Trophy in Genk in a few weeks. I would love to catch up and walk with you through the exhibition, and hear your view on the size of the trees there. Normal bonsai come in different size classes, with the regular sizes running up to about 1.10 m tall (Above which, a bonsai in a tokonoma will look too large). If anything, most of my trees are in the smaller category.
So helpful! I wish I’d had the internet when I started doing bonsai 30 years ago. I’ve been doing bonsai on and off that long...and believe me! I’ve made every kind of mistake. Now that I’m 60yo I regret not learning all that I could have when I was younger. I’d start, and then get frustrated and stop...and then start again! Lol. Patients is my biggest problem. I’m constantly working on that!
