I tend to use compost and mix it will perlite. For seeds however, this soil isn’t required. This gives great results for our mature bonsai. As bonsai growers, we use different kinds of materials to make a bonsai soil mix. We sell lots of different kind of bonsai soil. Some seed kits give you very little info on species.

This is another common bugbear that bonsai enthusiasts have with bonsai tree seed kits. You need to know what kind of seeds you have and research how these species of trees grow. Think about this though – if the seeds are from exotic, tropical trees, where the seasons don’t work in the same way – how does this affect things? This is where horticultural knowledge starts to kick in. I find starting seeds off at this time of year gets rid of the need to do any of the stratification business. Seeds generally expect to grow in spring. I always start seeds off at the end of winter. A mist sprayer is really good for this, as watering cans may chug out too much water too quickly and move the seeds around in the tray. Then wait! You’ll need to keep the soil moist.Put the seeds onto the surface of the soil if they are very small, or push larger seeds (acorns for example) into the compost.Water it to make sure that all of the compost is wet, allow the excess water to drain away.Put compost (usually mixed with perlite for drainage and air flow) in the tray.I take a seed tray, the kind of black plastic tray that you find in garden centres.My experience of growing seeds is pretty straightforward. The right time of year to germinate bonsai tree seeds Most of the seed kits talk about stratification – soaking the seeds in water, putting them in the fridge, rubbing the seeds with sandpaper, putting them on cotton wool. Now that we know that we have tree seeds and not bonsai seeds, we begin to understand the process. The beginning of the process of course is getting the tree seeds to germinate. The good thing about bonsai seed kits is that they give people a low cost way to get into the art of growing bonsai. The seedlings need training in order to turn them into bonsai trees. If you plant them and get them to germinate, they’ll grow into normal trees and not into bonsai. In reality, there is not such thing as a bonsai tree seed – it is merely the seeds from normal trees. The main problem I have with these kits is that many (not all) of them give them impression that all you need to do is plant a “bonsai seed” and it will grow into a perfect little bonsai. I am too probably, depending on how good the kit is. What are bonsai seeds?Ī lot of bonsai enthusiasts are very dismissive of bonsai seed kits. Here is a page answering the commonly asked questions, along with some notes regarding bonsai seeds. Once they’ve opened it and had a look at the info included, they have plenty of questions. Usually, they have bought or received a bonsai tree seed kit as a gift. About once a week we get someone contacting us regarding bonsai seed kits.

Bonsai seedlings