Notsureaboutplantnames
Yamadori
I'm going out today or tomorrow to collect them. If you send me a message we can coordinate the shipping
2025 Contest
- Thread starter Aaron the Great
- Start date
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
I started about 80 ginko seeds this fall lol. Tree down the street is loaded every year.
I ordered my Celtis last night. (3) different species.
I ordered my Celtis last night. (3) different species.
rutulus
Seedling
Mine are in the mail as well… with a 90 day stratification they should still have plenty of time to get going by spring.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
I ordered Australis, Occidentalis, and Africanus. Africanus stated it didnt need a stratification period so I figured that would be worthy of trying out.
defra
Masterpiece
I have a celtis in training i can take a cutting in spring to enter with if allowed but im not going to buy seeds only for this contest if im honest
I think cutting from the one year old shoot is fair to enter the contest and no need to buy seeds that way. What think others?
Gabler
Masterpiece
I'm not sure I understand the resistance to growing from seed. I have no money. It's all going toward my student loan balance and my health insurance. Even I can scrounge up a few dollars for a packet of seeds.
leatherback
The Treedeemer
I just have too many of these ultra long term projects. I intent to spend a little more and get better starting material that over the next decade might be exhibition worthy
defra
Masterpiece
its not about money for me or resistance against growing from seed but as i already have a celtis i can propagate from cuttings, if i root a new shoot in spring its pointless for me to buy seeds then if its only to participate in a contest
would be nice, but if not its fine also i was just asking
DeepSouth
Sapling
I would also join if cuttings or popping a sapling from the ground would count. Seeds are a lot of extra work (especially for cold stratification with us in the South, at the end of winter), with no real benefit, especially when I have a giant hackberry in the backyard and tons of saplings all over the place.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
Jelle, I can understand your reasoning. The contest will miss your entries and progress, which would likely be a measuring stick for others year by year.
jason biggs
Chumono
i also have 100's of celtis that spring up everywhere in my yard... they technically all grow from seed , so there is your entry
. i'm gonna post a fusion of about 20 seedlings i just potted up this year...
DeepSouth
Sapling
lol, this is an interesting question - is a sapling that grows randomly in the yard considered this year considered to be grown from seed or is it yardadori? Does the seed have to be manually placed in the ground?i also have 100's of celtis that spring up everywhere in my yard... they technically all grow from seed , so there is your entry
leatherback
The Treedeemer
growing from seed = starting with a seed.lol, this is an interesting question - is a sapling that grows randomly in the yard considered this year considered to be grown from seed or is it yardadori? Does the seed have to be manually placed in the ground?
It is not digging a sapling from the yard.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
The propagation rules will be clarified as soon as I can get my son off my lap and find some time to sit at the computer and write them.
DeepSouth
Sapling
My response was mostly a joke about semantics. I don't have a horse in this race.
leatherback
The Treedeemer
sorry that your joke did not land in fertile grounds.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
Did you remove the fruit to just have the seed? That seems to have worked for others. The buoyancy of the fruit around the seed prevented sinking.
Yup, scraped it off after 24 hrs in water. I am still observing them...
Kievnstavick
Chumono
I didn't want to clog the other thread with discussion (as I see it as an outline and amendments post)
Reading through the rules post does get me a little excited about joining in as a means to help the community as a whole learn about developing young stock.
The only thing that really stuck out to me as a potential problem would be the scoring categories and how the scoring is proposed.
As a base, I'd think scoring should be independent of the other years. To expand on this: Year three trees should only be judged against year three trees. The prior years shouldn't be additive to the score for that year. Although a running tally for accumulated points is an interesting metric to keep track of.
My thinking behind this is that depending on the scoring categories, the trees that look the most like a bonsai the soonest will earn higher scores earliest. This could snowball them into the highscores bracket and never get ousted even if they have the worst potential to be an actually good tree. The prime example I had in my mind was if someone put a two-year old seeding into a nice pot that almost matches correctly. They will now always have a higher score cumulatively then the person who decided to keep their seedling in a flat or the ground.
I recognize that my thinking is isolated to single categories and the addition of the other categories could balance it out.
My next concern related to scoring would involve how would one approach a guideline to scoring? Should we allow a complete freedom of scoring where each person's 5/10 score could mean very different things. Or should we attempt to provide an outline of what the score value should equate around? IE in the pot category 0 being the ground is the pot and 10 being the pot is perfectly suited to the tree shown.
Or should we simple instruct those voting to value the trees in comparison to their rivals in the same category? (This one could become increasingly harder to maintain as more entries get added over the years)
I'd also like to suggest adding a category of Potential. This could help balance out some scoring of those forcing trees into bonsai pots too early, fast growers, and slower growers over the years. My basic idea of the category was "based on this picture(s), what is the potential of this tree becoming something great in the future."
Some more thoughts of mine would potentially having certain categories for certain groups of trees as declared by the poster for that year's judging. IE Growing, developing, and refinement. This could potentially turn each year's judging round have 3 separate judging criteria and complicate things a bit. The benefit would be that seedlings not be judged as a if it were a bonsai.
Another idea is to have certain categories become categories at certain ages, but that would detract away those aiming for small trees and those with longer term goals.
Just my two cents reading through the posts and to initiate discussion on the scoring aspect.
Edit:
Reading the the rules post again, I see that you did bring up the topic a little bit and maybe have the annual score separated. Albeit total scoring seems to be the initial focus.
I guess playing through my thought expirement there with the potentials gave me a bit of tunnel vision on the write up.
Reading through the rules post does get me a little excited about joining in as a means to help the community as a whole learn about developing young stock.
The only thing that really stuck out to me as a potential problem would be the scoring categories and how the scoring is proposed.
As a base, I'd think scoring should be independent of the other years. To expand on this: Year three trees should only be judged against year three trees. The prior years shouldn't be additive to the score for that year. Although a running tally for accumulated points is an interesting metric to keep track of.
My thinking behind this is that depending on the scoring categories, the trees that look the most like a bonsai the soonest will earn higher scores earliest. This could snowball them into the highscores bracket and never get ousted even if they have the worst potential to be an actually good tree. The prime example I had in my mind was if someone put a two-year old seeding into a nice pot that almost matches correctly. They will now always have a higher score cumulatively then the person who decided to keep their seedling in a flat or the ground.
I recognize that my thinking is isolated to single categories and the addition of the other categories could balance it out.
My next concern related to scoring would involve how would one approach a guideline to scoring? Should we allow a complete freedom of scoring where each person's 5/10 score could mean very different things. Or should we attempt to provide an outline of what the score value should equate around? IE in the pot category 0 being the ground is the pot and 10 being the pot is perfectly suited to the tree shown.
Or should we simple instruct those voting to value the trees in comparison to their rivals in the same category? (This one could become increasingly harder to maintain as more entries get added over the years)
I'd also like to suggest adding a category of Potential. This could help balance out some scoring of those forcing trees into bonsai pots too early, fast growers, and slower growers over the years. My basic idea of the category was "based on this picture(s), what is the potential of this tree becoming something great in the future."
Some more thoughts of mine would potentially having certain categories for certain groups of trees as declared by the poster for that year's judging. IE Growing, developing, and refinement. This could potentially turn each year's judging round have 3 separate judging criteria and complicate things a bit. The benefit would be that seedlings not be judged as a if it were a bonsai.
Another idea is to have certain categories become categories at certain ages, but that would detract away those aiming for small trees and those with longer term goals.
Just my two cents reading through the posts and to initiate discussion on the scoring aspect.
Edit:
Reading the the rules post again, I see that you did bring up the topic a little bit and maybe have the annual score separated. Albeit total scoring seems to be the initial focus.
I guess playing through my thought expirement there with the potentials gave me a bit of tunnel vision on the write up.
Last edited:
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