Forsoothe!
Imperial Masterpiece
Kumquat is a good candidate.
Kiwi Fruit?
- Thread starter bonsai-novice
- Start date
bonsai-novice
Mame
Does anyone know if you are able to grow Lycee seeds from shop bought lychees? I don't have a clue if I can buy them anywhere here but they are one of the only other seeds I can think of that I could have a go at trying to grow. We also have a public gardens nearby with lots of succulents etc which I may take a look at.
HorseloverFat
Squarepants with Conkers
Thank you for sharing!!! AWESOME!!
How the Chinese Gooseberry Became the Kiwifruit
It's an epic tale of marketing genius, amateur gardening, and sheer lucktime.com
HorseloverFat
Squarepants with Conkers
I bought 120 Kumquat seeds from China, my first year doing “TinyTrees”... I RECEIVED 30 Snow Pea seeds... that didn’t even germinate!
I second Kumquat, even with no DIRECT experience, based on the examples I have seen with my own eyeballs.
...just make sure the seeds are FRESH....
I believe most citrus seeds lose MAJOR viability as they fully dry, but not ENTIRELY sure.
Forsoothe!
Imperial Masterpiece
Kumquats available on the hoof at your local fruit market. Citrus seeds, in general, germinate best while they are wet. Eat, spit seeds on media, bury, wait a couple weeks and presto!
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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Lychee, scientific name Litchi chinensis, is a tree with fairly large leaves. It is in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae, which of all things includes genus Acer, the maples. The commercial culinary lychee comes from areas of China and adjacent Taiwan. This means it is a subtropical tree, with tolerance of freezing no greater than winter in low or middle elevation Taiwan. But the south of England is fairly mild. You might be able to grow it outdoors all winter. Leaves are quite large, shaped like a willow leaf, but as much as a foot long and 4 or more inches wide (33 cm x 10 cm). They do not reduce enough with bonsai techniques to make a convincing tree. They are evergreen, so a tree for winter viewing is not possible. For example, persimmon have large leaves, but they drop their leaves in autumn, and fruit continues to hang, making a very nice image, of a bare tree with fruit hanging. Lychee will not do that.
It seems you like the idea of growing fruiting trees for bonsai. Temperate trees can not be grown indoors year round, they require a cold rest every winter. So apples, cherries and others are not possible indoors. I really recommend Ficus. The culinary fig, Ficus carica, requires full sun, but many other species of Ficus are used as house plants and do quite well indoors year round. All of them when healthy will fruit, and when fruit is ripe, the fruit of all Ficus species is edible. The non-culinary figs, like willow leaf figs, tiger bark fig, Benjamin fig, Ficus burt-davii, all have smaller fruit, usually orange when ripe, with flavor that varies from bland to sweet and "almost" tasty. Only Ficus carica, the culinary fig have really good tasting fruit, but all of the species have edible fruit when ripe and soft. Green fruit will have milky white latex, which is irritating to skin and tongue, do not sample fruit that is not soft ripe.
Another fruit that can be grown in a south window, is any of the genus Eugenia, they have common names that usually are a variation on bush cherry or brush cherry, but they are not at all related to culinary cherries. They are members of the guava family. Essentially they are small leaf, small fruit versions of guavas. Actually, many members of the guava family can be grown as bonsai. Some need to be outdoors, some can be grown on the windowsill or under lights. Most Eugenia will do well under lights.
Natal plum, Carissa macrocarpa is another good resident for the south window indoors. It also has edible fruit, that ripens to black, a little smaller than a culinary cherry.
The genus Malpighia has a couple of species proven to be good for bonsai, and they do reasonably well on the windowsill. They have fruit that is technically edible, though most do not consider them tasty. Malpighia emarginata, M glabra, and M coccigera are all used for bonsai. The "Singapore holly", M. coccigera is really nice, with small holly like leaves, white flowers, and orange fruit, but the fruit really is not quite up to "edible tastiness". Any nursery that specializes in houseplants should have one of these 3 species.
Citrus can be done in a south window. This includes kumquat, kumquat will tolerate slightly less sun than grapefruit or oranges. It takes heat, warm humid days to ripen oranges, lemons, limes & grapefruit. Kumquat do not need as much heat and sun, though they are considered a full sun plant. Yuzu is a cold tolerant Japanese variety of citrus, winter hardy probably through USDA zone 8. Which probably would be hardy in the south of UK. The Ichang papeda is a similar, cold hardy version of citrus that was developed in China. There are other citrus worth exploring. The finger lime of Australia has small leaves and small fruit, making bonsai an easier task. An interesting read is the List of Citrus species on Wikipedia. The calamondin orange and the myrtle leaf orange are popular houseplants. Read the pages linked to the citrus list and you will be a Wiki expert in what is known about citrus. (I'm not knocking wikipedia, in the case of plant information, often it proves to be an excellent and reliable source of information). (I would not practice medicine based on what is in Wikipedia, but often the info is fair to good).
List of citrus fruits - Wikipedia
There are many more, spend time reading about various tropical fruits. Look into the South African species of genus Diospyros, some have small leaves and small fruit, miniature persimmons. Diospyros rhombifolia is the Chinese princess persimmon, a delightful species for bonsai with modest size leaves and small fruit.
So read up. Wikipedia is your friend. Look at sun requirements and temperature requirements. Species from areas where winter is mostly frost free are better for indoors. Shade loving species are better for indoors.
And look into modern LED lighting systems. The LED lights will greatly expand what you can grow indoors.
bonsai-novice
Mame
It's not so much that I want to grow fruit trees as bonsai, I just want to try and get some greenery into my flat without forking out money on lots of shop bought plants. Though obviously bonsai would always be more welcome haha.
How easily do Ficus take from cuttings? Obviously it is a tree so would take a while to thicken up, but if i had a small cutting, would it take for ever to look more tree and less leggy stick in a pot, or are they very slow growing trees? Can you take cuttings easily from Rubber plants too, since that is a kind of ficus?
Crazy Diamond
Omono
Actinidia arguta:
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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@Arnold - Wow, that is nice. I like the bark. The gnarled roots are fantastic too. Very cool.
@bonsai-novice
Ficus root easily from cuttings. Especially in warm humid summer, cuttings root in 2 - 3 weeks. Temperature needs to be above 25 C (75-80 F) for quick results. In cool, low humidity winter, cuttings are very slow to root, or they simply die without rooting. When less than 18 C, cuttings will not root.
As to cost, Ficus are common house plants. You can find them for sale quite cheap in stores like Walmart, grocery stores, big box stores. Don't look for Ficus trained as bonsai, looks for "houseplant" grade Ficus. It doesn't take that long and you can "convert" most Ficus into pre-bonsai or even into bonsai. Keep an eye on Craig's list and other neighborhood sale pages for houseplant give-aways. You can easily pick up Ficus and Portulacaria without spending more than $5 each.
"Bonsai" plants, often are quite expensive, because they have had individual time put into styling them. Landscape nursery stock, houseplants, and other sources tend to be cheaper because individual training has not happened. Just look for the nursery stock, houseplant stock, and you can put your own time into converting them from "houseplant" to "pre-Bonsai" to "Bonsai".
It can be an expensive hobby, but it does not have to be. Bonsai pots are probably the one area where it is difficult to "go the cheap route". I have a couple pots that cost me over $200 to acquire. But I also have some perfectly fine, very presentable pots that were less than $50. Key is, I set a little aside for pots every month. Sometimes I will go 2 or 3 years without buying any pots, then I can afford to buy one nice pot. You can learn to make your own pots, though making ceramics, running your own kiln is not cheap. Concrete pots are less expensive to make, I've seen some nice concrete pots.
Seed. Another "cheap route" to bonsai is by collecting or buying seed. But be warned, the first 5 to 10 years of a seedling's life will be the "nurseryman's phase" of bonsai. You will just be sizing up the seedling, getting it ready to become pre-bonsai. So raising trees from seed most find dissatisfying due to the huge time investment before you can actually start using bonsai techniques.
@bonsai-novice
Ficus root easily from cuttings. Especially in warm humid summer, cuttings root in 2 - 3 weeks. Temperature needs to be above 25 C (75-80 F) for quick results. In cool, low humidity winter, cuttings are very slow to root, or they simply die without rooting. When less than 18 C, cuttings will not root.
As to cost, Ficus are common house plants. You can find them for sale quite cheap in stores like Walmart, grocery stores, big box stores. Don't look for Ficus trained as bonsai, looks for "houseplant" grade Ficus. It doesn't take that long and you can "convert" most Ficus into pre-bonsai or even into bonsai. Keep an eye on Craig's list and other neighborhood sale pages for houseplant give-aways. You can easily pick up Ficus and Portulacaria without spending more than $5 each.
"Bonsai" plants, often are quite expensive, because they have had individual time put into styling them. Landscape nursery stock, houseplants, and other sources tend to be cheaper because individual training has not happened. Just look for the nursery stock, houseplant stock, and you can put your own time into converting them from "houseplant" to "pre-Bonsai" to "Bonsai".
It can be an expensive hobby, but it does not have to be. Bonsai pots are probably the one area where it is difficult to "go the cheap route". I have a couple pots that cost me over $200 to acquire. But I also have some perfectly fine, very presentable pots that were less than $50. Key is, I set a little aside for pots every month. Sometimes I will go 2 or 3 years without buying any pots, then I can afford to buy one nice pot. You can learn to make your own pots, though making ceramics, running your own kiln is not cheap. Concrete pots are less expensive to make, I've seen some nice concrete pots.
Seed. Another "cheap route" to bonsai is by collecting or buying seed. But be warned, the first 5 to 10 years of a seedling's life will be the "nurseryman's phase" of bonsai. You will just be sizing up the seedling, getting it ready to become pre-bonsai. So raising trees from seed most find dissatisfying due to the huge time investment before you can actually start using bonsai techniques.
coh
Imperial Masterpiece
Yes, that is a fantastic kiwi bonsai! Thanks @Arnold for posting it. I know I've seen photos of other specimens from time to time, either in magazines or on website, but I don't have any available to post. Would love to try one, maybe graft some male branches onto a female tree so I could have a "self fruiting" plant.
bonsai-novice
Mame
Crazy Diamond
Omono
Thats some Maple Acer species
Shibui
Imperial Masterpiece
Better to start a new thread rather than take over one dedicated to other subject. New threads are free and easy to do and you'll usually get better response.
Appears to be a maple but it still has leaves in your winter so I'm guessing it is indoors. That's the biggest reason your leaves have mildew. Maples are supposed to be dormant in winter and definitely grow much better outdoors in the conditions they have evolved in.
HorseloverFat
Squarepants with Conkers
Holy Carp!! That's fantastic!Actinidia arguta:
