Hi - I am new to Bonsai and super excited about it. I planted 15 seeds (various types) that I bought off of Amazon. I did this on 1/22 - only one of them has come to life....and itis a Delonix Regia (Flame Tree). It has only been a little over 2 weeks and it is almost 6 inches tall. When should I repot it? I should also share that in this little pot I planted 3 seeds. I did buy Bonsai soil and fertilizer for when the time is right.....I didn't realize it would grow so fast! Also - when I do replant it, what size pot should I plant it in? And would you suggest a bonsai pot, or something different? I should say I am planning on keeping it indoors. I am located in Golden Colorado....so plenty of sunshine coming through my windows! Thank you for your help!
Hello! I am also new to the bonsai world and alsoo just planted to flame tree seeds! Mine were planted about 20 days ago and both around 4 inches tall! They grow SO fast! We decided to keep them indoors, but for the early months and in the future if needed, we got a grow light and a heating mat. I have been researching 24/7 and also worried too that mine would need a larger pot! From what I gather, the delonix is a difficult one to keep small. In order to keep it small you would be keeping it from getting a good thick trunk. as many places I read say, you can choose to keep clipping it every once in a while never letting it get tall, trimming the top over time and this will eventually thicken the trunk. But it will take years! The alternative is to give it a large pot, let the top grow about 1/3 above the height you want, then cut the top on a slant! There are some great videos showing people demonstrating this cut, but as you’ll see in the videos, the tree had to be very large first! This is difficult. We hoped to keep ours contained but that honestly was our fault for not doing the research first!
But we transplanted our babies around 18 days old and they did amazing! It’s one of the easier plants to trim roots, transplant, trim leaves, and train because it is such a thriving tropical plant! I will send pics! We did a rectangular 6 inch bonsai training pot, although I somewhat now wish I’d went with the same pot in an 8 inch size! I am no expert at all but here are some things that I have found from the time I began!:
Soil that is supposed to be the best for their transplant should be rocky and well draining, especially for flame tree. A good mix is pumice, lava rock, and pine bark fines. We chose a company with good reviews and my plants are doing great so far! It has all 3 and also calcine clay. It’s meant for tropical bonsais and we transplanted early. Many say you can move them around the first “true leaves”, or soon after. We also added akadama, we did about 1 part akadama to 6 parts tropical blend. I recommend using a sifter of some kind for the akadama first just to get any extra fine parts out. However, many say the akadama isn’t needed, but can help with water retention. I’ll send pics of both!
We also went ahead and gently clipped any extra long roots, about 1/4 off. This seems early and maybe is, but honestly the roots were very long! When transplanting first time from regular soil to this soil, you don’t need to wash the roots like older plants getting repotted. We just sprayed a little water on them to loosen the soil a tiny bit and left some of the regular in the roots then planted them.
For pot size, like I said I really wish id just gone with the 8 inch! Possibly even larger to get them room to thicken and become trees. But the 6 inch is doing great and should be good even for beginning growth! I’ll attach the photo for the pots as well, we like that these are training pots and you can even install a wire to the pot for if and when your tree gets tall enough and starts leaning or tilting. That way the wire is already in and ready. Flame trees are said to grow quickly and can/should be trained young, but I’m not sure what age is best to start. This pot is excellent because it comes with the holes to insert the wire directly through the bottom of the pot and then just lay them along the bottom right below the soil and they can be ready. It also has already built in mesh screens for good drainage. If you get a pot with a large hole, look into getting a mesh screen to put over the hole! The rocky soil will clog the hole otherwise and give no drainage.
Here are some good videos:
Trimming/thickening trunk-
•
•
•
Transplanting! Totally love this video!:
•
Installing the wire to the pot for future tree base! The pot I have, which is in the picture already has holes and a nice mesh bottom so you don’t really need the beginning of this video! Unless you use a regular pot with large hole/holes! Otherwise, skip to about 3 minutes!
•
Wiring and general how to (for future when older!) we got a simple wiring and trimming bonsai kit from etsy, it’s good! I’ll add a pic of that as well!
•
https://youtu.be/ROUYG-t-Nko?si=BkVrUWgQk0yzpWVS
Ok this was an overload of information, but it honestly felt good to share all this built up information with someone lol!
good luck and if you come across any info about this please share!!! Happy gardening!
.
