Hi
I've recently started getting into Bonsai. I'm enjoying caring for the plants and finding nice nursery stock to work with, but pots are expensive everywhere around here. From what I've found Bunnings charges a premium inflated price for anything they sell with the word "Bonsai" attached to it.
Anyone know a cheaper alternative? Do Daiso do any bonsai things?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks :)
Sorry, should have specified. I'm on the Gold Coast. There's at least 2 Daisos up this way that I'm aware of
What's special about a bonsai pot? Couldn't you just use any spare pot/container/wooden bowl/sliced open milk carton?
Professionals use glued together paddle pop sticks.
So the term bonsai itself literally translated from pot (bon) and tree (Sai).
It's a whole art form and having a decent quality pot - or at least a decently aesthetically pleasing pot - to bring out the best of the tree is as important to the art as having wheels on a bike.
Bonsais can be made from any tree or shrub that can develop a trunk and keeping them small also generally requires a shallow pot too.
Traditional pots are usually terracotta and unglazed with 2 large holes in the base for water drainage and 0-4 smaller holes for wire.
I grew mine in styrofoam boxes I got from grocery shops. Generally the same shape as bonsai pots.
Only once the tree has manifested the best shape it should take that I decide which pot matches it. It is hard to tell if something is going to look better as a formal upright vs windswept until you identify the mature features.
Once every few years, you'll have to prune the roots, that's when the trees finally go into its forever/long term pot.
In the mean time, Gumtree. Many deceased estates clear hundreds of pots as bonsai can die and the old folks tend to hang on to the pots in hopes another tree will take its place. When these folks "move on", the kids tend to donate the trees to memorial gardens but the pots get sold for cheap.
Good luck.
Holy cow that's a lot of helpful information!
How long have you been doing it for? And I also feel kind of bummed out about that last bit despite it being helpful.
I also feel kind of bummed out about that last bit despite it being helpful.
Why would you be bummed out? People grow old and die. To have your art survive you is amazing. For it to live in a tended garden is much better than descendents without the same interest kill them through neglect.
It's a beautiful end really.
I started in high school so a few decades. I have gone large scale now. I bought a big pot (farm) and reforested a few acres since. I still have a few junipers.
You'll soon grow sick of nursery stock. Take a drive into windy mountains. You'll find fallen trees and really torturous material. If you learn how to harvest them, you can extract a living branch from dying tree and get some very interesting things happening.
extract a living branch from dying tree
How do you do that?
You just break off the branch, stick it into a pot, and hope you get a Groot?
I don't see what a branch can do, it lacks roots. Unless, you mean something else when you say "very interesting things happening" such as mulch or firewood.
@Kangal: Fallen trees that thave remained fallen for a few years start branching out closer to the base, aka. sucklings.
Long periods of moisture around the fallen trunk can also send roots out.
It is essentially a new tree that is using reusing parts of the system of the old tree. Many of these sucklings are naturally dwarved.
Bunnings sell the Italian terracotta pot bonsai style for only $5. Not sure you can use clay pot though for your bonsai work. So far I know Daiso do not sell bonsai pot.
Is there a link for the $5 pot so I can check out stock levels and such?
Don't buy any bonsai equipment (or trees for heaven's sake) from bunnings as you will pay out the ass for it. With that in mind I do still check every time because you never know.
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/hampton-park/plants/huge-bon…
I am guessing you're from Melbourne because I searched Daiso and it appears to only be down here.
This guy has used pots but I am unsure of how much but just give him a message. His name is Pat.
If you go to Garden world in springvale there is a store called collectors corner next door that has an amazing bonsai display and store out the back.