From tiny seeds . . .

I watered the seeds today for the first time since putting them in. The advice on the leaflet was to water them every three days. Web-sites I’ve visited have said that this every-three-days advice is given just to make the process seem easy and the best thing to do is to water when necessary.

The soil felt dry this evening on top so I dipped each of the tubs into a bowl of water. I really don’t know what I’m doing so I don’t know if it’s too much or not. My method of watering is to put the tub floating on top of the bowl with a few inches of water and let it sink to the bottom. I then take it out again.

I’ve been keeping a close eye on the seeds; taking them out every day for an inspection. There isn’t a lot happening yet of course, but I still like to take them out and look at them. I get a strange feeling of satisfaction when I feel the warm, damp soil. I could probably do with being more scientific than this and keep a record of the temperature and moisture levels so that I’d know for future what worked and what didn’t.

I know it’s too soon for seedlings to start appearing but I forget this every time I take them out of the press to inspect them. When I don’t see any I have to feel the warmth of the soil just to console myself! I’m reminded of the ‘sea monkeys’ I sent away for as an child. “Just add water,” said the advertisement. I did. Then I waited. When I saw the advertisement I thought it was incredible but they could hardly be allowed to say it if it wasn’t true. I felt a terrible sense of injustice when nothing happened.

It seems like I haven’t thought this out at all. Every bit of advice I’m getting from internet forums now is that I should have started this in the spring. It’s like the old joke about someone asking directions and being told that they shouldn’t start their journey from here! 

The basic problem is that Japanese Maple trees drop their seeds in the autumn, they lie dormant for the winter and then in the spring they start to grow, this continues through the summer. In the autumn they begin to slow down again and in the winter they enter a period of dormancy which continues until the following spring. This dormancy period is essential to the trees, maybe something like sleep to us.

What I have done is to start the germination process towards the end of summer. As one person put it to me on one forum: “When they sprout and start to get going it will be time for bed.”  In other words there won’t be enough light for them to continue to grow and they  will start going to sleep without having built up sufficient resources to survive. And since they’ll be inside instead of outside in the natural world they won’t get a proper sleep.

Another poster expressed doubt that the seeds will sprout at all since they have been dried out for so long as mine obviously have been.

There is some hope though. If they sprout I have a very bright fluorescent desk lamp which I could use to supply artificial light to the sproutlings during the winter and get them through to the springtime. By which time I hope to have garden space ready to take them outside.

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Internet forums visited:

Bonsai Help. Talk Bonsai Forum http://www.bonsaihelp.co.uk/forum-1.html

The Helpful Gardener. Bonsai Forum http://www.helpfulgardener.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1

If any of these seeds make it out of here it might count as a miracle! I had designated today to be G-Day for the Japanese Maple seeds, it being six weeks since I first soaked and refrigerated them. The instructions said to allow between six to ten weeks and it was hard enough to wait six weeks so once the clock started ticking towards midnight last night I decided to go for it. In fact the clock had a fair bit to go towards midnight; it even had a bit to go towards ten o’clock last night when I moved them.

I had imagined an orderly progression here and that the Persian Pink Silk seeds that I bought three weeks ago would go into the hot press in another three weeks at which point the Japanese Maples should be starting to sprout. To keep up the momentum of this progression I bought some Tasmanian Eucalyptus (Citriodora) seeds today with the intention that they would begin their journey three weeks after the Persian Pink Silk.

I got the Eucalyptus seeds because they seem better suited to the indoor culture than the Maples. I still haven’t found out much about the Persian Pink Silk trees as regards how they do indoors. I think they stand somewhere between the Maple and Eucalyptus. My plan was that with every three weeks, a little more knowledge would be gained which could be used to give the succeeding seeds a better chance of, well, success.

This just goes to show how important it is to pay attention to the details! With my Maple seeds in the hot press some twelve hours and my Pink Silk seeds still in the fridge I sat down to read about how to treat the Tasmanian Eucalyptus seeds I now had. This was when I read the details I failed to read before: Such as that Japanese Maples should spend at least eight weeks in the fridge; that Persian Pink Silk trees should spend three; and that Tasmanian Eucalyptus should spend none!

So now my fridge is empty of bonsai seeds and my hot press has three different varieties trying to germinate amongst my bed linen. Ps. The fridge is also empty of beer. I must remember to get some more.

I checked my seeds again today.  The Maple is still doing fine. The soil is damp and the seeds are still cold and that's all you can expect at this stage.

The Persian Pink Silk Tree is still having problems. When I checked them a couple of days after the last post when I discovered the mould they were doing ok but when I checked them again today the mould was back. I think maybe I didn't wrap them up well enough after checking them the last time.

I tried repeating what I did the last time, by removing the mould, but when I picked up the seed it fell apart into mush in my hands. I emptied the pot out onto some newspaper which soaked up some of the excess moisture and I examined the remaining three seeds.  One was showing some signs of mould but I think I managed to remove it. The other two were still ok.

I'm consoling myself with the thought that this is a replication of what happens in nature; some seeds just fall in the wrong ground and rot. There might even be a parable in it. It's still hard to explain the sadness I felt when I saw the seed fall apart and expose its green inside.

I'm going to start germinating the Japanese Maple this weekend, that  being six weeks since I put them in the fridge, which is the minimum amount of stratification time called for in the leaflet.

I checked my bonsai tree seeds today. I have two pots of them watered and in my fridge in a simulated winter. I take them out from the fridge once a week to see how they’re getting on.

The Japanese Maple Tree which I watered on July 7 is still doing fine, as far as I can tell. Doing fine at this stage is that it’s still a seed and the soil it’s planted in hasn’t dried out.

Next week it should be time to move it to my hot press and let the seeds sprout.

The Persian Pink Silk Tree is a bit of a worry at this stage. I got it as a back up because growing trees from seeds isn’t easy and it’s likely that some will die. I watered it first on July 28 and when I took it out today there was some mould starting to grow on bits of the soil. One of the seeds was exposed as well and there was mould on it too. I think I soaked it too much before I put it in the fridge. Anyway I removed all visible mould and buried the seed back beneath the soil. I then wrapped the pot tightly in cling-film and wishing it luck I put it back in the fridge. I’ll take it out again in a day or two and hope that there’s no more mould.

Every source I’ve read since I’ve bought the seeds says that growing bonsai this way is the slowest way possible and that it isn’t necessary. The most widely recommended thing to do is to buy the saplings when they’re about two years old and begin to train them from then which puts this into perspective for me: I’ll be at this for another two years before I have saplings that I can begin to practice bonsai on; if I keep them alive that long! Still though, it would be quite an achievement for me to do that and I’m looking forward to the challenge and hope that it works.

Nonetheless, I think that as soon as I have found a place with a garden I’ll get the two-year-old saplings too. It’ll be something to practice on while I wait for my ‘own’ seeds to grow up. Of course I’ll never let on to the two-year-old saplings that they’re adopted and hopefully no-one will ever tell them.