7 Ways to Get Your Bonsai Trees for Free, S01 E18

Get Some Free Trees! Here are 7 ways I get Free Bonsai Trees.

1. Growing from seed: I like acorns (especially cork oak acorns from Cal State Fullerton), Japanese Maple, Chinese Elm, Peruvian Pepper Tree (Schinus molle), Liquidambar (sweetgum), pine, stone fruits. I don’t find ficus or juniper to be worth the trouble. Instead, I like to propagate those with …

2. Cloning: cuttings (root cuttings, hardwood or softwood cuttings) and layering (I prefer air layering to ground layering).

3. Free local ads: Craigslist, NextDoor app, and Facebook groups and marketplace, mostly responding, but I’ve also placed ads in the past. [No actual dead bodies were used in the filming of this video]

4. Joining a club: okay, joining the club costs $25-40, and just being a guest doesn’t get you the same experience, but by going to club meetings, you can get free trees from raffle rejects, unwanted tree share tables, gifts from friends, and from time to time, club digs.

5. Government freebies: rebates, native trees, and invasive species removal programs

6. Yamadori: collecting wild trees from private lands, state and federal forest product permits, BLM (Bureau of Land Management), but never from national parks.

7. Opportunism: the serendipity of coming across a demo crew ripping out landscaping, gardeners replacing shrubs and hedges, friends, family and neighbors who know you might be interested in their plants.

I’ve gotten literally hundreds of free bonsai trees using these methods, and many of them have become nice trees. Most importantly, they make it easier to have material to work on. They sharpen skills, and make it so much easier to take risks. Would you take risks on a tree you just put out $400 for? How about a tree you just scored for free? Free trees let you FA, and that allows you to FO. Get some free trees and find out!

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#酔った盆栽, #酔っ払い, #盆栽

The lobster flower is plectranthus neochilus.

Intro music: Artois by Colorvision (used with permission)
Background music: Colorvision – Cold War,
Aiko – Calm Shores, Knight’s Templar – Adriel Fair, Like Clockwork – Benjamin Kling, State of Zen – Mandala Dreams, If You’re Lucky – Marc Torch, with permission from © Epidemic Sound

Tamarisk bonsai tree designed by Peter Macasieb (@petermacasieb)

Video footage taken July 2023

Thanks for watching. Stay Cool.

Soil mix used:
Agricultural Pumice 40% https://amzn.to/3lZXgGz
Diatomaceous Earth 40% https://amzn.to/3YUZjug
FoxFarm Ocean Forest 10% https://amzn.to/3m5HjyQ
Fine Orchid Bark 10% https://amzn.to/3Itmvsf

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