Today 07 November 2024 I decided to do a little bit of an experiment. I ordered some Bonsai Tree Japanese Black Pine Seeds - 30+ Seeds the sellers Amazon store can be found here: CZ Grain (CZ Grain is not sponsoring this experiment, I bought these seeds using my own money, however if CZ Grain or any other bonsai supply would like to send me products for review and test, please contact me at Aaron@K5ATG.com). I ended up way more than 30 seeds. This is typical when buying seeds online because seeds are cheap and it is not worth the time for someone to count out 30 seeds. So they just put a pinch or two in the seed bag and call it good. This is early November so it isn't the best of times to be starting some Japanese Black Pine (JBP) from seeds. However there is a method to my madness. I have read from several online sources that to really don't need stratification (stratification is a fancy word for simulating cold winter like conditions to get the seeds to break dormancy and start the germination process) on JBP seeds. You should be able to pop them into some dirt and watch them grow. As I said I have way more JBP seeds than I need, and I just got this Seed Starter Tray so I was thinking, why not just go ahead and try it out and see if anything grows.
I'm going to experiment with a total of four JBP seeds. So I took the seed starter tray and filled up four of the cells.
In three of the cells I used just some standard potting soil. In one soil I put some Bonsai Soil by the Bonsai Supply I have not used this bonsai soil on a living plant yet so there is not a review of it by me.
I use the little scoop that came with the seed starter tray to fill up all four cells. It worked great for this activity.
I just planted one JBP seed in each of the seed cells I added water and stuck it on my shelf and put on the dome and turned on the plant light. The experiment will be to keep the planting medium moist and check in every few days to see if anything is growing. I guess every couple of days I will add a update and picture to share any progress.
I'm not expecting a JBP bonsai that will be considered to be one of the best in the world. This little experiment isn't going to cost anything. I just want to know if JBP seeds will germinate with no preparation to them at all. The rest of the seeds will be put in the refrigerator for stratification as normal convention dictates. I will probably start some blog posts for those as well.
My ultimate goal is to get me two or three Japanese Black Pines going to train as bonsai. Then I also hope to get a bunch of healthy seedlings to send to other people who would like to grow their own JBP bonsai.
If you have any questions or comments please put them in the comment section below this post. I do encourage you to subscribe to this blog so that you will be notified for any new posts. If you have an idea or something that you would like to see me try then please let me know. My email is Aaron@k5atg.com
Follow me along as this blog grows.
Aaron
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