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Tamarind bonzai

plummy
18 years ago

Hey, I was wondering how to bonzai a tamarind tree. I love tropical fruit and would like to try and bonzai one. What would I need?

Thanks,

Thomas

Comments (5)

  • scottychaos
    18 years ago

    how to bonzai a tamarind tree??
    hmmmm..I suppose you could drop it out of a WWII era Japanese fighter plane.
    or perhaps just throw it at a battleship..
    although why you would want to do such a thing is beyond me..

    Scot

  • scottychaos
    18 years ago

    but seriously..
    the first thing you need to do is remember that its "Bonsai"
    pronounced "bone-sigh"

    Tamarinds make ok bonsai, IMO they dont have the greatest leaf structure for it, but they can work.

    what you need to do is learn some basic basics about Bonsai.
    the best way to do that is to read many books! :)
    you can learn more from one Bonsai book than you could from asking one basic question at a time on a forum like this..
    not that forums arent usefull! they are..
    but to get that first impression, nothing beats a good book.
    Head over to your local Barnes & Noble or library, and brouse/buy/borrow a few books..there are dozens of them.
    you need that first introduction to what Bonsai is all about before you can even begin to think about how to "Bonsai a tree"..
    Scot

  • baci
    17 years ago

    You might want to look on eBay. Some of the sellers have styles that you might want to mimic. It looks like some of them are of high dollar value  maybe because of their novelty.

  • lucy
    17 years ago

    Hi - What fruit do you mean - the 3-8" long pods? Not very suitable on a bonsai! Fruit and flowers cannot be reduced the way leaves can in bonsai, so people generally use trees with naturally small ones, like crabapple, kumquat, cherry, etc. But apart from that, Scot is right, you first need to learn a lot about growing bonsai before dreaming about a particular tree. They're not house plants and many things need to be considered when growing them, like soil components, location (indoors or out, depending on where you live and the type of tree), whether you'll need supplementary lighting and/or humidity, what to do with the tree in different seasons, and how to water (which can be a challenge with many trees), as well as when and how to prune roots and branches, how to achieve a particular style and when not to try it, etc. etc. There are lots of books available, and they're a good place to start, as would be a local bonsai club where you can learn how to do things. The one caution I would have is NOT to go to eBay for a tree of any kind until you have a much, much better idea of what 'counts' when you're choosing - and doing so over the internet without being able to examine it properly, and having no feel for how much to pay, is a big mistake.

  • mauby
    10 years ago

    Tamarind are easy to grow and can provide almost immediate bonsai characteristics for beginners. These two are less than a month old.
    I have others at 9 and 18 months.

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