I have planted couple of Bonsai seeds and both have been germinated in 4 weeks. Now they are 2 weeks old. I want to convert them to Bonsai. How old should be a Tamarind plant to convert it into a bonsai?
Also please provide specification on soil for this bonsai which I can get easily in India.
Once you bonsai a tree, it essentially doesn't grow. Two hand bonsai don't become 6 hand bonsai. It will get older looking. The arrangement of branches will change as you rework it, but it won't change in size much. So if you want a bonsai with a 1" trunk diameter you need to start with a 1" tree.
That doesn't mean you won't be working with it. In some cases you do things like prune much of the top away, leaving enough to thicken the trunk. You may start shaping a lower branch if you are doing a 'cascade'
Bonsai is in essence 'slow sculpture' You can't get results in a year. So work on many pieces at once.
Go out to the garden centres at the end of the season and look for larger trees that have been ignored because they are deformed and ugly.
If you want to end up with something that looks like a tree rather than a stunted looking seedling, you need to let it grow naturally for a few years until it is at least 1 meter tall, and maybe twice that. Then cut it down to the height you want for the bonsai and start shaping it.
Don't start to train it until the trunk is as thick as you want it to be in the "finished" tree. It won't grow any thicker after you start to make it into a bonsai.
