# Bonsai Marijuana Plants?



## Shadow15x (Mar 30, 2011)

I was wondering... Is it possible to grow bonsai marijuana plants? I imagine the THC content would be extremely concentrated depending on the strain's "normal" attributes. Any thoughts???


 Happy Toking


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## shnkrmn (Mar 30, 2011)

no, it wouldn't be more concentrated. Just a little gnarly plant.


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## WillyPhister (Mar 30, 2011)

*I love growing bonsais, I take very small clones from a mother thats a few weeks into flowering and put them in 12/12 once they're established. Im also LSTing new growth to get the shape I want. I do mine under 1 or 42w cfls all the way to harvest. The quality of the urb is just as phenomenal as larger plants. I get the most dense buds from cfls when I grow bonsais, because of their tiny footprint you get amazing results with cfls.*


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## WillyPhister (Mar 31, 2011)

*I really need to kick my own ass for always forgetting to take pics at harvest. Here are a couple of bonsais that I did last year and found enough motivation to take pictures of, they're clones from bagseed plants that I had growing outdoors at the time. They were only fed with FF Tiger bloom for the duration of the grow (I didnt have the money to buy anything else at the time). I use one 42w CFL per bonsai, I yielded just over half an ounce from the plant in the green pot. These pics are from only about half way through flowering too, I wish I had pics of them before harvest, they looked so AWESOME! 


*


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## HisGirl420 (Mar 31, 2011)

That is some mighty fine looking buds you have... That's so sick to have that little plant. Makes me want one....


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## sso (Mar 31, 2011)

found this once, its a pretty good one.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31919

rollitup has one too

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31919

but the pictures are gone.


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## mcpurple (Mar 31, 2011)

wow those are tiny man nice job. are they from seed or clone?
i did one tiny one once, i took about a 3 inch cut of my plant stuck it in dirt ith no roots and flowerd it, it ende up rooting and making a nice lil tree


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## WillyPhister (Apr 1, 2011)

mcpurple said:


> wow those are tiny man nice job. are they from seed or clone?
> i did one tiny one once, i took about a 3 inch cut of my plant stuck it in dirt ith no roots and flowerd it, it ende up rooting and making a nice lil tree


 *Thats a picture perfect little bonsai, what kind of light was she under? I assume hps.*


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## mcpurple (Apr 1, 2011)

ya she was under a 600 hps in the corner and under neath the big girls


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## Mr.Natural (Apr 1, 2011)

I tried a couple way too late and killed them....fast, Only plants I ever lost, they have to be done early...nice Mc purple


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## Indicator (Apr 1, 2011)

I'm interested in this. Do you root prune like in traditional bonsai?.... or do just take flowering clones and root them? Any particulars as far as the rooting goes? Peat pot, rock wool, etc? Nice little grows y'all got!


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## mcpurple (Apr 1, 2011)

i just snipped of a tiny lower branch and put in dirt with out roots and put into flower right after it got into the dirt and it took about 2 weeks for it to do anything but after that it did fine


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## mcpurple (Apr 1, 2011)

ya it was, i suck at cloning to and this one just took for some reason, i had no faith in it and then it proved me wrong


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## Indicator (Apr 1, 2011)

Yeah, I seem to suck at cloning as well. So, were your cuttings from veg, or were the donor's in flower already? So, just stuck it in soil, right into flower eh? Good on ya! Gonna give this a go. How many nodes did your cuttings have? Sorry for all the q's just trying to get anything to root has been a pain so far. Fairly new indoor grower. Liking all the hands-on interaction!


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## mcpurple (Apr 1, 2011)

i would not recommend this rooting tech to any one its better to root under more hours of light, but it was about 3 nodes and like 2 inches tall and was took from a plant about 1 week into flower.
their is much better ways to clone then this though


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## Arezedni (Apr 2, 2011)

Can anyone tell how to top/trim the plants properly so that they will stay that height? Mine are coming from seedlings and I need to keep them at about 9-10 inches final height. 
Also, when is best to start the flowering cycle for the small guys?


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## Ansom (Apr 8, 2011)

With topping and LST you can get what you see as my avatar.


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## Mr.Natural (Apr 9, 2011)

Arezedni said:


> Can anyone tell how to top/trim the plants properly so that they will stay that height? Mine are coming from seedlings and I need to keep them at about 9-10 inches final height.
> Also, when is best to start the flowering cycle for the small guys?


Start 12/12 from germ, and LST from the beginning. 10 inches isn't very much room, good luck


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## Arezedni (Apr 16, 2011)

They've been on 18/6 a while, I think I'm gonna wait just a bit because they're not getting very tall. In fact, they seem to be on a fourth node after 2 1/2 weeks and the plants are just making it out of the pots. (except one taller one which is not nearly as bushy and has a gimp leaf.) I think this is because of how small the space is and how close the hps is.
So I'm thinking maybe I should not top them since they are soo short at that node... What do yall think?


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## dannyboy602 (May 3, 2011)

I love bonsai. Most bonsai are woody trees or shrubs trained and root pruned to stay small. But they come back every year. 
Cannabis is an annual plant and idk if you could grow it for more than a few years. At some point it will want to flower and then die
as it does in nature. Beautiful photos.


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## RGF (Oct 1, 2011)

does the bonsai flower the full time of a large plant or does it flower sooner?


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## dannyboy602 (Oct 1, 2011)

Hmmm. Not sure. Bump.


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## Rottedroots (Oct 1, 2011)

I just don't know.. Even as cool as those well trained plants are, danny is right. MJ is gonna want to set seed and die in a single season no matter how much you love her..Now if she was only a perennial!!!


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## sso (Oct 1, 2011)

humm.

i actually am flowering a plant now thats in her fourth flowering, stronger and healthier than ever. 

dunno if there is a limit.
but it becomes impractical to keep it alive so long, even in bonsai,the stem gets longer and longer and more woody, so do the oldest roots, more fragile and the plant needs more space eventually.

it makes more sense to take some clones once inawhile and pick the healthiest clone to continue the line (or 2 if you want to be more sure)
some do it once every year, some do it every run (and dont keep mothers) others make a new mom every few years (some up to 9 years or more for a single mom))
personally i prefer keeping my plants around longer, clone kinda feels like anew plant and i like to get to know my plants long time.

bonsai tips.

top at the third node, that gives you automatically 4 tops, i prefer to do it sooner rather than later, ending up with a shorter plant, some want to do it later to "save the plant" from shock, but i dont get how curtting 25% off the plant is better than 1% (cut when the top is really small (3rd node remember (true node, not counting the first sunleaves)

those 4 tops will turn into more tops as you clone, but this will give you nice bowl shape to your plant, giving light access to most of it.

now, when you would normally transplant, instead you cut off around 25% off the roots (slice it like bread, 5% off each side)
every time you would need to transplant you´d do this (you are always cutting off the top anyway, might as well balance the roots instead of always putting it in a larger and larger pot)

really is no difference to roottrimming to topping or something like that, easy as pie (i prefer a dry rootball, makes for easier slicing)

oh, and you of course put the plant back into the old pot, filling the 25% with new soil.

though if you have cut off more than 25% off the top lately, you might want to cut 5% less off the bottom (cut 50% off the top, cut 45% off the bottom (5% counting for the soil)


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## Chopsticks33 (Jun 8, 2012)

To get a bonsai tree you will pinch the top and keep pinching the other branch that are growing taller. After c


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## Chopsticks33 (Jun 8, 2012)

To get a bonsai tree you will pinch the top and keep pinching the other branch that are growing taller. After week you will
Have a nice and round bonsai tree. It's grow alot faster on dwc system. Good for mothering.


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## reppinhigh22 (Jun 8, 2012)

DUDE! Fuck yes. This is what I'm going for.


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## colonuggs (Jun 8, 2012)

Tired of huge unwieldy mothers that take up too much space? A fully established bonsai mum only takes 8 inches x 8 inches."

This a 5yr old bonsai mother, if well fed, produce 10 to 30 good cuttings every 14 days under an HID or every 20 days under fluorescent shop light. .








We are not talking about intensive production here but it shows just how flexible and efficient the system can be. What it does for the connoisseur is allow them to keep a good selection of varieties in a relatively small space. If you don't fancy growing one for 6 months or a year it doesn't matter. All she will need is regular maintenance.

Lets start with Mumming up a plant from a rooted cutting, once again this is simple. You will find that with every batch of cuttings a few will stand out, being sturdier and generally looking better all round, pick one or two of these to make your Mums, not some wimpy left over reject. Remember this mum will provide you with cuttings 4 to 18 times a year for the next 3 to 15 years, so only the best will do. Pick a fully rooted through cutting from the plug tray and pot on into a 2.5 inch square pot. I find square pots much easier to deal with when it comes to root pruning, as you will see later.

Grow it on for a few days so it can start rooting through then trim its top back to leave 3 or 4 side shoots























In the picture below:- [one], is the trimmed cutting from above. [two], Has had 2 sets of cuttings taken off and is more than ready to move to a 3 inch pot. As you can see it is a little short of N showing its better to move after only taking one set of cuttings. [three] in a 3 inch pot 12 cuttings have been taken with 2 left on to show where to cut back to. [four] is a five year old Mum that has just had 32 cuttings taken off and could do with some more small twiggy bits removed. She is in a 1 litre pot and has been since she was 3 months old.








Note how all have an open centre, this allows light to both the centre and the outside. It will fill in between taking cuttings but if pruned back to this form, makes better and more even growth giving more good cuttings each time. Water only is used while forming the Mums and no fertiliser. It is not until they are in their final 1 litre pots and a set or two of cuttings have been taken that feeding starts.


The general care and maintenance for fully formed mother plants.

The Mums need just enough fertiliser to keep them healthy. Feed of half strength fertiliser twice a month, using say a 6-2-4 fish mix as about right [its not critical]! This keeps them in good general health but doesn't over feed them. If you want faster production at any point change to a full strength feed once or twice. Every 2 to 4 weeks a new batch of cuttings are taken even if they are not needed and just put in the worm bin. You can think of it as being like having to mow the lawn and keeps the mum the same size and form for years. Because so much is taken away they can get short of macro nutrients so every month or so give them a foliar spray using maxicrop. Judge this by how the plants are looking not by a time table.

One of the main things that all growers need to learn is regular close observation. To know when they are healthy and need nothing to the first signs of deficiencies appearing. The one thing they may run short of is magnesium even if dolomite lime is used in the compost, this is easily dealt with by one watering plus a foliar spray, using 1 ounce of Epsom salts dissolved in a gallon of water.

They will need root pruning once or twice a year. This depends on how intensively they are fed and how good your water quality is. Despite what is normally quoted it is virtually impossible to flush out salt build up from a root ball. A temporary over fertilisation yes but the gradual crystallisation of salts and carbonate deposits no! If your water supply is heavily contaminated with minerals I recommend a small Reverse-Osmosis filter to clean your water for both your Mums and your production plants.



............................."Now root pruning and Mum renovation. ".......................................

The method of root pruning is the same for routine maintenance or renovation.

Here we are dealing with a 7 year-old mum that hasn't been root trimmed for nearly a year. I have deliberately neglected her for the last 10 weeks for purposes of showing you the recovery. She has been on a diet of R/O water only, no other feed of any sort. This is to show you how tough Cannabis is and how far you can let things slide and still get a mum back into productivity. Its not a recommended practice and continual abuse like this will eventually kill a mum









As you can see there is little residual fertiliser left in the compost. It is what we call spent (worn out). The first thing we do is trim back nearly all the top growth back to the main framework branches. Leaving one or two tiny shoots at the tip of each branch to draw sap and keep the branch alive. If all the shoots and buds are removed, 99 times out of a 100 die back sets in-- and once that starts the whole plant usually dies within a month or two. It doesn't matter if the small shoots are yellow from lacking N, they will soon start to grow and green up as the new roots start forming









Next the rootball should have 3/4 of an inch cut off each side and an inch off the bottom. This reduces the 4.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 inch rootball to 3 x 3 x 3.5 inches high after the loose compost is scraped from the top. This means that two-thirds of the soil is being replaced. A good full strength organic compost is used when repotting and it only takes a day or two for the roots to really start growing into the new compost.















Set the bottom of the rootball on about 3/4 of an inch of compost then pack out the sides and finally cover the top with a 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. This means the mum is planted round a 1/4 inch deeper every time root pruning is done about 1/2 an inch a year. In a couple of years from now I will cut down vertically and split the plant in two as the side branch will have a root system of its own. Using this method the roots are constantly being replaced and as well the main trunk replaced slowly. This seems to keep the Mums healthy for many years.








The second mother of our selected "ES" line lasted for just over 15 years using this method. Interestingly if you want to hold a plant long term in a small pot say a 2.5 inch sq this can be root pruned the same as the 1 litre plant but only taking off about 1/4 of an inch all round. I keep Dads in this pot size and some are over 5 years old.


NOTE: it is very important to make sure there are no voids or air gaps left when packing the sides, use a pencil or small dibber, fill slowly and firm lightly.

The last picture is 12 days after the root and top pruning- It tells it's own story! Already there are enough nice leaders to make 10 good cuttings. I have to admit to putting her under an sodium light to speed up her development and make this Issues deadline. Even so, the recovery wouldn't have taken much longer in the mum box.








Thats it you should have all the info you need to make and root cuttings in compost the make and maintain bonsai mother plants, its easy, give it a go!



As an outline our mother plants are kept root restricted, i.e. using some standard bonsai methodology and techniques. It is an excellent method for keeping mother plants long term and has proved a very reliable system since we developed this method some 24 years ago. The longest a mother has lived like this without having to be replaced is just over 15 years. On average pure indicas need replacing every 3 years, hybrids every 4 to 5 years and pure sativas every 6 to 7 years! Of course it depends on the care they are given! Male plants can be kept in the same way and in fact will stand more abuse than mother plants.



Clone, Mum and Dad box.

Its a double deck with 2 times 4ft x 2 ft lights each with 4 x 40w coolwhite flo lights .

24 bonzi mother plants in a very small area


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## reppinhigh22 (Jun 8, 2012)

That is fucking awesome! "Not some wimpy leftover reject" hahahaha. 

great idea 5 year old bonsai mother plants

-clap clap clap- great post.


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## imchucky666 (Aug 18, 2012)

Shadow15x said:


> I was wondering... Is it possible to grow bonsai marijuana plants? I imagine the THC content would be extremely concentrated depending on the strain's "normal" attributes. Any thoughts???
> 
> 
> Happy Toking


Were you loaded when you thought of that one? LOL


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## Xrangex (Aug 19, 2012)

WillyPhister said:


> *I really need to kick my own ass for always forgetting to take pics at harvest. Here are a couple of bonsais that I did last year and found enough motivation to take pictures of, they're clones from bagseed plants that I had growing outdoors at the time. They were only fed with FF Tiger bloom for the duration of the grow (I didnt have the money to buy anything else at the time). I use one 42w CFL per bonsai, I yielded just over half an ounce from the plant in the green pot. These pics are from only about half way through flowering too, I wish I had pics of them before harvest, they looked so AWESOME!
> 
> 
> *View attachment 1525817View attachment 1525818View attachment 1525819View attachment 1525820View attachment 1525821View attachment 1525822View attachment 1525823View attachment 1525824View attachment 1525826View attachment 1525827View attachment 1525828


dude, that is one of the most kick ass things i've seen in awhile!


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## jpeg666 (Aug 19, 2012)

What are some thoughts about keeping a bonsai in a smart pot or a pot that air prunes the roots for you? Would you have better root growth and longer times before needing to root prune?


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## 2xM (Oct 13, 2012)

Very nice!


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## lilhoodlum (Apr 10, 2015)

always wanted to try a bonsai will def be workin on one next to feminise some seeds


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## Ace Yonder (May 2, 2015)

Bonsai!


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## BowHunter666 (Jan 10, 2016)

Grow a regular plant. Unless you are doing large number like 15-20 mini plants it's not worth the time.


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## frica (Jan 11, 2016)

Bonsair pepper is quite doable.
I know that doesn't answer your question at all, but I think they look nice and people may be interested
http://www.fatalii.net/bonsai_chiles_bonchi


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