I am sure glad that someone finally asked that - I've been wondering about
it for some time. It seems that unless you somehow luck out and find some
pretty old material, you are stuck waiting for years for it to grow if all
you have are slow growing plants. I would love, for example, to get a
couple of JBPs. However, I can't afford anything really old and I'm not yet
patient enough to wait for 20 years for the thing to get thicker than a
pencil. I would love to be pointed in the direction of a fast-growing pine
that would give me a similar appearance in a shorter space of time (say 10
year ;-)). I would also think that if it grows faster, larger starter stock
would be available at a lesser cost. Plus, if I botch it up I haven't
ruined a really old tree!

Jeff Isom
Cleveland, OH / Sunset Zone 39

-----Original Message-----
From: Nina Shishkoff ]
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 9:31 AM
To:
Subject: [IBC] Fw: growth retardant


Hey, it's my turn to be stupid for three minutes: bonsai masters, is it
really slow growth that we want in bonsai? In my experience (15 years of
being a newbie!), the fast growing trees are the ones you can really train.
Slow growing ones (like my mountain hemlock), I had to simply try not to
ruin too much. So I'm thinking that a growth retardant isn't very useful in
bonsai. Whatcha think?

Nina

************************************************** **************************
****
++++Sponsored, in part, by Mark Zimmerman++++
************************************************** **************************
****
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Mark Zimmerman++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++