51cg

Hello,

I’m looking for advice on my Pinus pinea bonsai seedling.

I grew it from seed, and it’s now about 1 month old. It’s doing well and has started producing more needles. However, I noticed that the main root has already grown through the drainage hole at the bottom of the pot.

Current setup:

• Plastic pot, about 12–13 cm in diameter and 10 cm deep
• Standard well-draining soil mix
• Watering when the top layer dries out
• Plenty of light

My concerns:

• The root is clearly too long for the current pot depth
• I’m worried about damaging it if I leave it or repot incorrectly

Question: Should I repot it now into a deeper container, or is it better to wait?

I want to ensure I don’t harm the seedling at this early stage, but I also don’t want to create problems for future bonsai shaping.
Any advice would be really appreciated!

Leave it to grow, it is probably nit the tap root coming out of the pot, just a root. in such a short time you really must leave it alone, in six months it might be ready to pot on tto a bigger pot but not yet.

Thank you very much for your answer!
Just to add more context — I actually had three seeds, and now I have three seedlings, and interestingly all of them have a root growing out of the drainage hole in a very similar way.
So it doesn’t seem like a one-off case — all of them are doing the same thing, which made me wonder if this is just normal behavior at this stage rather than something unusual.
Do you think this changes the situation at all in terms of whether I should repot now or wait?
Appreciate your help!

No without seeing them I would say that they are far too small to handle safely to re pot. Leave them to grow.

You are aware that pinus pinea is a temperate to subtropical species that needs to be outdoors to survive long term? Depending on your local climate it may need protection in winter, but never indoors in livingroom conditions. Windowsill growing will kill it many years before it can be called a bonsai. They can survive one skipped dormancy, but it weakens them very much. A second skipped dormancy means death with 100% certancy.??

Thank you very much for explaining this to me. I’m a beginner at growing bonsai trees, so I found the information very helpful.
However, I’m still a bit confused because the information sheet included with the seeds says that they are suitable for indoor growing.
The brand is .?I’ve also attached two photos showing the packaging and the information sheet for the exact seeds I used.

?
?



?
?

?

The brand is not at all important. The species is. The claim is that it can be grown indoors which is tecnically correct. What cannot be done is growing them in livingroom conditions. People often confuse indoors with livingroom conditions which is not always true. A greenhouse is an example of an environment indoors that is suitable in some areas.

On top of that there are no statement that they can be grown indoors long term. In the perspective of 1-2 years also the statement that it can be grown in livingroom conditions is true.

Next time you start a bonsai project, start with mature locally hardy trees, it gives a better start. If you just have to grow from seed, just colect yourself locally. Then you have trees that are well adapted to your climate.

Thank you for your answer! I really want them to succeed.
I plan to keep them outdoors during the summer months (Eastern European climate) and on an unheated enclosed balcony during winter. I hope these seedlings will do well there.
?

East Europe have many different climates. If you are in an area where the balcony warms up above 0 most days I am sure it is an option.