Nearly everyone likes bonsai trees.
Miniature trees, how could you not love them? They're pretty cool-looking. I mean some of it I think it's just like
this contact with nature. You know we're talking about little miniature trees so
it's a combination of horticulture and art. Yet there seems to be a lot
of misconceptions around them. I heard people say that they all
came from seeds that were radiated by the bombs that were dropped in Japan.
I would guess it would be some sort of breeding program to stop their growth, but I have no idea.
What's even more of a mystery even within the bonsai community is the science behind bonsai.
You know even as a lifetime bonsai artist I don't fully know the science behind it.
I mean I have an idea of how it works, but I can't fully explain it.
And the answer isn't what you think. That's impressive I never knew that but it
makes total sense when you think about it yeah Yes? I'll get this one Like many Asian traditions, the
art of bonsai originated in China. Bonsai, the word bonsai is literally a
Japanese word it means tree in a tray. It was brought to Japan from China
and then refined in Japan and then bastardized throughout the rest of the world. This is a Kimura bonsai nursery in
Northridge, California. What's your name? I'm Bob Pressler I'm the
owner, president, chief artist, chief weed puller, the guy that
writes a check, you name it, I do it. And how long have you been in the bonsai industry? I've been doing growing bonsai since
I was 10... So that's 53 years. What are some of the common
misconceptions of bonsai trees? All kinds. That the wire and
stuff we put on them torture them. That they're house plants. That's probably the
biggest misconception. They're cute, they're cute little trees sometimes and people think that
they grow them indoors and unfortunately they can't. You name it, there are a lot of ideas about
bonsai out there that aren't really too accurate. A bonsai tree is just a normal tree
manipulated to become a miniature. Bonsai are not genetically dwarves. That means
if you take a seed from a bonsai and plant it, it's going to grow up to be a normal tree. Theoretically, any tree can become a
bonsai, but some do better than others. Some people think that they're
genetically dwarfed trees, and occasionally we'll use one like that, but
not really. We make full-sized trees smaller. So what would happen if you were to take, let's say an old bonsai tree, and plant it
in the ground and stop taking care of it? See that tree that's sticking
out over the roof there? That used to be a bonsai tree in a pot. In a pot? That was weak and I put it in
a bigger pot and it rooted into the ground then it just got too big
and I just said the hell with it. The goal of bonsai is to make a
miniature tree look fully mature, and that's where the art form becomes unique. Number one, you know we want to keep them small
so proportions are probably the single biggest factor that keeps them looking like real trees.
It doesn't matter if it's two inches tall or two feet tall or four feet tall, if everything's
in proportion, it'll look like a real tree. Every tree is supposed to tell a story of age, and bonsai artists are able to accomplish
that by using a few techniques. First of all pruning away stuff we're not going to
use, a lot of extra branches and stuff like that it also keeps them small. All the wire is used for is to shape and position
branches and sometimes trunks. We use the wire to kind of like bend the branch into position or move
it down or up and hold it in that place until it decides to stay there. Yeah, you can do all kinds
of stuff to them. I mean you can bend branches this big and they just seem to shrug it off if
you do it the right technique at the right time. We prune the roots. We take them out of the pot
cut the roots sometimes in half. The whole thing restricts nutrients it's in a small pot, most
of the soil mix we use is pretty inorganic, so there's like no nutrients in the soil itself.
So we give them enough to stay healthy and thrive, but not so much that they want to
outgrow their growing conditions. What's remarkable is as the tree receives less
nutrients, all growth begins to slow down, the trunk grows smaller rings, and
the leaves miniaturize drastically. Also, the leaves are miniature as well. The leaves are but the fruit and flowers
aren't. Restricting the nutrients and the size of the pot restricts the
size that the leaves can get to. You know even as a lifetime bonsai
artist, I don't fully know the science behind it. I mean I have an idea of how
it works, but I can't fully explain it. The answer lies in something
called the apical meristem. Apical coming from the word
apex, meaning "highest point". And meristem coming from its meristematic
cells also known as stem cells. These regions are stem cells found
at the tips of the shoots and roots. The shoot apical meristem gives rise to the
leaves, flowers, fruits, and height of the tree. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have
the power to turn into any cell. For example, a human embryonic stem cell can
differentiate into a blood cell, a neuron, a skin cell, any cell in our body. Apical meristematic cells operate the same way and can differentiate into a host
of other cells in the plant. So what normally happens is
water comes up from the roots, through the trunk, up to
feed the apical meristems. As apical meristems grow, they divvy a
set amount of cells to form a leaf bump, which eventually differentiates
into a leaf. Researchers didn't know the mechanism behind bonsai leaf
miniaturization, but they had two theories. That bonsai leaves have the same amount of cells
as normal leaves, but the cells are smaller. Right, that the tree itself is being
shrunk down on a cellular level. Right. Or? Or the cells were the same size,
but there were just fewer of them. What do you think? The second one, the cells are smaller, I think the cells are
smaller. Yeah, I'd say probably so yeah. Okay. Neither, no there's got to be one? I would
say probably the... I don't know. 50/50 chance. i'll say two just because,
yeah I'd say the second one, yeah. To my surprise, the correct answer was
the second one. In this paper written by Körner and colleagues, it was discovered
that not only were the cells the same size, in some cases, they were larger
than their normal counterparts. What made leaves miniature was the fact that
there are fewer cells present in the leaf. The cutting of roots and lack of nutrients
slows the growth rate of apical meristems causing fewer cells to form a leaf
bump, resulting in a smaller leaf. But it's just less of them. Less
of them to divvy up everything out, that's impressive. I didn't know that at all. What's amazing is these trees don't even
know that they're making a miniature leaf they're just growing and differentiating normally. Think of it like making cookies.
The components are exactly the same, the only difference is that bonsai's
have less starting material. Researchers observed the greatest reduction of
leaf area in broadleaf trees, with one species becoming 50 times smaller, while their conifers
only experience a 5 to 8 times reduction. Now these tiny leaves are also
accompanied by tiny little trunks, and that's because trunk size is a function
of growth rate. The reasoning behind it is why make a huge trunk if you're not
transporting that much material? Small leaves need less water and nutrients. And
we're also reducing the total amount of leaves on the tree. Giant sequoias can use up to 500 gallons
of water per day, and that's why they're so big. But these little guys don't need that much do
they? Everything stays nice and pocket-sized. Yeah that's basically the way it works, I mean glad to hear that you
know scientists think so too. I'm gonna go do some research I wanna see
like you know like now I'm very intrigued. Oh that's awesome, I kind of want to make our
bonsai tree come back to life, it's totally dead Now I got to say, after making this video
I have a brand new appreciation for bonsai. I mean I liked them before, but now I love
them and throughout the process, I made my very first bonsai tree, and I think it turned
out great! I can't stop looking at the thing. Although I do have to say I was surprised to see
a subset of people who weren't as enthusiastic as myself when it came to bonsai. I mean to
watch some of the things we do sometimes, yes it does seem cruel, and I can only speak
for me personally. I never do anything to a tree that I think is going to harm the health
of the tree. To me, that's got to be number one. Remember the art of bonsai is mimicking nature, the twisting of the trunk and branches represent
all the hardships a tree had to go through. These trees grow in places where it's really
strenuous, it's tough on them. 120 degrees, no water for six months, snow, wind, whatever. And
they survive. In a way it's brutally beautiful. And yet these trees still grow in the face
of adversity, and they do so perfectly. Bonsai shows that life can be
beautiful within the struggle. It's something that only mother nature can do.
We can do all kinds of stuff. We can take tools and carve things and create deadwood and stuff,
but we can't touch what mother nature can do. Trees never ask for a lighter
burden, only for broader shoulders I mean is there anything you want
to let people know about bonsai? Yeah, don't try to grow them indoors and
don't be afraid of them. They're just trees. Yeah, people ask me how much work is it, and I generally tell them that it's more work
than a goldfish and less work than a kid. So if you made it this far thank you for
watching I do want to give a huge shout out to kimura banzai bob and Diana they were
so nice they showed me around they talked for over an hour about bonsai and I learned so much
and if you live in southern California please go and check them out if you want to learn about
bonsai they have classes there that are super affordable I was even surprised by it and they
sell their bonsai as well also it's a great date place I mean just walking around in a little
nursery whatever you know like do your thing so please support small business they absolutely know
what they're doing they're complete professionals and if you haven't subscribed yet please subscribe
I'm almost at a thousand subscribers which is a huge landmark for me and I've been working on this
for over a year so thank you so much and take care
