I plan to do the same on the big box trees. I will also note that many of the nicest trees I've seen here had a good deal of grafting done to get the nebari and branching to that point. I could very well be wrong on this, but I believe in 5 years the big box tree will be further along than the quality, more expensive seedling. I question how much further along, if at all, I will be with the seedling once it has a 2" diameter. I will need to grow my "better stock" seedling for years to get them to this point. What draws my eye is the trunk - they are easily 1.5" in diameter and I've found larger. The ones that make it to the store tend to be tanks that aren't that easy to kill (and I seem to be trying). No one is caring for these trees anywhere near the way we do. I get the sense that these trees are displaying survival of the fittest. I've purchased most of these at the $15 level and overwintered them, and the one other was "defective" so they gave it to me for like $15 as well. Early season seems to be about $60, going down to $30 in the summer and then to $15 in the fall. I also purchase the big box tree to chop them down, so I am depending upon back budding and not existing branches (although that would obviously be better). The pot bound issue is therefore solved rather quickly. Roots will need to be hard pruned in any event and the tree repotted into bonsai soil. Neither of these have presented an actual issue. The downsides of the big box trees are that they tend to be pot bound and have no lower branching. Much of what is sold as "pre-bonsai" is simply younger trees in potting soil - perhaps a worse version of the big box tree. There has simply been no root work or other bonsai-related work actually done to the trees. I have found that, with the exception of pricier trees grown specifically as bonsai, there is little difference between run of the mill "pre-bonsai" and a big box maple. So I thought I'd start a thread singing the praises of big box maples and see what the experience of others has been. There is a ton of discussion here on what type of material to purchase and big box trees tend to get a bad rap.
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