{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "Just got a Facebook ad for bonsai seeds. Bonsai\u2026 seeds.", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/678897507555737600/", "html": "

reasonableapproximation:

kontextmaschine:

kontextmaschine:

kontextmaschine:

Just got a Facebook ad for bonsai seeds. Bonsai\u2026 seeds.

To explain this to everyone who’s not into recreationally trimming trees, bonsai trees aren’t small cause they’re mutants or anything, they’re normal species made miniature by aggressive trimming and severe resource deprivation.

Lamarckism didn’t pan out, a bonsai tree’s seeds, if left to grow in a healthy environment, will become a full-size tree, while bonsai can be grown just the same from seeds (or cuttings!) of a full-size specimen. (In fact, resource-deprived miniature trees might well have less to spare towards healthy seeds)

There is no such thing as bonsai seeds

The thing I learned recently that made it make a bit more sense was that you have to repot a bonsai tree fairly often, because you take it out of the dirt and trim the roots as much as the branches

It doesn’t work just to keep it in a small pot?

\n

Do the things you grow in a pot too small turn out stunted? Yes, they hit a limit. Do they turn out miniaturized, like at every single step of the way they had a very small but positive fraction of the resource surplus necessary to grow? No.

"}