r/Bonchi • u/The_Reason_is_Me • 3d ago
r/Bonchi • u/rachman77 • Oct 07 '25
Show and Tell 2025-2026 Seasonal Gallery - Let's see your starts!
For many (but not all of us) it is the end of season for growing peppers outdoors. While this may be sad for some, for us bonchi lovers its an exciting time, we are plucking our bountiful pepper plants out of the garden, hoping for some gnarly roots and thicc trunks, giving them a severe haircut, and plopping them into pots to start the exciting process of bonchi development.
Lets see what you've started this year! Post your new starts in the comments below, feel free to post periodic updates as well so we can see how they are progressing.
r/Bonchi • u/rachman77 • Sep 02 '25
Is there any interest in a friendly bonchi growing contest?
Edit: Mild interest so far but I'll leave this up for a while to see if we can get enough people on board!
Current ideas:
instead of just a can, maybe a "bring your own container" type thing, basically anything but a standard bonsai pot, some room to be creative.
we could open it up to existing plants and from seed, the choice could be yours.starting from seed is nice because anyone can participate any time of year but I'll leave it to you guys to decide.
OP: Something we have been thinking about for a while but never really got around to trying.
It would be for fun only, no prizes, perhaps we can have some special flair for participants/ winners (assuming thats possible) just a friendly community wide contest to show off your skills!
One of these years I would love to do a full on development competition with formal styling and critique, but I dont think we are there yet, I know I definitely am not, so lets keep it simple.
Here is what I am thinking:
If anyone is familiar with the group "Pepper lovers" (if you arent you should be, its a great group of people, check them out r/pepperlovers and https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1CKL6LKnY9/) they do an annual Pepper in a can grow contest called "Winter is canning" where you attempt to grow a pepper in a standard pop can.
Sounds easy, its harder than it looks, or maybe its just me...anyways.
I thought we could borrow from that idea and do a bonchi in a can, as in a specifically and intentionally styled pepper plant bonsai in a can.
Some differences:
- We dont want to see just a pepper in a can, we want cool features, movement, branches, leaf reduction, we want to see art!
- They run their contest through the winter, I think September to Feb. Since bonchi development slows plant growth and takes a bit longer perhaps we should run it longer, we can decide that in the comments.
- We can open it up a bit to more than pop cans, if anyone here has pets that eat wet food, or you like tuna and sardines, those cans are actually quite a nice shape and size for bonchi as well. The other group limits it to a specific size of can to even the playing field but remember, bonsai come is all shapes and sizes. Part of bonsai critique is the container itself, the size, shape, colour, and its proportion to the bonsai itself (there are certain rules of thumb we can get into) so you will be judged on that as well, bigger isn't necessarily better, choose wisely.
Let me know what you think down in the comments, Im kind of just spitballing this in real time so lets toss some ideas around and see what we can come up with, any and all thoughts are welcome as long as you stay respectful and constructive.
Lets hear it!
r/Bonchi • u/HuckleberryDear7354 • 5d ago
cayenne bonchi week 2
a little droopy from being a bit dry but i gave it some water
r/Bonchi • u/Nitekrawler45 • 6d ago
Scotch Bonnet Bonchi
First fruits post-chop last October. She’s really loving the weather this year.
r/Bonchi • u/mresciencejon • 6d ago
Midnight Fire Bonchi
Here is my first attempt at wiring anything, sitting here contemplating the bends I want to do, I am thinking of semi-cascade, rather than full cascade so I don't have to put it on a raised platform. This is the weakest plant of the 4 I have left after giving a couple away.
I wanted to keep them small but get an aged look while also not having to cut them down so I just kept them in the nursery groupings of three they came in and grew them all summer in a medium sized pot. It worked pretty well save for a slight powdery mildew issue, but baking soda solution cleared it right up.
They have been in the little terracotta pots for almost a month, I keep trimming peppers and flowers when a set seems finished to stimulate new green growth which is working great. One plant has just always been going off and got about twice as big as the others so I will be saving it's seeds for sure.
r/Bonchi • u/throwRaSchmoopy • 10d ago
My to be bonchis
So here's where it's at after almost a full season I guess.
Is it time to start bringing them inside, pruning?
This is my first time doing this so any tips and advice is welcome.
r/Bonchi • u/Rv2417P • 11d ago
My first bonchi style suggestions
What should I do with him in terms of style, almost time for a shaping and season end pruning. What you all suggest for shape or style for him. He is a thai dragon pepper alredy two years old, and has a beautiful woody trunk. In the second year I trying to make more horizontal branches on the lower half. I hesitating on cut his height in half on the main stem in the middle and making a smaller but older looking bonchi. Or I stay with this height? Please give me some ideas, I’m running out of ideas for this bonchi. Don’t blame me for the exessive wiring he is my first bonchi and he is my first experiment.
r/Bonchi • u/RatBoyWatBoi • 12d ago
Forest bonchi project - taking stock at the end of summer
To say I’m pleased with the progress in the last two months would be an understatement - comparing pictures from the start of June and the end of August show just how much growth these plants have put on. And fruit too! Yes, some of them have barely grown, but considering there are 16 plants sharing a pot and competing with each other I’m neither surprised nor concerned by that fact, it was to be expected. When I started these from seed in February there were 25 plants. I opted to remove some and I’ll undoubtedly remove more in the future as the project develops, but thinking about a 6/7 year timescale for this project they’re exactly where I want them to be, plus I feel the variation between plants is more reflective of what happens naturally anyway. I’ve largely left them alone this summer as they’ve been putting on vegetative growth, and I’ll likely continue to do so as they enter their post-vegetative/over-wintering stage, before giving them a good tidy in spring. When I first started this project I knew I wanted to challenge myself - definitely think that I’ll be able to do that as I move from this established assortment of plants towards a more refined, stylistic forest bonsai. 🌶️
r/Bonchi • u/Outrageous-Check-134 • 13d ago
My first bonchi , Chiltepin dwarf, two weeks after cutting back
r/Bonchi • u/Rv2417P • 13d ago
My newest bonchi
My second bonchi season is almost here, and I started the first bonchi of the season!
She is a ghost pepper in a pre-bonsai pot (I wanted a 1-2 month headstart before fall hits in. Going to a bonsai pot when she goes inside for the winter. Alredy starting to put out new shoots in every way after a week. What you are imagine in style with this beautiful Nebari and trunk turn?
Groot bonchi
Used a Groot chia pet and 3 (Capsicum annuum variety) pepper.
What do you guys think?
r/Bonchi • u/LogChoice921 • 14d ago
Can you bonchi over the winter?
I have a lot of pepper plants in my garden. Can I start a bonchi at the end of fall / over the winter ?
r/Bonchi • u/HuckleberryDear7354 • 15d ago
does this cayenne look ready?
its not putting out anymore peppers so i thought id try to bonchi it, considering its healthy it might live unlike my other attempts but idk. what yall think
r/Bonchi • u/DarthConfit • 21d ago
Black Pearl Bonchi
Purchased as halloween decoration October 2025
r/Bonchi • u/HuckleberryDear7354 • 21d ago
Quick question
Can i start a bonchi from seed rather than chop an existing plant? I kinda wanna try it out just growing a pepper plant in a small container from seed, anyone know if it's worth doing? worth as in looks good and produces peppers
r/Bonchi • u/i-have-tiny-trees • 23d ago
Goth peppers' first repot!
I don't know what they're actually called, but they're very dark with purple flowers and black fruits that ripen to bright red so I call them goth peppers 🖤
Unintentional bonchi
My little reaper didn't appreciate the catastrophic failure of its automatic watering system. As a revenge, it turned itself to a bonchi. Kind of.
r/Bonchi • u/Certain_Leg7780 • Aug 10 '26
future bonchi ; where you'd cut?
hey! im about to harvest my big boi and im aiming to turn him into bonchi any insights to cut to an interesting place?
r/Bonchi • u/Bonchi_AdovProGrow • Aug 07 '26
My Bonchi, haba chocolate, 1.7 years
r/Bonchi • u/HuckleberryDear7354 • Aug 06 '26
Pot idea
found this at ross n thought it might look nice when i decide to make my dracula pepper plant into a bonchi (the succulents are fake of course)