Finding the Bonsai Within
Move beyond the nursery shelf and learn to identify the hidden 'bones' of a future masterpiece. This course teaches you to see past the foliage to find the trunk, roots, and species that will thrive under your care.
Like Duolingo, but for Finding the Bonsai Within. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Eye for Potential and Matching Species to Vision. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Finding the Bonsai Within
- Trunk girth and root flare take decades to develop and cannot be easily faked
- Radial spread suggests a tree has been stable and growing in place for a long time
- Branches can be regrown or grafted in a few seasons to fix a poor canopy
- Visible surface roots create a sense of 'buttressing' seen in mature specimen trees
- Prioritizing the nebari over more easily changed features when selecting material
- The relationship between radial root spread and the illusion of age
- Nursery trees are often buried too deep
- Prioritizing nebari over branches
- The root collar determines the front
- Crossing roots create girdling
- Radial spread and age
- Roots growing back toward the trunk
- Bar roots create a flat look
- A wide base requires a shorter, more powerful 'sumo' style to look proportional
- Identifying structural root flaws that require immediate correction or rejection
- The ratio of the base width to the height determines the tree's perceived majesty
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Finding the Bonsai Within the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What does a radial root spread—roots growing out in all directions—suggest about a tree's history?
Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.
Where Finding the Bonsai Within takes you
- 1
The Eye for Potential
- Reading the Nebari
- Trunk Taper and Movement
- 2
Matching Species to Vision
- The Mechanics of Species Choice
- Scouting Nursery and Field Stock
2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Finding the Bonsai Within is taught in the Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Finding the Bonsai Within today.
Download Tomo, search Finding the Bonsai Within, and play your first lesson in under a minute.