Adequate baseline soil mix?

[The Warm Canuck]

I'm trying to come up with a baseline soil mix at an economic price, using locally sourced products.

After lots of searching, these are the products U've been able to source:
-a product called SafeTSorb, which is Turfice,
-Lava Rock that is used for charcoal BBQ's (which I have to manually crush).
-and Perlite.

I am sifting all products leaving me with two particle sizes of roughly 1/8-3/16 and 1/4-3/8".

I'd like to add an Organic material, but can't source any type of bark. I do have peat moss, but I'd be hesitant to put that in my soil.

I have been doing lots of research on this site and others on soil, and can see that this topic can degenerate pretty quickly, so I'm just looking for peoples personal experiences with the same products.

So, what would make the best "Adequate Mix" for basic Bonsai Soil, using the ingredients I have available to me. Is using all three more beneficial, or just two maybe, or just one.

And I know this is asking a lot but maybe the best mixes for the trees I have: Conifers (Pines, Cedars) and Deciduous (Maples, Elms).

 

[Kanorin]

It also depends what stage in development your trees are at. What are your goals with this mix?

 

[The Warm Canuck]

It also depends what stage in development your trees are at. What are your goals with this mix?

Scot's Pine, Chinese Elms in early development, (thickening trunk and primary lower branches). Small JMP's coming from air layering into early development and Yamadori'd Eastern White Cedars that are in Turface and Perlite only now, but just would like to know, when I repot them one day.

This may be another discussion but I have a small Juniper, Ficus and Duranta in regular garden pots, for development based on the recommendations from Bonsai-En:

. I would be interested to here peoples experience with this or the necessity of it.

 

[Kanorin]

I suggest you take a look at this thread https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/introductory-soil-physics.24970/
and also see what people in similar climates to you are using.

The reality is that your choice of soil mix, your climate, your watering habit, and your pot selections (shallow vs. deep) all influence 1) the availability of water to the roots, 2) the availability of oxygen to the roots, 3) the availability of NPK and micro nutrients to the roots.

Many people use the components you mentioned as part of their mixes (although I'm not sure about the lava rock for BBQs if it's the same as inorganic mined lava rock - can you link or send a picture of that?). I suspect that you could make it work, but that's only a guess.

You could probably grow a tree in 1 inch crushed granite pebbles if you were available to water it 10 times a day.

 

[MrWunderful]

Think of conifers and broadleaf trees as needing different types of soil. That chinese elm may do good in 100% turface. I would probably add a pine bark or something similar, and lose the lava.

Normally I advocate for a small amount of lava use but if you have to manually crush it up it’s probably not worth it.