GroveKeeper
Shohin
I only use medical grade silicone anal beads individually cut from the toy. It takes a lot of time and effort but you can't cut corners with your root system,
...And so the mostly inorganic experiment begins
- Thread starter AaronThomas
- Start date
I only use medical grade silicone anal beads individually cut from the toy. It takes a lot of time and effort but you can't cut corners with your root system,
AaronThomas
Omono
Bhahahahahhahaha! Take that @M. Frary!!!!
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
I'll be taking none of his anal beads.
GroveKeeper
Shohin
Hey, bruh. Read the sig!
And what's wrong my anal beads? They're horticultural only. I mean come on... who even uses anal beads these days? They're so so 1997. Bad dragon exists for a reason.
milehigh_7
Mister 500,000
Way to step up the game!
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
Aaron freaky bunny non goat anal bead toting desert dwelling booty smelling.....
All this BS can be fixed with a bag of 8822.
If you spray it with a mister once.
It changes color and back to white.
Pretty Fucking cool!
That water....goes inside...
So does the rest...then....holy shit....
The perfect vapor you need for your trees comes back out when your perfect lil feeders asks for it.
I bet with any topper, it would work perfect in the desert....
Just sayin.
Sorce
All this BS can be fixed with a bag of 8822.
If you spray it with a mister once.
It changes color and back to white.
Pretty Fucking cool!
That water....goes inside...
So does the rest...then....holy shit....
The perfect vapor you need for your trees comes back out when your perfect lil feeders asks for it.
I bet with any topper, it would work perfect in the desert....
Just sayin.
Sorce
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
GroveKeeper
Shohin
All I want is one of those rare bags of red #8822
AaronThomas
Omono
That was my nickname in college!!!!
Yeah... I'm thinking this may have been a mistake. LOL Nobody is going to believe me but I just watered both trees for the 4th time in 24. Pulled some pumice from way down... crushed it... Poof....dust. Not even moistish.
Yeah... was going to say something but I thought he was referring to "Anthony ".
GroveKeeper
Shohin
Napa DE floor dry is amazing. If you sift it properly, like 80% of the bag is useable. Run everything through a kitchen sieve. Then take the fines and sift them through window screen. Both batches are great. The diatomite between 1 and 3 mm drains water really well. It's also the best rooting medium for cuttings IMO.
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
I don't even sift it.
aml1014
Masterpiece
I don't sift for trees in training, but I do sift for the trees already in bonsai pots.
Aaron
Aaron
GroveKeeper
Shohin
I doubt it makes a big difference but it feels like i get better drainage when i sift #8822 into 2 different groups.
Sifting soil is also soothing to me. Sifting out the fines and then running my fingers through the large particles of DE is a high
aml1014
Masterpiece
Lol I know what you mean, but I got kinda lazy this repotting season with how much my collection had grown the last couple years.
Aaron
dirk hoorelbeke
Omono
Without sifting draining falls down to the drainage capacity of the smallest grain. More or less. If you want that depends on climate, pot size, species, speed of development you want,.. I don't know if Crushing pumice will help assessing the amount of water present for the tree. It's the water on the surface of the particle it needs. Soak pumice in water and crush after drying a bit. Is it wet inside?
markyscott
Imperial Masterpiece
Pumice has high porosity, which is why it's such low density, but the porosity is not connected. It's just bubbles in glass. This is what it looks like up close:
See? There's no way for the water to get into the holes. That's why it floats on water.
Here's an island of pumice in the pacific:
It can float on water for a long time because the water will never get inside.
So the water held by pumice is mostly on the outside of the grain. Because of that, it's not particularly water retentive as a soil component. Akadama and pumice hold more for the same grain size. But the KIND of grain is much less important than the SIZE of the grain. Shrinking the grain size will increase water retention, but decrease aeration because there is more water and less air in the pores. So it's a trade-off - aeration is good, but it's more work to keep it watered. And as Dirk already pointed out:
So what to do? How can you maintain good aeration, but not kill yourself watering the trees? Here are some strategies.
- Grade your soil by putting a finer grain soil on top of your main mix. That'll decrease evaporative loss and increase water retention near the surface where you want it.
- Mill sphagnum through your coarsest sieve and lay it on your soil surface. That'll decrease evaporative losses further and keep the soil surface wet longer.
- Increase akadama and scoria fraction and cut back on the pumice.
- Nest your pot during the summer. For my Shohin trees I nest the small Shohin pot inside of a larger pot. Then I backfill the space between with old soil. The insulates the small pot from the heat further reducing evaporative losses.
- Water more often automatically. Set up a watering system on a timer. I just use a battery operated timer that hooks up to the faucet. Easy to do and not very expensive.
- Shade your pot.
- Shade your tree during the hottest part of the day
- Avoid really tall pots.
Eric Group
Masterpiece
I will preface this post by saying this is an experiment that I know many of you will feel is not so much of an experiment because I know many of you have been growing in inorganic soil for years... but this is totally new to me and I'm kinda geeked!!! I am aware that its pretty well into the growing season and this is definitely not the most opportune time to start my experiment... however due to my poor soil choice this season my elms are not doing as well as they should be. The organic soil along with the granite and course sand used had become hydrophobic (think that's the correct term). Watering had become stressful and super frustrating.... and there are not enough medications to alleviate my obsessive-compulsive issues to allow me to wait till next season to remedy the situation.
With that being said, I have been PMing with a gentleman here in the nut house who has been way too kind in answering my multitude of noob questions.... I will not mention any names.But if your reading this, thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge and experience with me and turning my attention to the articles you forward on!!!!! I promise to be slightly less annoying in the future!
I feel I am in a bit of a different situation then most being that I live in the desert. With summers topping out at 115 with zero humidity, I'm trying to find the right amount of water retention and at the same time hoping to take some of the guess work out of watering.
I picked up two 5 gallon bucket of red lava at the gravel center here in town along with a bucket of pumice. After sifting the lava with an 1/8" sifter and a 1/4" sifter I was left with approximately 4 gallons of usable substrate (shitty return).... the pumice was pre-sifted at about 1/8" to 3/8" pieces.... the average size about 1/4". I'll mention I picked all this up for less then 10 bucks.
But wait... there's more!!!
After reading articles which my friend sent me, I discovered there is a school of though that organic components, namely pine bark, weather it be composted (which it rarely is truly composted) or even orchid bark provides little to no value to bonsai soil. I learned in fact pine bark which isn't truly composted is usually acidic and while it is braking down it is leaching nitrogen into the soil. Orchid bark (redwood bark) however is not bad for roots but is according to the author... is benign... A lifeless particle of wood that will at some point break down but not before one would re-pot so leaching nitrogen is of little concern.
On my own... I found a few articles and postings by bonsai enthusiasts is in my neck of the woods (Tucson and Phoenix) that highly recommend the use of orchid bark as a soil ingredient for bonsai in the desert due to its ability to hold water.
Hence my experiment...... Sorry..... I'm sure I lost some of you.
I took 2 trees which I feel I could sacrifice to the bonsai gods should things not workout with the re-potting.
Below is a pic of the re-potted trees.... each one was washed of its old soil before re-potting. I figure the fact that they are elms and they are pretty resilient little trees is going to work in my favor... I have read that a gradual soil change is not necessary for elms like it is with some other trees...but we shall see.
The ugly tree in the even uglier maroon pot was re-potted using approximately 50% lava and 50% pumice. May have added just a bit more lava due to its smaller volume over the pumice.
The second tree (yeah my attempt at a semi cascade) is potted in 30% sifted orchid bark 35% lava and 35% pumice.
And that's all I got...2 trees isn't much of an experiment but ya gotta start some place.
Thoughts, criticisms, or corrections of my interpretation are very welcome... I can take it!!!!
Thanks reading...
View attachment 103852
View attachment 103851
Am I reading this correctly? You repotted earlier this Spring into the first mix you mentioned, here we are BARELY into May and you think these trees should be growing better so you have repotted them AGAIN?
Not wise. Every time I have done something like that in the past it was a fatal error. Do not repot more than once in a season if you can help it and DEFFINITELY never do a full repot twice in a few months like that. Sure, you could SLIP pot after a repot to a larger containe for the ground, or if a tree gets knocked over.. you gotta "repot" to some degree to try to save it... But to just do it again so quick because you think the soil might not be ideal? That is a major no-no. I hope I misunderstood the chain of events and timeline there, other wise- even a relatively bullet-proof tree like an Elm is not likely to survive... Good luck!
Should never have used that cascade container... Use an old plastic nursery can or bulb pot before using that... Or use that other bonsai pot sitting right on the other side of the Window!? That cascade is not only aesthetically painful, it is possibly going to lead to uneven soil moisture as Marky said... Not a good choice.
Your soil mix is probably fine though. Pumice is pretty much the miracle "cure-all" bonsai soil ingredient.., you can mix it with just about anything and get decent results normally.
AaronThomas
Omono
Yep
Yep
Yep yep.... My spring started in January.
Nope.... not at all. But...Read below.
Could not agree more....but couldn't help it.... Something was clearly wrong with my soil mix this year. The company I bought my potting mix from added peat as well as oyster fines. (that will teach me not to read the fine print). Anyway.... Trees were in full leaf by March. Then one of my trees started defoliating all its new growth. Leaves on other trees started turning yellow. I'm sure it was due to the moisture retention, crappy drainage as well as the introduction of salts....here in the desert we already have a huge salt issue with our tap water. In fact just today I ordered a filter for my silcock. So, instead of watching all the trees die.... I decided to take a chance and repot. First the tree that defoliated.... I repotted it and it started budding with in 2 weeks. I then decided to repotted 3 more..... its been just over a month and all look much better and have continued to grow. Is there still a chance the trees could turn for the worse... I'm sure but at least I gave them a fighting chance. The trees in this post were the last two that needed repotting.
I have heard that from a few folks in previous post... noted but at this point I think its a bit late to re-pot for a 3rd time. That little elm has been growing in that pot for for 4 years.
Really?... LOL you went there.... I thought the fact I mentioned my ugly pot and ugly tree in the original post I would have squashed any need to reiterate the fact that I have shitty shit. Although, if you happen to have a nice pot kicking around you don't want any more.... feel free to send my way!!!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed.... its been a rough bonsai season thus far.
On the bright side....... I have learned a lot in the past 3 months.
I can tell already... the lava and pumice alone is not going to workout. Not enough water retention. Only May and watering 3 times a day.
Meh!!!!! Trial and error.... Ill get there. Thanks!
fredman
Masterpiece
WoW that is troublesome. How do you know the pumice and lava is completely dry? Do the trees wilt?
PiñonJ
Omono
I recently paid about $3/ 5 gal. bucket for red lava and $1.20 for pumice (an 18% increase over last year).
