Clinoptilolite

DaveV

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In what seems to be my never-ending quest for pumice in the midwest, I ran across a product call Sweet PDZ which is something like Dry Stall that is sold in Cal. It is a clinoptilolite which is a zeolite. It is used in horse stalls and can also be used in soils. It is a volcanic by-product, retains water and has a high CEC. It also maintains its structure after freezing and thawing. It comes in a granular form. Anybody seen or used this before?
 

Smoke

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Yes, it is used quite frequently in the aquarium trade to remove ammonia from the water which is it's natural properties. It was discovered in Africa when it was found that elephants congregated in certian places to urinate. It seems that the natural zeolite soaked up the urine since it came out by the gallon and made living on the plains a more delightful place. It is used in horse stalls to soak up and mask urine smells.

For what we do in bonsai this would not have any properties that half a dozen other products would do. You could put decomosed granite in and do the same thing.


Of course if you spill a bottle of windex on your prize banzai you might be covered:D:D:D
 

Yamadori

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It is marketed as Zeolite in the filtation industry. It is slightly less stark white than dry stall. More tan. It looks like the bagged zeolite has tiny particles though. More like sand. Mayby there is a form on yhe market that has larger sizes.
 

DaveV

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Thanks guys. Do you know if this is like pumice or something completely different ?
 

Walter Pall

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Zeolite is used in Europe a lot recently. I use it like all the other modern substrates. Zeolite, or pumice, or lava split, or hard akdama, or baked loam, or turface, or styrpor pebbles, or crushed hard bark, or similar things or a mixture of any of these plus 15 % rough peat or coconut stuff.
That's it. There is way too much discussion about such things. Trees grow in all of these.
In all these substrates there are no nutrients and they are very well draining. So aggressive regular feeding and aggressive watering is a must. You cannot over water though, any fool can water, and you can hardly overfeed. This is modern horticulture applied to bonsai.
I use the same mixture for ALL trees.
 
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