Raul of bayone
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Regarding junipers, what is the best soil to use with them in a colander or pond pot
Colander?
- Thread starter Raul of bayone
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yenling83
Omono
Something free draining, but holds a decent amount of water and nutrients. Colanders dry out faster than containers without holes. I've been meaning to try out Perlite and CoCo Coir, I saw Eric S say he used this and saw solid results.
I've always used sifted pumice and akadama. However, it's relatively expensive and probably not necessary.
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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The same soil you use for the rest of your junipers in bonsai pots.
Best to limit the number of media mixes you use, it is important to be familiar with how quickly your mix goes from wet to dry. Too many custom blends makes it confusing when looking at a bench full of trees and deciding what to water.
Junipers in general do well in a mostly mineral mix.
Pumice
Pumice, crushed granite or quartzite, akadama 1:1:1 or 2:1:1
Pumice & akadama 2:1 or 3:1 or 1:1 if water less often
Pumice & seedling size Douglas fir bark as for orchids, 2:1 or 3:1
Perlite can be substituted for pumice
Turface, gravel, haydite, coir, coarse peat sifted to remove fines, horticultural grade charcoal, even chips of recycled auto tires, all can be used as components of a bonsai media. Key is to sieve for uniform particle size, no fines, no coarse pieces.
Akadama and Kanuma are volcanic clays imported from Japan, recommended in Japanese texts because that is their local substrate. Turface is NOT a direct substitute, but it is useful in its own right. I prefer to keep Turface as less than 25% of the total media volume, works nice then.
Best to limit the number of media mixes you use, it is important to be familiar with how quickly your mix goes from wet to dry. Too many custom blends makes it confusing when looking at a bench full of trees and deciding what to water.
Junipers in general do well in a mostly mineral mix.
Pumice
Pumice, crushed granite or quartzite, akadama 1:1:1 or 2:1:1
Pumice & akadama 2:1 or 3:1 or 1:1 if water less often
Pumice & seedling size Douglas fir bark as for orchids, 2:1 or 3:1
Perlite can be substituted for pumice
Turface, gravel, haydite, coir, coarse peat sifted to remove fines, horticultural grade charcoal, even chips of recycled auto tires, all can be used as components of a bonsai media. Key is to sieve for uniform particle size, no fines, no coarse pieces.
Akadama and Kanuma are volcanic clays imported from Japan, recommended in Japanese texts because that is their local substrate. Turface is NOT a direct substitute, but it is useful in its own right. I prefer to keep Turface as less than 25% of the total media volume, works nice then.
Maiden69
Masterpiece
This and what @Leo in N E Illinois said.
Main benefit of a colander is that it dries faster, which is also the main downside. If you are not keeping up with the watering your tree will suffer. If you are not watering consistently as it dries you will not reap out the benefits. From Jonas and other artists that use colanders, you need to water and fertilize more frequently when using colanders, pond baskets, etc...
Eric S. did an experiment with colander vs terracotta, but in my opinion, he failed to follow Jonas advise for colanders. He kept watering and fertilization equal, negating the benefits of the colander all together.
If you look at the growth that Jonas get from a 6-8 yrs old JBP, it is comparable with the growth obtained by ground growing, but much more compact. In the case of a juniper, the same holds true.
With the higher price of akadama, and with the fact that many people advise to only use it on trees in refinement I would use pumice/lava and either Bonsai Block or Monto Clay from Bonsai Jack, or any other substrate that holds water in the same manner. Monto Clay is the same as turface, but Bonsai Jack selects particles that are closer to 1/4" vs the fines that come in the turface box. And, I don't know how or why, they are slightly rounder as well vs the plate-like MVP and other turface.
Another option that Telperion used was the Rootpouch, that root prune by entrapment vs air pruning. If you use the above ground bags they will dry out slightly slower than the colander, but faster than a pot.
MaciekA
Shohin
I've used pumice and had success with it.
@Maiden69 gave good advice above regarding the more frequent watering demands: If you choose to use a colander or pond basket with a juniper, and you get roasty-hot or dry-hot summers, be prepared to have a shorter leash between you and your juniper and to spend less time away from it. Junipers can be really happy with hot weather but if the roots dry out they can get cooked scarily fast in a heat wave, especially if what's going into those colanders is juniper cuttings. Tradeoffs!
@Maiden69 gave good advice above regarding the more frequent watering demands: If you choose to use a colander or pond basket with a juniper, and you get roasty-hot or dry-hot summers, be prepared to have a shorter leash between you and your juniper and to spend less time away from it. Junipers can be really happy with hot weather but if the roots dry out they can get cooked scarily fast in a heat wave, especially if what's going into those colanders is juniper cuttings. Tradeoffs!
