Cookmaster: Lime Sulphur

[klosi]

Hi!
OK, I know this is a strange thread, and I know some my role their eyes when they see it but what the heck.
I would like to know if anyone has personal experience on cooking Lime Sulphur (Sulfur). Is anyone Heisenberg on field of lime sulphur?
I need to know because there is almost no way of getting it excpet for like 30€, which I can't afford to spend on such a thing. It may sound stupid that is how it is.
So I found this recepie:
10L of water
1.2 Kg of sulphur
2.5 Kg of (slaked) lime powder
Process is something like that:
3 liters of water in a coocking pot, add the mixed sulphur and lime powder, mix well so there are no lumps. Then start heating it, when it almost boils pour the rest of the water in. Then start coocking. Stir with a stick. Then when the "thing" turns yellow kill the fire. Wait for it to settle then pour it in a plastic ocntainer.
This is what I found, the coocking is reather dangerous and can be unpleasant, just in case someone is thinking of doing it, thik twice.

Before I go ahead and do it I want to ask for your advice. Has anyone done it? Is he willing to share his recepie?
Also this is a recepie for spraying trees as a fungicide. Does it differ from regular lime sulphur bonsaists use for jin and shari?

Thanks for any usefull information.

 

[jk_lewis]

The "regular" LS is diluted a lot before being used as a fungicide/pesticide.

If you try this:

1. Do it outdoors,
2. Alert your neighbors because you'll stink up the neighborhood.
3. Wear protective gear (eyes and hands) and a nose clip won't hurt either.

 

[klosi]

Of course, thanks for correcting me, one has to dilute the LS to approriate level (it depends on what and why it is meant to be used).
I don't like the neighbours so no heads up for them

 

[klosi]

OK. I cooked some of this stuff. I devided all of the ingredients by 3 or something like that. I got some strange yellow-brownish thing. After 2 days it settled and it got more familiar reddish-brown color. When applying it has yellow color but wood loses it very quick. Now I have tested it only on my pine and I'm not sure if it works. The problem is:
there is a broken off branch turned into jin a year and a half or so before. Lime sulphur was applied then, but that was orginly bought stuff. Now after all this time it greyed a bit.
How do you restore old limesulphured jins? Do you sand the jin before apllying LS again? I tried 2 things. I watered it and then apply MINE LS (this mine LS is the only one I have right now). But I don't think it was any better. Still grey, maybe a bit brighter grey. Should the jin be completly white is the LS was any good?
Now I sand the jin with fine sand paper, watered it and applyed mine LS. Waiting for results...

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I scrub previously-treated deadwood with a wire brush or toothbrush to clean it up before applying a fresh coat.
It takes less to freshen up previously-treated sections, and seems to repel it a bit, but whitens up pretty fast.

I wouldn't use LS on pine jins, pines tend to be silver/gray and look better left to age on their own. Or, add some black ink to it so the color is a bit more convincing.
Scrubbed previously-treated deadwood:

Fresh coat of LS drying:

 

[klosi]

Thanks for your method accompanied with pictures (of a realy nice looking bonsai I must add).
Hmm mine is not as white I think. I'll try it on a juniper maybe and see the results, although I doubt it will whiten it as good as your LS did. Looks like my cooking skills are not as good as my lazying skills.

 

[PiñonJ]

I scrub previously-treated deadwood with a wire brush or toothbrush to clean it up before applying a fresh coat.
It takes less to freshen up previously-treated sections, and seems to repel it a bit, but whitens up pretty fast.

How long does the whitening take? I treated a year-and-a-quarter old shari on a juniper today (sunny, 82F) and so far, it's yellowish green.

 

[Dav4]

How long does the whitening take? I treated a year-and-a-quarter old shari on a juniper today (sunny, 82F) and so far, it's yellowish green.

A day or two...

 

[Smoke]

This will work one time. The problem with lime sulphur is keeping it in solution. The lime wants to fall out of solution. Real lime sulphur is chelated so as to not fall out of solution. Your homemade lime sulphur will be good for about three days after that the lime will form a big ice cube in the bottom of the bottle.

 

[klosi]

OK, I completly neglected this thread. I did made the lime sulphur, but I'm not quite sure it works The "potion" looks good, I will try to get the picture of the sulphured jin before/after.
This is the picture of LS, it was cooked 3 months ago, still looks OK (maybe a bit darker then the LS you buy from a bonsai shop).

 

[klosi]

@Smoke I'm not sure what you mean? After cooking the LS I waited for 2-3 days for the liquid to clear and the (lime or sulphur?) to settle on the bottom. I then poured it into such cups as you can see on picture.
I trid and coated the freshly (2 months ago made) jin. Here is only one time treated LSed jin (it was LSed after it was made) and then the pic of the same jin 2 days after another coating.
I'm not sure how sohuld I test my LS. I also tried to color only half of very small jin on another juniper which has never been LSed, but the thing is so small it's hard to take the picture.
I should get a bigger jin and LSed it half. That would probably be better solution


Before



After



Small jin (right half was LSed)