SilverShoe99
Mame
I'm still very green when it comes to bonsai; this is only my second summer in the hobby. Last winter I decided that I'd like to experiment building my own substrate mix, using DE as the base and amending with perlite, pumice, scoria, horticultural charcoal, and orchid bark in various ratios for coniferous/deciduous/tropical as needed. I mixed up a LOT of this soil, and was using it all spring for (re)potting my trees. Everything appeared fine at first, but I soon started to notice that this mix never seemed to dry out. It just held SO much water, and a few of the plants that were potted in this mix started to look like they were drowning. I decided to try adjusting my watering at first as a solution to the problem and figured everything would be fine until next spring.
Then a couple weeks ago I tried to pull a weed away from a JM sapling that I had planted in this mix, and the maple pulled right out of the substrate along with the weed! Upon inspection, the roots were severely underdeveloped and completely sopping wet, and the substrate was just absolutely soaked to death. I think every tree I had planted in this stuff was suffering from extreme wet feet. Even though we're pretty deep into summer now and way past prime repotting season, I figured I had to rescue some of the trees that seemed to be suffering the most in this mix.
First off, I repotted that little japanese maple into a commercial deciduous mix and it seems to be recovering quite nicely. Hopefully it'll survive, push some new roots, and make it to next spring. Then I repotted a Doug Fir that was in the same wet mix, and for that one I mixed up some akadama, perlite, pumice, and scoria in a 1:1/3:1/3:1/3 ratio, with a touch of charcoal. Yesterday it was a couple of mame-sized F.Benjamina cuttings that came from a twisted trunk HD tree that I chopped up into about 15 different pieces.
The most recent rescue is a little nana pomegranate that flowered and fruited nicely last year in its nursery pot, but has really struggled since I put it into my DE based mix. I decided to repot and take some photos to share with you all.
The first photo is of the DE that I had bought. Turns out the problem is that.....I'm an idiot, and bought the wrong DE. Napa 8822 is the one you want, and I bought part number 8834. Lesson learned! Not only does this stuff seem to hold WAY more water WAY longer than 8822, it also crushes very easily and turns to paste.
The first photo of the tree shows it's struggling. You can see the leaves all curly and deformed, and just generally not happy. After I pulled it from the bad soil, I'm actually quite happy with the limited root development so far. It's managed to keep a nice flat base, and the roots are spreading radially quite nicely. I did notice after I got the tree out of the substrate that it had a relatively bad case of scale, so I pulled out my tweezers and a little cup of rubbing alcohol, and used that to dip the tips of the tweezers before squeezing/plucking the scale off the tree. You can see in the pic how many scales I was able to remove from the tree. Also, you can see how even after only half a season, the 8834 DE has already started to decompose and turn into muck at the bottom of the pot. No wonder the tree wasn't healthy! Anyhow, I mixed up some akadama, scoria, and perlite in a 1:1/2:1/2 ratio and replanted the little pom into this mix. Watered it until it ran clear out of the bottom of the pot, and put it back on the bench in a nice shady spot where it'll live for the next couple of weeks.
No root pruning, no foliage pruning, just a rescue repot. I'm very curious to see how the tree handles it. Hopefully it'll survive and thrive!
Then a couple weeks ago I tried to pull a weed away from a JM sapling that I had planted in this mix, and the maple pulled right out of the substrate along with the weed! Upon inspection, the roots were severely underdeveloped and completely sopping wet, and the substrate was just absolutely soaked to death. I think every tree I had planted in this stuff was suffering from extreme wet feet. Even though we're pretty deep into summer now and way past prime repotting season, I figured I had to rescue some of the trees that seemed to be suffering the most in this mix.
First off, I repotted that little japanese maple into a commercial deciduous mix and it seems to be recovering quite nicely. Hopefully it'll survive, push some new roots, and make it to next spring. Then I repotted a Doug Fir that was in the same wet mix, and for that one I mixed up some akadama, perlite, pumice, and scoria in a 1:1/3:1/3:1/3 ratio, with a touch of charcoal. Yesterday it was a couple of mame-sized F.Benjamina cuttings that came from a twisted trunk HD tree that I chopped up into about 15 different pieces.
The most recent rescue is a little nana pomegranate that flowered and fruited nicely last year in its nursery pot, but has really struggled since I put it into my DE based mix. I decided to repot and take some photos to share with you all.
The first photo is of the DE that I had bought. Turns out the problem is that.....I'm an idiot, and bought the wrong DE. Napa 8822 is the one you want, and I bought part number 8834. Lesson learned! Not only does this stuff seem to hold WAY more water WAY longer than 8822, it also crushes very easily and turns to paste.
The first photo of the tree shows it's struggling. You can see the leaves all curly and deformed, and just generally not happy. After I pulled it from the bad soil, I'm actually quite happy with the limited root development so far. It's managed to keep a nice flat base, and the roots are spreading radially quite nicely. I did notice after I got the tree out of the substrate that it had a relatively bad case of scale, so I pulled out my tweezers and a little cup of rubbing alcohol, and used that to dip the tips of the tweezers before squeezing/plucking the scale off the tree. You can see in the pic how many scales I was able to remove from the tree. Also, you can see how even after only half a season, the 8834 DE has already started to decompose and turn into muck at the bottom of the pot. No wonder the tree wasn't healthy! Anyhow, I mixed up some akadama, scoria, and perlite in a 1:1/2:1/2 ratio and replanted the little pom into this mix. Watered it until it ran clear out of the bottom of the pot, and put it back on the bench in a nice shady spot where it'll live for the next couple of weeks.
No root pruning, no foliage pruning, just a rescue repot. I'm very curious to see how the tree handles it. Hopefully it'll survive and thrive!
