Ground Planting mix

alonsou

Mame
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Norwalk, CA
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Can anyone recommend a good mix of soil for ground planting? I'm planning on planting some tridents and japanese maples for future bonsai materials.

Also will be too risky to plant (ground) my (very young) junipers (procumbens nana) in the next few days or should I just leave them on their training pots until spring?

Thanks
 

digger714

Shohin
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Ive planted many before this time of year. Try not to disturb the roots too much, and put some mulch around them and they should be fine. If your planning on doing any root work, then i would wait until spring. After you plant them, water in good. I use my left over screenings from sifting my soil to plant with, but if not then i would mix my own with some turface, and pine bark,and some peat moss. You can get a pretty large bag of turface for pretty cheap.
 
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Si Nguyen

Omono
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The best off-the-shelf mix is Cactus mix from Armstrong Nursery. It is good for almost everything including bonsai in pots. It has small decomposed bark and lava rock. Just mix in a very small amount of local soil, and pumice too if you have them. Don't use cactus mix or any planting mix from HomeDepot, because they have sewage sludge and mostly saw dust in them.
Good luck!
 
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jonny

Seed
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What about just using your typical bonsai mix, ie. 1/3 turface, 1/3 sifted pine mulch, and 1/3 sand.
This will acclimate the roots into what the trees will eventually be planted in once they go into pots.
I've used this on trident forests that have been in and out of the ground for several years while they
fatten up.

Jon
 

Brian Van Fleet

Pretty Fly for a Bonsai Guy
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In your climate, you should be able to put them in the ground now with no problems. And, unless your soil is just terrible, you shouldn't need to do anything except till it a little. Over time, add your fines and old bonsai soil (from healthy trees) to gradually amend the soil.
 
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