namnhi
Masterpiece
He has many great looking trees with this soil. I don't see akadama, pumice or lava.
How about another soil thread
- Thread starter namnhi
- Start date
Perplexody
Shohin
I'm jumping in early before the chaos to say, your soil choice is entirely dependent on your tree and the environment in which you live. Only you will be able to determine the best mix with experience
Shogun610
Masterpiece
I use Akadama and Pumice ratios all over the place and some black lava on most of my trees. Pumice on collected trees, and future forests I plant in an Anderson flat with pumice , peat moss and peat moss with kitchen sink whatever is leftover from other repots . I even use inoculations of mycorrhizae that I cultivar from my own trees. That’s it . But whatever works for others they can try whatever they want , I have no skin in this.
Michael P
Omono
This should be the last post in every soil war.
August
Chumono
Soil conversation is more accurate. I like to hear about success with different mixes 
leatherback
The Treedeemer
ok, do not wish to write it out, so I put it in a video message for reference in threads like this..
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
** Putting my bonsai mix into sandbags and set them up around my fox hole. Put on gas mask in case someone adds "raw organic fertilizer" into their soil. **
Fire away!
Fire away!
I use the KitchenAid when my wife is out shopping. Pro tip: the dough attachment does not work well.
Michael P
Omono
The voice of reason!
namnhi
Masterpiece
How about this... adding sand after 'good' soil. For those just want to see the adding sand part... skip to minute 17:30.
If your tree is survived and thriving... keep doing what you doing.
If your tree is survived and thriving... keep doing what you doing.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
Oh my man. You are determined to stir the pot this morning, aren't you?
namnhi
Masterpiece
Just trying to have a thread of people doing bonsai for a long time using their own soil mix that is nothing like what being preached in the current bonsai world.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
You know where we came from the soil is nothing like the bonsai world over here. Crushed porous bricks (like the low fired Mexican bricks we sometimes have here) that holds water is often used instead of pumice/akadama. Rice hull and coconut husk are often used in place of pine bark. Plus we use a whole lot more sand there than here. Same thing with charcoal that is available there in large quantity for cheap. The climate difference also plays a role in the soil component we use as well.
equaloil4710
Seedling
Where do you get your lava rock from? I've had the hardest time finding lava rock.
hampton
Shohin
Just jumping in - pumice and lava seem to be more easily sourced in bulk on the West coast. I’m in New England and ordering through Bonsai Jack ended up being the most cost effective option. I couldn’t find a supplier who had either in bulk.
LeatherTree23
Yamadori
*grabs popcorn, a beverage and settles in for a reading session*
equaloil4710
Seedling
I've made a perlite connection with a local nursery near me and the guy needs tiny particles, so he'll give me the larger sizes for a great price. I just picked up like 2 cubic foot worth of it for like $25. I just like the look of lava rock and pumice better though.
I have half a mind of buying large lava rock and smashing them into pieces. Like this bag here https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/kolor-scape-05-cu-ft-lava-rock-40200032?cm_vc=-10005
Baku1875
Shohin
I'm in Florida and I can't find a reasonably priced pumice or lavarock source in my area either. Could be an east coast thing?
Last year I got two 8qt bags of 'Gantessa Stone' Pumice available on amazon and walmart, much cheaper than bonsai jack but I had to do a lot of sifting. The quality seems decent, my trees liked it (bucida spinosa, parsons juniper, a whole bunch of adenium obesums). Still not economical or bulk....
One soil alternative that I was not happy with was SafeTsorb. I repotted two ficus cuttings of roughly the same size at the same time last year.
The one in SafeTsorb heavy mix with some perlite performed terribly vs the mostly perlite, some shredded sphagnum moss, and a small % of safetsorb. safetsorb simply never dries out, and trees dont grow much. I repotted the one on the left last week in coarse perlite and chopped fir bark and topped it with bigger pieces of bark.
Michael P
Omono
In your humid climate it does not surprise me that SafeTSorb could hold too much water. In contrast, it is one of the things that keeps my trees alive through our summers: 100F and 10% relative humidity.
Baku1875
Shohin
I could see safetsorb being useful in dry climates as an insurance policy and to be able to walk away from your plants.. I was expecting it to work out given the extreme heat down here as well, but it seems like I need my soil mixes to breathe a lot and be able to dry out more between morning watering and nightfall to prevent rot. Even pure akadama killed one of my bucidas a few months ago because it wasn't drying out enough.
Despite the heat, that clay is able to pull in the humidity from the air and slow down evaporation.
