Please tell me i can use crushed brick as akadama alternative

[Bonsaithusiast]

I was wondering if i could use crushed brick as an akadama alternative, because im pretty sure i cant get akadama here, and if there is people will call it "crushed brick" and im not sure if thats good enough or pretty good and im really thinking about it. i dont like my trees using organic soil that dries instantly after watering it in these super hot and dry climates. Please do let me know if i can use bricks as soil, thanks.

 

[yenling83]

I was wondering if i could use crushed brick as an akadama alternative, because im pretty sure i cant get akadama here, and if there is people will call it "crushed brick" and im not sure if thats good enough or pretty good and im really thinking about it. i dont like my trees using organic soil that dries instantly after watering it in these super hot and dry climates. Please do let me know if i can use bricks as soil, thanks.

Hey! I definitely would not used crush brick. Can you get pumice? I'd go with 100% sifted/rinsed pumice if you can't use a mix of Akadama/Pumice/Scoria. If I could not find pumice I'd go with perlite.

 

[BrightsideB]

Brick is not an alternative to akadama in any way. But you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with what you have available. Maybe talk to locals who do bonsai.

 

[AJL]

Ive recently been looking into sources of crushed brick here in Britain due to the soaring cost of Akadama.
One disadvantage is that apparently the pH can be quite high so it may not be suitable for some plant species/
I guess it depends on the chemistry and hardness of your local bricks. I think its worth a trial as part of your bonsai soil mixed with other ingredients

 

[BrightsideB]

It seems like crushed brick would be more comparable to lava.

 

[penumbra]

It seems like crushed brick would be more comparable to lava.

That is what I was thinking. If I had a good and cheap source I would use it.

 

[BrightsideB]

I was wondering if i could use crushed brick as an akadama alternative, because im pretty sure i cant get akadama here, and if there is people will call it "crushed brick" and im not sure if thats good enough or pretty good and im really thinking about it. i dont like my trees using organic soil that dries instantly after watering it in these super hot and dry climates. Please do let me know if i can use bricks as soil, thanks.

Sometimes if the soil becomes dry with organics it can become hydrophobic. You may be watering but the entire soil mass isn’t actually getting wet. This happens with me and soaking the pot for like five minutes really helps it retain water again.

 

[Baku1875]

I was wondering if i could use crushed brick as an akadama alternative, because im pretty sure i cant get akadama here, and if there is people will call it "crushed brick" and im not sure if thats good enough or pretty good and im really thinking about it. i dont like my trees using organic soil that dries instantly after watering it in these super hot and dry climates. Please do let me know if i can use bricks as soil, thanks.

Get a 'disposable' tree or something cheap from a nursery that is at least a similar species to what you want to grow, pot it up with crushed brick, pour some of your hose water into it, and catch it with a container, and test the ph with some strips (pool testing strips are cheap). If it's high, get some teabags with an acidic organic fertilizer and secure a few to your top soil with some wire. I used organic azalea fertilizer in teabags this spring and it seems to have helped bring the pH down and compensate for my hard water.

I wouldnt expect miracles with crushed brick, but it's worth an experiment and it could work as part of a mix, ie- crushed brick top layer and perlite and pine bark for the rest of the pot, the crushed brick can prevent perlite from floating out of the pot.

If your soil is drying too quickly, consider top dressing with bark and sphagnum moss. That's what I'm doing right now and it reduced my watering frequency from 3x a day to 1-2x a day (90F heat in the shade recently). I remove sphagnum in late september to avoid overly wet soil as evaporation rates slow down, sterilize it in the oven and re-use it the following summer.

 

[Paradox]

If your soil is drying too fast, try adding some more water retentive soil components.

Pumice is good but pine bark might help and be more available?

 

[Baku1875]

If your soil is drying too fast, try adding some more water retentive soil components.

Pumice is good but pine bark might help and be more available?

pulsing some pine mulch or fir based mulch in a blender to get the particle sizes smaller, and sifting the dust out works as well if one cant find small sized pine or fir nuggets. I got a 16 dollar walmart blender just for this purpose.

 

[Clicio]

I use it all the time.
For conifers.
For deciduous.
For tropicals.
A little less for azaleas, but still there.

Let's put it this way:

- We DON'T have Akadama being sold around here; not even the "bad", soft, mushy Akadama used in Japanese flower pots. No Akadama. At all.
- We DON'T have lava rock around here as there are no volcanoes in Brazil. In fact we do have some, imported from Chile or Argentina, but not easily available.
- We DON'T have pumice in granular sizes good enough for bonsai around here, only in powder, or in soap sized tablets used to scrape off dead skin on one's feet.
So...
Almost all bonsai growers in Brazil use "crushed bricks" in their mixes; I certainly do.
They are not really bricks, but high fired roof tiles crushed by machines developed specifically for that purpose. After controlled crushing, the granules are sifted, washed, packed and sold.
A typical mix here is "crushed bricks", matured pine bark, and number 2 sized river gravel, in different proportions according to the species being planted.

I also use - in some mixes - Perlite, Zeolite, Calcinated rice husk, horticultural charcoal, and a very good component (found only in tropical climates, I guess), which is crushed termite mounds (preferably from trees, not from the ground). It is a little darker than Akadama, changes color when wet, it's not very heavy, comes in 3mm to 5mm granules, pretty hard, good water and fertilizer retention, doesn't turn into mush. The only drawback is that it's difficult to find and it isn't cheap.
So yes, many people doing bonsai still use crushed bricks as a main soil component with very good results.

 

[Cajunrider]

Hey! I definitely would not used crush brick. Can you get pumice? I'd go with 100% sifted/rinsed pumice if you can't use a mix of Akadama/Pumice/Scoria. If I could not find pumice I'd go with perlite.

I wouldn’t use crushed brick to directly replace akadama but crushed brick is used all the time in other countries as a component of bonsai soil. For me each potential component should be tried as itself and not as a substitute for other components.

 

[Underdog]

I've played with it a few years now and not impressed. I use it in my patio. We have a brick factory half hr away. I was excited about it until I started repotting some in it for a couple years.

 

[rockm]

The primary issue with crushed brick is particle size, from what I've seen. I used it for a couple of years to see what it would do. The particles are mostly too large to be effective in a soil mix. Sifting to get decent usable soil components eliminates 90 percent of more of the stuff.

 

[Cajunrider]

I've played with it a few years now and not impressed. I use it in my patio. We have a brick factory half hr away. I was excited about it until I started repotting some in it for a couple years.
View attachment 487363

The primary issue with crushed brick is particle size, from what I've seen. I used it for a couple of years to see what it would do. The particles are mostly too large to be effective in a soil mix. Sifting to get decent usable soil components eliminates 90 percent of more of the stuff.

Crushed brick varies greatly in porosity and ability to hold water. Low fired bricks is porous and also holds water well enough for use as a decent component of bonsai substrate. This is the case for most crushed bricks in Asia, Mexico etc. High fired bricks in North America doesn't hold much water at all and is a poor bonsai substrate. You might as well use gravel.

 

[Shibui]

Bricks vary quite a lot in composition.
The older bricks here are very much like terracotta and when crushed to the correct particle size make a great potting mix component with water and fert holding capacity.
More modern bricks are fired to higher temps and use better clays so consistency is more like stone so crushed brick could vary quite a bit depending on the location and sources.
I've never heard of the pH problem. Bricks should not test high though maybe mortar could? Often these claims are unsubstantiated opinions so I would test before believing.

We had one of our senior bonsai growers testing various components, including crushed brick, as growing media or components but I can't find any results. I will try to find what he concluded.
Like many other soil components there will be those for and against but I think crushed brick is a viable component if it is available in your area.

 

[Clicio]

I get the crushed tiles in bags like that one below .

 

[Clicio]

The primary issue with crushed brick is particle size, from what I've seen. I used it for a couple of years to see what it would do. The particles are mostly too large to be effective in a soil mix. Sifting to get decent usable soil components eliminates 90 percent of more of the stuff.

Most probably we are talking different crushed bricks. Here there are crushing machines that do the hard job, and the particles are then sifted to the right sizes.
I can get them from 1mm to 3mm, from 3mm to 6mm, and from 6mm to 9mm.
The cheapest option is to purchase them non-sifted, and do the boring chore yourself.

 

[Bonsaithusiast]

If your soil is drying too fast, try adding some more water retentive soil components.

Pumice is good but pine bark might help and be more available?

mixing it in with organic soils sounds more reasonable, Ill be trying that out and use test trees.

 

[AJL]

Bricks vary quite a lot in composition.
The older bricks here are very much like terracotta and when crushed to the correct particle size make a great potting mix component with water and fert holding capacity.
More modern bricks are fired to higher temps and use better clays so consistency is more like stone so crushed brick could vary quite a bit depending on the location and sources.
I've never heard of the pH problem. Bricks should not test high though maybe mortar could? Often these claims are unsubstantiated opinions so I would test before believing.

We had one of our senior bonsai growers testing various components, including crushed brick, as growing media or components but I can't find any results. I will try to find what he concluded.
Like many other soil components there will be those for and against but I think crushed brick is a viable component if it is available in your area.

You say that bricks shouldnt test high pH . I guess the pH would depend on the mineral constituents of the brick clay from each individual brick pit
Here is the part of the datasheet from one of the UK suppliers of crushed pure reject brick aggregate, which they say contains no mortar residue. Im surprised and disappointed its pH is so high at pH 8.6, otherwise I would be tempted to give it a trial.
Material: 6/14mm Crush Primary Brick Source: Bourne Amenity Ltd Date Tested: 07/02/1019
Tested By: In House Parameter Unit
Result Organic Matter (LOI) % w/w <0.40
Ph 8.6
Additional Analysis: Bulk Density when oven dried mg/m³ 781
Calculated Bulk as received mg/m³ 890
Bulk Density at Field Capacity mg/m³ 956
Calculated Bulk Density at Saturation mg/m³1002
Water Holding Capacity (at 0.33 Bar) % 12.5

Maybe bricks in other regions have a lower pH which is more suitable for the species we grow??