Pumice in DMV area?

Stormwater

Shohin
Messages
306
Reaction score
298
Location
Maryland
Hello Stormwater,
Welcome and enjoy your stay.

Good thread.

Not having much luck locally...
I've gotten some Pumice online from General Pumice, and it worked for me.

I also ordered 28 gallons of "my created mix" from BonsaiJack as well, and it is very good quality too. You can also create your own mix on their website. I went with 40% Pumice, 40% Lava, 20% Pine Bark. So far so good.
Gonna be placing another order with them soon.

You can also order small sample bags from most places, to test-out.

Ben
Thanks, for the advice. I’ll look into that option and compare prices. Id say I’m loving this bonsai thing, wish I could afford to splurg on supplies/soil/plants. Someday maybe. Now it’s mostly local soils/plants and DE. Lava seems nice on the trees I use it on. With DE, I always think of my cats litterbox......
 

namnhi

Masterpiece
Messages
2,596
Reaction score
4,555
Location
Houston TX
USDA Zone
8b
Hello Stormwater,
Welcome aboard, enjoy your stay.

Good thread.

Not having much luck locally either, I've gotten some Pumice online from General Pumice, and it worked for me.

Then I went and ordered 28 gallons (8 x 3.5 gallon bags) of "my created mix" from BonsaiJack, and it is very good quality too.
You can also create your own mix on their website, so I went with 40% Pumice, 40% Lava, 20% Pine Bark, and it seems to be working vey nicely.
Gonna be placing another order with them soon.

You can also order small sample bags from most places, to test-out.

Good Luck,
Ben
Exactly!!!
I just ordered a couple bags to tryout. I see no point of breaking the lava with hammer when you can get 3.5 gallons for 32 bucks. By the way, I am pretty cheap. I used turface as one of the soil components.
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
Messages
14,182
Reaction score
22,184
Location
Fairfax Va.
USDA Zone
7
coming from the approach of being aware that bonsai can be..a rich mans art..all art is the stuff of many riches so I started breakin'

I'm not sure breaking lava sucks. It is not ideal, takes physical effort, and takes time. However, as much as it may suck (it sure can), it is rewarding when I approach it as a meditation and refinement of skill of some sort rather than just a task that makes my wife say rightfully, "really..and give a slightly puzzled look"..or.."wrap that up, its time to brush her teeth." It would be rad as hell if a medium (psychic pumice) up the street came available..but that shit probably ain't cheap either.

I've been trying to collect native trees from the wild, and thats has been a real learning experience, but I can not escape the idea that everything a tree (bonsai) really needs to function is in a ~40 mile radius of my home where found..and the nursery ones. In other words, akadama is trite for my needs, others too, fuck a yacht.

longwinded huh..

@Stormwater kinda said it. My 'refined' approach is lowes $3 bag (ask if they have any w/ holes for a buck over in that discount pea gravel-mulch stack), go look at the other discounted houseplants, shrubs and trees, then put a single layer of the lava in a big container that the bottom wont fracture too much ( 5 gal. bucket will eventually)...sledge em' down..

here..the ones that don't break easily, put them in the metals pile and move on. Take your rings off. Sit on a bucket, break big and dump until bag is empty.

Next..pour whole schbang on your back deck on a tarp and quickly, methodicaly, and harmoniously break down with hammer side of framing axe you got on a sea cliff a long time ago into relative sizes (I wear glasses, a good beer and music is good here) scooping level piles near and quickly shunning the iron(?)-lava pieces..breathe (not the dust), enjoy it.

I thought it was a bull in a china shop thing but it is calculated random precise hits of processing.....this weird work has made me concentrate on an idea that most tangible things never move or change unless you physically touch them...how did folks get the perfect grain size before the lava breaking machine? Maybe somebody breaking lava thinking about wabi-sabi, and nourishing their craft and observations of wild things with their surroundings..and how best to fill the blank spaces where life does not reside, but is dependent? If i had cheap lava easy I would jump on it.

and only sift as needed...

Honestly, 100% DE has shockingly provided the most healthy trees I have yet, and it is surely getting hotter. I don't exactly know the best way to feed them yet, but I suppose time will tell...summer. It gets hot here quick.
You must be a young man not married very long.

I can say as an over 50, married for 25+ years, breaking up baggies of lava rock to put in your bonsai soil is pretty much frowned upon by the missus. If you've got time to smash those rocks into dust, you have time to do X and X and X and X. Besides, I do bonsai to RELAX not to sweat and pull a shoulder muscle with a 16 lb sledge. Did that when I was 25. Don't want to anymore.

Besides that $25 bag of pumice sand is sifted and clean for the most part. Worth every penny. Rather use my time putting that pumice into a pot with a tree than scraping it up off the driveway with a broom. ;):)
 

TN_Jim

Omono
Messages
1,972
Reaction score
2,442
Location
Richmond VA
USDA Zone
7a
You must be a young man not married very long.

I can say as an over 50, married for 25+ years, breaking up baggies of lava rock to put in your bonsai soil is pretty much frowned upon by the missus. If you've got time to smash those rocks into dust, you have time to do X and X and X and X. Besides, I do bonsai to RELAX not to sweat and pull a shoulder muscle with a 16 lb sledge. Did that when I was 25. Don't want to anymore.

Besides that $25 bag of pumice sand is sifted and clean for the most part. Worth every penny. Rather use my time putting that pumice into a pot with a tree than scraping it up off the driveway with a broom. ;):)

Bingo! I recently finished my degree so the dough is indeed tight right now.

If after 25 years of marriage we still can’t afford lava and pumice for my trees...we may officially be failing at life ;)
 

jeanluc83

Omono
Messages
1,452
Reaction score
1,623
Location
Eastern Connecticut
USDA Zone
6a
Find a local club and do a group buy. When you start buying soil components by the pallet the cost per pound comes down dramatically.
 
Top Bottom