Pumice prices in EU?

[TwilightTrees]

I never had problem with molar(Terramol). I usually mix it with other substrates. I started to use it as lightest component on my larger trees to reduce overal weight of the trees.
But since few seasons I using more and more pumice since it is even lighter and cheaper.
Currently I use Pumice/Terramol/Zeolite in not precise ratios. But my gut feeling is that pumice is ticking all the boxes for me - works well/cheap/light/easy to obtain.

Thanks for watching my stuff, I appreciate it. Hope it is useful.

I agree with you. What i really like about Moler is to use it as topsoil, because is very easy to see if it is dry or humid and if i need to water. I can also imagine that the color is better than pumice for topsoil, and its better to have something more heavy for topsoil which not so easy flush away if i by mistake water a bit too heavy.

By the way have you ever used limestone? Where i live most of the underground is made out of limestone and most decidicious tree here grow wild here in pure limestone gravel (hawthorn, prunus, oak, beech, birch, cotoneaster, hazel etc.), and i noticed that during droughts the plants survive better in nature than those trees and plants growing on organic soil. And benefit of limestone is i can collect it free from the beach.

And what about lava? I was very close to order a cheap big bag of lave stones but then i read this article, and now im in doubt.

Is Lava Good For Bonsai?

This is a legitimate question. My master Shinji Suzuki never used lava (aka scoria), preferring just akadama and pumice. On coming back from Japan in 2006 I continued using the akadama / pumice mix…

crataegus.com

And yes your channel is very useful, the best videos are those with videoclip and pictures from several years, so its easy to really see the development year by year... so one advice is to take a lot of videclip of all of your tree now, then save the clip. Then you can always edit those clip in future videos years from now and make voice over old clips while you edit it all together to new videos. I start to do that myself even though i know that i dont have time now to make a YouTube channel - but maybe in future when the kids grow bigger i have more time for that, then I will appreciate my old videos, but also for my own memory and video log.

 

[Glaucus]

Lava isn't porous. So it will reduce the amount of water and air retained in the substrate mixture. The roots will have to grow around the lava particles as well. It may improve drainage when you actually want your soil mixture to retain less water.
Otherwise, maybe it should best be seen as a cheap filler that adds some weight and thus stability to the substrate mixture.
Also, a good thing may be that lava particles are hard and unlikely to fall apart. So in climates with a lot of freeze-thaw cycles where you don't want to repot very often, it can endure for longer than say akadama.
Scoria does have some porosity though. So not sure why rough, porous lava particles could be bad. Unless the boron toxicity is a true issue, of course.
If a plant at say Iseli nursery has boron toxicity, not sure if lava would be the source. Maybe it would? But you'd need to test the specific lava used as well to confirm it as the source.

 

[TwilightTrees]

Lava isn't porous. So it will reduce the amount of water and air retained in the substrate mixture. The roots will have to grow around the lava particles as well. It may improve drainage when you actually want your soil mixture to retain less water.
Otherwise, maybe it should best be seen as a cheap filler that adds some weight and thus stability to the substrate mixture.
Also, a good thing may be that lava particles are hard and unlikely to fall apart. So in climates with a lot of freeze-thaw cycles where you don't want to repot very often, it can endure for longer than say akadama.
Scoria does have some porosity though. So not sure why rough, porous lava particles could be bad. Unless the boron toxicity is a true issue, of course.
If a plant at say Iseli nursery has boron toxicity, not sure if lava would be the source. Maybe it would? But you'd need to test the specific lava used as well to confirm it as the source.

Thank you for answer, i think you right about that. I see you have a link to azeleadatabase on your post, so I grab the chance to add another question: what is your preferred soil mix for azelea/rhododendron/satsuki etc. I had some problems with mine in the past, and I had to plant all of them in the ground, otherwise they seemed to die for me in pots. But future on i want to dig them up and place them in pots again.

 

[jeremy_norbury]

Hi Maros. Nice to get a message from you and especially funny to receive it just after I been watching your excellent YouTube videos this afternoon ! It's a great channel your started there!
Thanks for advice about Pumice, sounds like a good idea. About Moler, its interesting you also use that. Here in Denmark it is very cheap since it is mined here. However I here somebody say it's not good to use it 100 % I don't know if it's true or what's the reason could be? Maybe that it affect pH value? Maybe you know?

I've used Moler for decades...

 

[Maros]

I agree with you. What i really like about Moler is to use it as topsoil, because is very easy to see if it is dry or humid and if i need to water. I can also imagine that the color is better than pumice for topsoil, and its better to have something more heavy for topsoil which not so easy flush away if i by mistake water a bit too heavy.

By the way have you ever used limestone? Where i live most of the underground is made out of limestone and most decidicious tree here grow wild here in pure limestone gravel (hawthorn, prunus, oak, beech, birch, cotoneaster, hazel etc.), and i noticed that during droughts the plants survive better in nature than those trees and plants growing on organic soil. And benefit of limestone is i can collect it free from the beach.

And what about lava? I was very close to order a cheap big bag of lave stones but then i read this article, and now im in doubt.

Is Lava Good For Bonsai?

This is a legitimate question. My master Shinji Suzuki never used lava (aka scoria), preferring just akadama and pumice. On coming back from Japan in 2006 I continued using the akadama / pumice mix…

crataegus.com

And yes your channel is very useful, the best videos are those with videoclip and pictures from several years, so its easy to really see the development year by year... so one advice is to take a lot of videclip of all of your tree now, then save the clip. Then you can always edit those clip in future videos years from now and make voice over old clips while you edit it all together to new videos. I start to do that myself even though i know that i dont have time now to make a YouTube channel - but maybe in future when the kids grow bigger i have more time for that, then I will appreciate my old videos, but also for my own memory and video log.

I had a similar negative experience with lava. I stopped using it. Has no benefits for me at all. I was discussing it recently with Jonas Dupuich personally. We came to the conclusion that I could have sifted and washed it more properly, and it could have been OK. But anyway, lava is heavier (same as zeolite or heavier), so no good reason to use it for larger trees. The only positive aspect is color, one I had was dark brown/red sort of, looks nice on top of the soil, but otherwise I see no reason to use it.

Regarding limestone, I have no experience. The only thing I tried this year is that I used Calcium dolomite as an additive in the substrate of repotted Dogwoods. I heard they like soils rich in calcium, so I added it to the mix.

Thanks for the tips for my channel.

 

[BaKiBonsai]

That's fascinating. Do you know if there are any difference in the Pumice from Iceland, USA and Europe?

In Europa you have German pumice (bims) and Greek pumice (yalibims). Maybe even more

 

[BaKiBonsai]

I had a similar negative experience with lava. I stopped using it. Has no benefits for me at all. I was discussing it recently with Jonas Dupuich personally. We came to the conclusion that I could have sifted and washed it more properly, and it could have been OK. But anyway, lava is heavier (same as zeolite or heavier), so no good reason to use it for larger trees. The only positive aspect is color, one I had was dark brown/red sort of, looks nice on top of the soil, but otherwise I see no reason to use it.

Regarding limestone, I have no experience. The only thing I tried this year is that I used Calcium dolomite as an additive in the substrate of repotted Dogwoods. I heard they like soils rich in calcium, so I added it to the mix.

Thanks for the tips for my channel.

Lava is indeed a bit controversial sometimes
See:

Is Lava Good For Bonsai?

This is a legitimate question. My master Shinji Suzuki never used lava (aka scoria), preferring just akadama and pumice. On coming back from Japan in 2006 I continued using the akadama / pumice mix…

crataegus.com

 

[Glaucus]

Thank you for answer, i think you right about that. I see you have a link to azeleadatabase on your post, so I grab the chance to add another question: what is your preferred soil mix for azelea/rhododendron/satsuki etc. I had some problems with mine in the past, and I had to plant all of them in the ground, otherwise they seemed to die for me in pots. But future on i want to dig them up and place them in pots again.

I do not actually have bonsai. I grow everything in larger deeper pots for propagation and prebonsai goals.
I use a lot of perlite, mixed in with coarse pure peat, and then either normal or ericaceous potting mix (mostly peat-based with with a higher pH and fast-acting fertilizer added). Then I throw in some pine bark chips and 18 months osmocote.
For bonsai, kanuma either 100% or with some pumice is the way to go. I myself have found growing in 100% kanuma more challenging and giving inconsistent result. Probably because my tap water is very hardy and because I didn't fertilize properly.
The mixture I use is not so good for developing nebari, as it is hard to bare-root when there is a lot of peat.
I am considering developing more material for bonsai and setting up the nebari as perfect as possible in the future. But with the number of plants I have right now, having some that are in a different substrate that requires different fertilizer and watering is a bit annoying.

There's no reason to put azaleas in lava, though. Akadama or pumice should be good alternatives. If lava is no good for say pines, it must be worse for azaleas.