Soil from yesteryears

[Cajunrider]

Half a century ago in my neighborhood there was an old penjing master. I used to do odd jobs for him for spending money. One of the job was to crush used brick for him. He instructed me to use a dropper and put a few drop of water on the used bricks. If the water just ran off, the brick has turned into ceramic and we didn't use it. If the water soaked in quickly and the brick was crumbly, we didn't use it either. If the water soaked in slowly, I crushed it and screen it to 3 different sizes to be used for small, medium, and large rooted trees. He told me he would rather used lava and pumice but had to use what was available to him.

Here's another fun thing. When he repotted a tree, he had me take the old soil in a bamboo basket to the spring and washed all the roots and organic fertilizer and matter completely off by fluffing them up under flowing water. The organic material floated away and the crushed brick dropped back down to the basket. Then I had to dry it and screened it back to the appropriate size.

He offered to teach me. Like a foolish child, I refused. I regretted that. He had some fantastic trees and my dad told me he was famous. I saw him doing air layers and grafting of all kind of trees and plants but I was interested in other things at the time. Thinking back I think I saw a lot of techniques that I would love to know how to do even now.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

So unknowingly, by putting my old soil in mesh bags and letting the rain wash out all the organics, I was copying an old master?
Sweet!
I never used bricks though.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Crushed brick - the precursor to Turface

Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda, oh well, even the vague recollections are probably helping you tackle learning these techniques.

Yes, if I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, I would do many things differently.
However, there are a few mistakes I would make a whole lot sooner and a lot more often.

 

[Anthony]

Brick factories down here crush the damaged brick to get powder
to help the raw formed clay dry.
There is very large shed you can go into and sift out what you
want. Takes about an hour for x years of supply.

Have a barrel full of 5 mm and a smaller barrel of 3 mm with
another small barrel of grog size for adding to clay, when making
bonsai pots or vases etc,

The stuff is invulnerable to roots and we recycle.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Clicio]

One of the job was to crush used brick for him. He instructed me to use a dropper...

We use crushed bricks for bonsai all the time here in Brazil.
Sifted, mixed with pine bark and charcoal, with perlite, it depends on the species.
It works very well.

 

[Adair M]

If you don’t have access to lava (scoria) and pumice, I suppose crushed brick would work. But, if you do have lava and pumice, they’re better.

 

[GGB]

That would've been a pretty cool intro to the hobby. If he used crushed brick with success (he did) then you know it's good to go. Fortunately I only have a handful of trees so I just get the flashy stuff.

 

[rockm]

I've used crushed brick in soil mixes, along with crushed granite and pool filter sand back in the day... It is HEAVY in a pot...

 

[Clicio]

I've used crushed brick in soil mixes, along with crushed granite and pool filter sand back in the day... It is HEAVY in a pot...

Yes, that's right. It's a pity we don't have any pumice around here.

 

[Anthony]

@Clicio ,

as your trees age, you can go to 3 mm particles and 2.5 cm deep pots.
Lightens the load.

This Tamarind is a very thirsty plant. In 3 mm soil.
Testing.
It is a way of showing off your trunk
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Wilson]

Great story! I still use crushed brick in my trees, all in development stages.

 

[MrWunderful]

I always though re-using soil was bad. I use lava, pumice, akadama with a little bit of pine bark. Maybe I will start washing it and use it for my portulacaria (I feel like they can grow in anything)

 

[Shibui]

Reusing potting mix components can turn out to be false economy. It only takes one infected pot and you'll spread the problem to many others. I think sanitising any reused materials makes a lot of sense - heat to above 160F to kill off any pathogens before exposing other trees to possible infection.

 

[coh]

I often reuse soil, but only for the tree it came from and only if the tree/root system seems healthy. I'll dry it in the sun while doing the rest of the repotting, then sift out the fines and remove any other crap, and mix with fresh soil. I don't do it all the time and definitely won't use on other trees. The rest goes into the growing beds.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Good to see even in childhood some knew value of pumice. Since personal interest in Bonsai goes back to 1959 Master would have been most welcome neighbor and teacher. Sorry he is gone.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Reusing potting mix components can turn out to be false economy. It only takes one infected pot and you'll spread the problem to many others. I think sanitising any reused materials makes a lot of sense - heat to above 160F to kill off any pathogens before exposing other trees to possible infection.

Not false economy. Use of suitable fungus/pest killers in mixture(IF was affected)serves same purpose. Healthy trees in first place alleviates problem. Proactiveness.

 

[Anthony]

Clicio,

is your crushed red brick - free ?
What we get is.

Also since we export hollow clay bricks, there is an international
standard for properties as in absorption of water.

The material is more or less consistent.
Firing is I believe 1060 to 1100 deg.C

No need to import here and no components, that are root degraded.
Good Day
Anthony

* actually our 5 mm gravel can allso be had for free up North Trinidad and
aged compost is free, cheapo us.
Free pots, free soil and if need be we can cast the concave and root
pruner or use the jewellery equipment to do copper mass into
wires, ditto Aluminium.

Love being self sufficient.

 

[Cajunrider]

Reusing potting mix components can turn out to be false economy. It only takes one infected pot and you'll spread the problem to many others. I think sanitising any reused materials makes a lot of sense - heat to above 160F to kill off any pathogens before exposing other trees to possible infection.

Much in the same way that we don't put infected trees into the compost pile even though the heat generated supposedly kills them all. As it was the soil I washed was spreaded out thin on the ground to be completely sun dried. Then I shoveled it and splashed it on large slanted screened frames and bagged the selected stuff.

Try this and you will see. Put old soil in a large colander and place it under water. Press down on it gently with your gloved hand and rub it in circular motion. The organic and moss etc get rubbed off by the soil rubbing against themselves and get carried away in the water, rendering the soil clean and fresh. The fines automatically drops through the screen of the collander.

Of course in today's economy where time is more precious, it is often more economical to toss the old soil into the garden bed and grab a new bag of premade soil. What I did was half a century ago and in a different place than where I am. Heck if I charge for my time with my standard rate, I can't afford me ever.

 

[Clicio]

Clicio,

is your crushed red brick - free ?

Yup, definitely it is (almost) free.
Most people crush and sift the particles themselves; but I am too old and too lazy so...
I but from those guys. It costs about U$ 2 a bag with 4 kilos.

 

[Clicio]

This Tamarind is a very thirsty plant. In 3 mm soil.

Well @Anthony , my Tamarinds are half the size of yours.
Or a third, I really don't know, but they are happy! I hope one day they will be as gorgeous as yours.
And in... 4mm crushed brick.