Soil mix for young trees with aspirations to be a bonsai years from now

lwagner

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I did look through previous posts, but I did not find the answer covering what I was looking for. This is being asked because I had difficulty finding certain plants except for young 1-2 year old seedlings. As I am reading more and more about pre-bonsai and bonsai soil mixes, it is aimed towards trees that have reached the maturity that the owner wants. What about soil mixes for trees that are 1-2 years old that you want to increase speed of growth and maximize growth potential? I know you still want to have good aeration and drainage, but you want more retention of water and nutrients to be absorbed correct? I also am not able to field grow as I currently live in an apartment. Thanks for the help.
 

0soyoung

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Life can be simple. Fancy mixes are not required.

I have grown almost everything in standard plastic garden nursery pots with one of two substrates.
  1. Turface MVP - inexpensive and was readily available to me locally (John Deere Garden, Ewing Irrigation)
    1. Diatomaceous Earth is an alternative, used by many BNutters, that is available at autoparts stores
      1. Oildry at NAPA
      2. Optisorb at O'Reiley
  2. Medium/small sized landscape bark with no more than an equal part potting/top soil or dirt from the field
    1. available at big box and local hardware stores
Shipping charges for this kind of stuff will at least double their cost, so it pays to buy locally.

The bark mix will not need watering as frequently as an inorganic substrate does. With either, the tree should be secured to the pot.
A dab of fertilizer from time to time is all that is necessary. I like Osmocote-Plus (just apply a quarter to one half teaspoon per pot gallon every 6 months).

EZPZ
 

lwagner

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So you are potting with DME/Turface and potting soil, or landscape bark and potting soil. Am I understanding that correctly, or do you mix all three components? Are chopping and sifting or mixing the components as is. I appreciate your input very much.
 

0soyoung

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So you are potting with DME/Turface and potting soil, or landscape bark and potting soil. Am I understanding that correctly, or do you mix all three components? Are chopping and sifting or mixing the components as is. I appreciate your input very much.


I said:
I use Turface MVP

OR

I use medium bark with a little dirt


I will now add, "right out of the bag". No chopping, no sifting.
 
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