What do you use for kusamono soil?

[Bonsai_Bentley]

I did a search for this on the googs, but didn't really find an answer. I bought a little kusamono from an old school bonsai shop that used sand and bark for basically everything. I was considering repotting it in 2 akadama:1 pumice mix, but then I figured that I might have to use top dressing. Just curious as to what others do with their kusamono.

 

[TomB]

Pumice grains are too big, straight akadama is fine. But you can use most things, even regular potting compost - it’s not as important as for bonsai.

 

[Mayank]

I've just used potting soil for mine. Since they're small the potting soil doesn't dry as quickly as my standard mostly inorganic bonsai soil.

 

[Schmikah]

I did a search for this on the googs, but didn't really find an answer. I bought a little kusamono from an old school bonsai shop that used sand and bark for basically everything. I was considering repotting it in 2 akadama:1 pumice mix, but then I figured that I might have to use top dressing. Just curious as to what others do with their kusamono.

I've just started messing around with kusamono so prepare your grains of salt. I'm using potting soil and pre-bonsai mix (pine bark, perlite, peat) and it seems to be doing just fine. Since most of the plants can grow just fine as normal potted plants, I don't see any reason that using normal potting soil mixes would be an issue, and for that same reason (if you really feel the need) bonsai soil mixes should work just fine too.

 

[sorce]

Depends on the plant.

Kusamono by definition can be a cactus, a carnivorous plant, it can be stretched to include mushrooms even.

That said...

I've never done anything more than shtick what was dug in a pot.

Moss on top is more important than soil on the bottom!

Sorce

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

what you use is relative to pot size. For small, less than 2 inches (less than 5 cm) diameter pots, I sometimes will use nothing but long fiber sphagnum moss. Or you can use fines discarded from sifting media for larger pots. It depends on how sensitive your kusamono is to drying out. I find long fiber sphagnum gives me some margin of error for high water demand kusamono.

 

[Bonsai_Bentley]

This is it. I forget the name of it, but it's akin to a succulent. It can stand to be dry which is why I was going to use some pumice. Maybe I can just use succulent soil. Percolation is a bit poor which is why I was even considering repotting it. Little bits of moss are growing on top though.