Bonsai Tonight post on akadama and soil mixtures

[Trenthany]

"Good fresh soil" is subjective. What is good? The point of the discussion is this very question.

Particularly with a conifer, complete bare rooting is risky. Taking all the soil out of the root ball in one go is stressful to the tree. The impacted soil deep in the root ball limits new root growth in that area. 1-2 years after the second repotting, the whole root ball will have new healthy roots. Sorce, we do know what the second half will look like when in good soil. Yet, if done in a single go, tree may not make it. This is just one way to improve overall root health, that has worked well on thousands of trees.

Do the experiment in two stages. Measure roots at first repotting. Measure after. Switch soils on other half repeating measurements. Keep watering and climate and styling consistent as possible(yes these variables are sometimes uncontrollable), and see if there’s a difference. Or do it with a young tree, or a tree that can handle bare rooting. I’m tempted to try it this spring with some cypress seedlings. I’ve got three that will get first repots this spring maybe I’ll do some APL on one side and my Wigart’s clone on the other. With three trees all from same source all grown next to each other I should get a fairly honest response. I’m willing to spend a little money to learn something new that will help me grow better trees. I’m expecting the organics to help that side perform better though. I’ll have to reverse it the next year to even it out if they do have a difference one way or the other.

 

[Trenthany]

The problem with the religion analogy is that soil is not so subjective. It's something that can be much more easily proven with experimentation. I suppose the topic could become complicated if it turned out that many of the popular soil components perform similarly enough to not really matter.

I read an article that stated that it's not the individual components themselves that make a mix special but what properties they offer. Drainage, aeration, ability to hold water and nutrients within. You can achieve those properties with numerous different components, it's all about finding which ones work best together I would assume.

This is logical! If multiple materials offer similar properties then they can be interchanged. Maybe not in exact ratios but they can be interchanged. If you take pure bark and compare it to pure Akadama there is no comparison. But if you compare grades of Akadama of similar sizes to say a similar grade of DE would you get similar results? Has anyone done something like this? Make two parallel but differing mixes aiming for as many similarities as possible and at first potting perhaps tried both?

 

[Trenthany]

I haven't finished reading this post, but I've seen too many of your posts lately that incite a response in others only for you to say that you were misunderstood. At some point, you need to spend some time figuring out how to express yourself in a way that's meaningful to other people so you can get your point across. Use ALL of your words. Complete sentences. Full quotes. Comments mid-thread pertinent to the current discussion ...or a relevant (full-context) quote to lead the discussion down the path you're trying to take it.

You've got a lot to say, but a lot of us apparently don't know what that is.

I mention this in another post but I haven’t quite figured out how to quote cross thread. I think he studied gnomic philosophy. Every time he posts I ponder Where he’s trying to lead me almost as if I’m pondering where I want to take a tree. Usually once I figure out what @sorce is saying he’s right or it makes sense. He definitely spreads his knowledge in a difficult way to interpret quickly. Requires thought and patience to understand his posts. If you don’t like doing that scroll past him. We don’t all have to agree, or like each other, Or communicate well with each other. One thing I’ve noticed is that everyone takes what they want To learn mainly and hopefully what they need to learn from any particular thread.

a thought just sprang from this line of thought is that if someone else is succeeding in a different way figure out why and see if it applies to any of your trees. If it doesn’t then ignore it but consider why things are instead of just accepting that they are. The wisdom of a bonsai master from 500 years ago might suggest planting directly in i dried and pelleted Akadama. He may have straight red clay with some gravel from where he collected the tree. Doesn’t mean his tree was unhealthy or unattractive. Just means that he grew it in that soil. Maybe it works maybe there’s better materials now. That’s a hypothetical by the way, not a literal example but it may well be accurate. I’m just a newb that reads A LOT lol.

real point is if you can’t make sense of what he’s saying ask him to clarify. He always has when I’ve asked. Although I actually think I learn more about what he’s trying to share when I figure it out on my own and I’m getting good at it amusingly enough.

 

[Bonsai Noodles]

Substrates: Good substrate material must: be of equal particle size, have the ability to absorb water and release it back, have no fine particle organic material, must not decompose easily, be as lightweight as possible when dry, preferably inexpensive and should have an aesthetically pleasing appearance. This would then be: lava, pumice, baked loam, Turface, zeolite, Chabasai (a type of zeolite), coconut pieces, bark pieces, Styrofoam pieces (no joke) and a few more which you can find yourself if you have understood the principles. Please note: Some of these materials may not be available in your area.

Hate to bother such a legend like yourself, but I think your quote here makes me curious.

I recently started a thread trying to address this question: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/d...soil-component-sizes.45760/page-3#post-783803

Would you care to elaborate on why particles need to be of equal size? Thank you!