Brother Bill's Bonsai Confessional: Confess your bonsai sins and be forgiven

My routine sin is being lazy and lackadaisical about my fertilizer schedule. I only really double down when I see chlorosis on my trees. I have a dosatron to set up this winter to hopefully put it in autopilot and make it harder to forget

My bigger sin is shuffling trees through my collection faster than I really improve them. I go to a show, get excited about trees I see there, buy them, run out of space, then shuffle some of my older trees out of the garden. I barely have any trees that I've kept through a whole repotting cycle
 
More heresy! My basic soil mix is expanded shale (haydite), pine bark, and a little biochar. Percentages vary with species. No akadama. No pumice. No lava.
No priest can absolve you of that transgression.
Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to Bonsai Jail.
I’ll see you there. We can share bark mix recipes.
 
No priest can absolve you of that transgression.
Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to Bonsai Jail.
I’ll see you there. We can share bark mix recipes.
No fair, you come from the Land of the Good Bark. I am in Texas. To get decent bark I must import it from hundreds of miles away.
 
No fair, you come from the Land of the Good Bark. I am in Texas. To get decent bark I must import it from hundreds of miles away.
This is true. We have the best bark in all the land and a fairly stacked bonsai scene.
But your food is so much better down there! And sun is nice in winter months..

Do you know what species of pine produces the bark you use? Is it loblolly or slash pine by-product from the mills?
 
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