Baku1875
Shohin
Hello everyone,
I'm getting ready to repot some stuff, and also hunting for more nursery cans with 'malleable' pre-bonsai material. The heavy rain pattern here, and the root rot casualties over the years has me rethinking my pre-bonsai/development mix (I had been using bonsai jack universal for my 'nicer' plants, but $$$ costly for larger pots). I have a bit of conifer fever and found a local nursery that has some nice Carolina sapphire cypress, arborvitae/thuja, in big pots that could have potential.
I plan on moving away from using any organic potting soil/dirt or canadian peat/sphagnum at all, and going full inorganic. Thanks to this forum, I discovered Safe T sorb and have a 50lb bag coming, and I have also become a full time 'sifter' lol. (with n95 mask and goggles with a fan on at all times...i dont want glass lung)
I have been sifting this 'Gantessa Pumice' that I found on Amazon for a little over 20 bucks for 8 quarts, almost done working thru it, refined it down to two grades- big chunky (>3mm) and smaller pebbles that roughly match the size of the bonsai jack clay pebbles and akadama that I used to buy for my nicer plants. Now that I am a lot crazier about bonsai work, I have tons of plants in development, tons more repottings to come....and I am not interested in more root rot casualties because of poor drainage potting soil.
The pumice is kind of light, but after sifting and rinsing, it's dust free and the 8 quarts yielded plenty of usable material. I plan on using the bigger chunks for developing pre bonsai in conjunction with the coarser sift that I will get from the Safe T sorb, and the smaller more uniform particles will be reserved for stuff that goes into bonsai pots, or cuttings that are in early development.
For this heavy heavy rain environment, would a 50/50 coarse pumice and coarse safe t sorb mix do the trick? I work from home so I routinely check the moisture levels on my plants and water if needed, especially if we have scorching conditions between the rainfall. What kind of fertilizers are practical for using this kind of mix? I know the addition of something like pine bark chunks (trying to find something that comes in similar size to the pumice and safe t sorb particle size that I have) would help with CEC and fertilizer efficacy, but I'm hesitant to add organics because I am trying to avoid killing my conifers with swampy soil conditions.
I hear a lot of positive things about using 1/3 or 1/4 lava rock as part of the mix for South Florida bonsai growing, but I havent found a good 'non bonsai' source that has good yield for the $$. Any input is greatly appreciated!
I'm getting ready to repot some stuff, and also hunting for more nursery cans with 'malleable' pre-bonsai material. The heavy rain pattern here, and the root rot casualties over the years has me rethinking my pre-bonsai/development mix (I had been using bonsai jack universal for my 'nicer' plants, but $$$ costly for larger pots). I have a bit of conifer fever and found a local nursery that has some nice Carolina sapphire cypress, arborvitae/thuja, in big pots that could have potential.
I plan on moving away from using any organic potting soil/dirt or canadian peat/sphagnum at all, and going full inorganic. Thanks to this forum, I discovered Safe T sorb and have a 50lb bag coming, and I have also become a full time 'sifter' lol. (with n95 mask and goggles with a fan on at all times...i dont want glass lung)
I have been sifting this 'Gantessa Pumice' that I found on Amazon for a little over 20 bucks for 8 quarts, almost done working thru it, refined it down to two grades- big chunky (>3mm) and smaller pebbles that roughly match the size of the bonsai jack clay pebbles and akadama that I used to buy for my nicer plants. Now that I am a lot crazier about bonsai work, I have tons of plants in development, tons more repottings to come....and I am not interested in more root rot casualties because of poor drainage potting soil.
The pumice is kind of light, but after sifting and rinsing, it's dust free and the 8 quarts yielded plenty of usable material. I plan on using the bigger chunks for developing pre bonsai in conjunction with the coarser sift that I will get from the Safe T sorb, and the smaller more uniform particles will be reserved for stuff that goes into bonsai pots, or cuttings that are in early development.
For this heavy heavy rain environment, would a 50/50 coarse pumice and coarse safe t sorb mix do the trick? I work from home so I routinely check the moisture levels on my plants and water if needed, especially if we have scorching conditions between the rainfall. What kind of fertilizers are practical for using this kind of mix? I know the addition of something like pine bark chunks (trying to find something that comes in similar size to the pumice and safe t sorb particle size that I have) would help with CEC and fertilizer efficacy, but I'm hesitant to add organics because I am trying to avoid killing my conifers with swampy soil conditions.
I hear a lot of positive things about using 1/3 or 1/4 lava rock as part of the mix for South Florida bonsai growing, but I havent found a good 'non bonsai' source that has good yield for the $$. Any input is greatly appreciated!
