while you are not making any friends fast... what people have been trying to explain to you is that bonsai soil for the most part looks more like this:
than what you have planted these in ... now I am not telling you to use what I use.... use whatever makes you happy... what I am suggesting here .... is that WE (my wife Vic and I) have had GREAT SUCCESS using a soil mix such as this (we amend with a few other aggregates like pumice and kanuma as needed) .... many other individuals have also had great success with a soil mix such as this ... including but not limited to.... almost all of the professional bonsai artists in America today (well maybe the world) .... don't take our word for it ...
hope that is helpful to you .... next time you repot you might want to consider it.... that is if you think it might be helpful to your trees to have strong healthy vibrant root systems....
OK, perhaps I can use this response in particular to highlight, once again, what's so frustrating about coming here. Because I know you're genuinely trying to be helpful, and I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to write to me and explain the soil.
Here's the thing: I know of this soil. I am aware that many, many, many bonsai enthusiasts - masters and novices alike - use it and love it. In fact, this very type of soil is available at the nursery I frequent. I just don't use it. I'm not against anyone using it. I just don't because I've had success so far with something else and I see no reason to fix what isn't broke. That's it.
What I bristle at is someone looking at a picture and saying first, "It looks like you used potting soil," me refuting that because it's, you know, completely incorrect, and then telling me that my plants are in trouble because my soil is too organic anyway. And then telling me that if I'm not using some other kind of soil, I'm making some huge mistake. It's annoying, it's grating, and based on the results I've had over the last year and the training I've been given, it's plainly incorrect.
There are eight - EIGHT - different kinds of bonsai potting soil at the nursery where I shop. I'm sure there are dozens more in existence. The guy who's been helping me - who, again, has been doing this for thirty years - mixed my current soil for me this morning and sold it to me for $8. It was suggested that he was merely trying to bilk me out of my money. If that were the case, why all the time and effort for what was one of the lower-priced mixes? Could it be because I currently have the same kind of junipers on my porch in the same kind of soil and they're thriving? Could it be because this cultivator has experience with these types of plants in this type of environment and he's comfortable making the recommendation? I'm not being flippant. These are the question I asked when all anyone could focus on was the soil, and some were so miffed that I would DARE question a stranger on the Internet based on the advice of a professional I've been working with for quite some time. It didn't matter what I said at that point - everything I did was wrong, every material I used or technique I attempted was incorrect.
Here's why I use the soil I use: obviously, the climate in Southern California is different than it is in Washington or Virginia. While you have seasons and humidity, we (for the most part) lack seasons and humidity. We get, on average, 315 days of sun per year in an arid climate. Thus, my junipers require a soil that holds a bit more moisture than normal so that I'm not constantly watering and eventually OVERWATERING them. This soil is simply an easy solution. I water regularly, I mist when I need to, and so far the larger trees I own have been coming along very, very well. If they weren't, I'd certainly be more amenable to switching up my product. But they are. And I don't feel like I should have to explain the intricacies of that to someone who comes in, asking few if any questions, and decides from a couple pictures that I'm doing it wrong.
Perhaps one day I'll try the mix you're talking about, and perhaps it will produce as good or even better results. That would be fantastic. But right now, I like the soil I'm using. I like the way it looks, I like the way it keeps the trees. As long as they keep thriving, how is what I'm doing wrong?
What I was hoping for today was some constructive criticism on the way I took stock plants and repotted and pruned them. I still have no idea if I did a good job or if I totally screwed it all up, because all anyone wanted to talk about was the non-issue of the soil and then gloat about their Big Boy Pants. If I HAD used the "wrong" soil, I'd very much wanted to have known that. But I didn't, and because I'm new at this, people have now confused my pushing back as "not wanting to learn" or being a "loose cannon". The fact of the matter is that there are people in here like you, Ang3lfir3, who are actually interested in teaching those of us who have much to learn, and then there are windbags who just want to prattle on and call themselves King For a Day. And unfortunately, my experience has been that the latter far outnumber the former.
