Good top dressing on pots.

[MichaelS]

For trees we are growing and not exhibiting, which is most of them most of the time, I believe I have found the best way to top dress the soil mix with a long lasting and root promoting material.
Put equal parts of dry sphagnum moss and coconut fibre ( the stringy fibre used to line hanging baskets) in water and soak for 30 mins or so. Remove and squeeze excess water.
Use a hatchet with a straight blade edge and a chopping block, and chop and mix the ingredients until reasonably fine but not too fine. You want the coconut fibre to be around 1/4 to 1/2 inch long.
Place about 1cm or a bit less thick on the soil surface of your newly transplanted tree and firm down with fingers or a small block of wood. You can also use the flat end of your tweezers to cleanly press it in and down around the edge of the pot and nebari for a real neat finish.
The coco fibres form an interlocking network through the moss which keeps the surface roots cool and withstands heavy watering and even rainstorms!

 

[Guy Vitale]

I just shredded up som sphagnum moss in a blender (dry) yesterday, somewhat fine and sprinkled it on top of the trees that tend to either dry out more quickly or prefer soil a bit more moist. Let's see how it goes.

 

[MichaelS]

I just shredded up som sphagnum moss in a blender (dry) yesterday, somewhat fine and sprinkled it on top of the trees that tend to either dry out more quickly or prefer soil a bit more moist. Let's see how it goes.

I find straight sphag either cakes or washes away to easily.

 

[Guy Vitale]

I find straight sphag either cakes or washes away to easily.

I'll have to keep an eye on it, I put it on thin to start and go from there, never done it in my 15 years of Bonsai, but have been switching to a more modern substrate with less organic matter.

 

[fredman]

Yeah I like that, but I have to pack a layer of pebbles on top as the damn black birds digs it all out. Stupid birds thinks there's worms in pumice and lava rock

 

[CWTurner]

just shredded up som sphagnum moss in a blender (dry) yesterday

Dry (dusty) sphagnum causes me concern. I too use it in a blender, but with a lot of water. Grind it up fine, then pour it over the soil and the slurry settles itself. Sometimes its too thick in one area and needs "raking" though.
CW

 

[Guy Vitale]

Dry (dusty) sphagnum causes me concern. I too use it in a blender, but with a lot of water. Grind it up fine, then pour it over the soil and the slurry settles itself. Sometimes its too thick in one area and needs "raking" though.
CW

I'm not looking for a thick layer to penetrate the substrait, just something to keep the surface from drying out too fast. Again, not something I've done before, not sure I needed to, but want to see what benefits come from it.

 

[MichaelS]

We have a bad blackbird problem and they haven't touched this.

 

[Anthony]

Michael.

The Rodale book on Composting lists Natural Glues as part of the ingredients in the compost.

So when the inorganic part of our soil starts to move with the watering, it is time to add a few spoonfuls of compost as
a top dressing. This locks everything back in.

However as the wet season sets in, moss grows rampantly and freely, so we end up with lawns. Even if you
don't want them.
Of course the Khah Khah's [ Antshrieks ] also start to pay more attention.
One day you will find moss everywhere.
But then that's nature, you just put the moss back.

Good Day
Anthony

 

[fredman]

We have a bad blackbird problem and they haven't touched this.

Oh man they are all over my pots. Even goes into the cold frame and scratches in those...

 

[Paradox]

Yeah I like that, but I have to pack a layer of pebbles on top as the damn black birds digs it all out. Stupid birds thinks there's worms in pumice and lava rock

I had the same problem. I put wire mesh over the moss to stop the digging

 

[DougB]

I had the same problem. I put wire mesh over the moss to stop the digging

Some folks also use this for squirrels and other critters.

 

[Milly]

I'm not looking for a thick layer to penetrate the substrait, just something to keep the surface from drying out too fast. Again, not something I've done before, not sure I needed to, but want to see what benefits come from it.

He's referring to inhaling the dry dust\spores

 

[Guy Vitale]

He's referring to inhaling the dry dust\spores

Ah, didn't think about that, good call.

 

[fredman]

I put wire mesh over the moss to stop the digging

Yeah its irritating. I had mesh on but its a slog cutting and fitting it. I now found these fancy round landscaping pebbles works better. Easier to put on and off.
The bigger the pot the bigger the pebbles...

 

[Paradox]

Yeah its irritating. I had mesh on but its a slog cutting and fitting it. I now found these fancy round landscaping pebbles works better. Easier to put on and off.
The bigger the pot the bigger the pebbles...
View attachment 112642 View attachment 112643

Yeah I bought 3 bags of stones like the larger ones too, just never got around to cutting off the wire and applying the stones

 

[fredman]

Doesn't look particularly good... better than a cage I suppose...

 

[Tentakelaertje]

a cage

That's exactly what I'm gonna build if the sedum experiment fails.
If those damn blackbirds would eat the fucking slugs instead of my moss we'd be bff's!

 

[fredman]

LoL....reminds me of my ex mother in law.....


Them slucking fugs

 

[SU2]

(for future reference, would this have been better as a new thread, or is resurrecting this better?)

I'm in a situation where I've got need for a top-dressing like described above, my only problem being I cannot find coconut fibres...I like CWTurner's idea of having the sphagnum slurry wet and 'pour-into-shape' so it settles better but, w/o coconut fibres, I'm thinking I'll be stuck with fredman's solution of just using a rock-mulch to pin-down the sphagnum...Two questions though: First, if I were to do that, should I refrain from dicing-up all of the sphagnum? If I'm worried about it being pinned-down, I guess I'm thinking maybe it'd be better to dice-up half of the sphagnum to put down first and then put down a layer of un-diced / long-strand on top of it to further secure it! Secondly, could I just use 'spanish moss' in-place-of coconut fibres? I can access that but have been to two places today looking for coconut fibres and failed!

Was almost thinking to just use wire-mesh over it but jesus that would be ugly! At least if I top-dress with rocks I can use these really beautiful (granite?) chunks I have, wouldn't look that bad (though wouldn't look 'bonsai' much either, which'd be a shame as this concerns a new box I just built that's by-far my shortest:widest box, the most 'bonsai' container I own