Hardest Akadama available (for my carnivorous plants! PICS!)

[NepenthesDaddy]

I tried my hand at Bonsai and it wasn't for me, but I love using Akadama for other plants. What's the hardest akadama brand? I know hardest isn't the best necessarily for Bonsai, however I don't want this for Bonsai and for my purposes I want the hardest possible. In the past I have used Triple Red Line (the kind with the tree on the bag) and it was hard and good quality, but I have also used some other Akadama of unknown origin and it was much, much harder. I could wash and re-use and it would barely even discolor the water when washing. It would crush when pressed between fingers wet but you had to add quite a bit of pressure. Probably came from a small amount purchased on ebay or etsy at who-knows-where.

Bonsai enthusiasts would probably say it isn't the best for tree roots since it is so hard, but hardest is what works best for these plants under my particular conditions.
It seems like getting stuff in America is difficult, and sometimes the same brand may vary in quality depending on where you buy it and when. I would love to know where I can order "the good stuff" at the moment. Price isn't an issue as I only one one bag and these are for some carnivorous plant very important to me. I heard Yaki is the hardest and fired at 1,200 celcius, but when I googled yaki akadama I couldn't determine which brands are and aren't considered yaki akadama.

what

 

[Cruiser]

Sorry, I don’t know the answer to your question. But let me just say, those are some fine looking meat plants.

 

[penumbra]

Those are the healthiest and some of the prettiest I have ever seen. I think most people would have a harder time keeping these plants looking that good, than they would keeping a bonsai that healthy.

 

[RoadManDenDron]

Again I'm sorry I can't help but what is this one?

 

[NaoTK]

I use pumice for my CPs. Very hard, high moisture holding capacity and it doesn't wash away like perlite. I have nepenthes, sarrs, and pings in 100% pumice.

1200C would melt the particle into glass.

 

[Srt8madness]

Again I'm sorry I can't help but what is this one?View attachment 527645

Don't know specifics but it's a type of pitcher plant, most likely mountainous.

 

[cbroad]

Again I'm sorry I can't help but what is this one?

Hint: it's in his name

 

[NepenthesDaddy]

Again I'm sorry I can't help but what is this one?View attachment 527645

Thanks! It's a Nepenthes villosa clone from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, I will take a better pic of this and other plants for you guys tonight haha , this one is my baby

 

[NepenthesDaddy]

I use pumice for my CPs. Very hard, high moisture holding capacity and it doesn't wash away like perlite. I have nepenthes, sarrs, and pings in 100% pumice.

1200C would melt the particle into glass.

I use pumice for my Heliamphora and Nepenthes along with other equal parts akadama and kanuma, It's just time to buy more akadama for my mix and I don't know the brand that I used in the past that you could grind underwater without it giving off dust or discoloring anything. It was much harder than the stuff I bought last time, which was this:

 

[NepenthesDaddy]

I also notice the same size bag of the same brand can cost $40 from one site and then $70 on another for some reason, should I avoid the cheaper stuff even if its the same bag?

 

[NepenthesDaddy]

I use pumice for my CPs. Very hard, high moisture holding capacity and it doesn't wash away like perlite. I have nepenthes, sarrs, and pings in 100% pumice.

1200C would melt the particle into glass.

Can I see your sarrs in pure pumcie and what size do you use?

Here is a reference to the glass akadama, I couldn't open the link at least at work for any more info.

 

[NaoTK]

Can I see your sarrs in pure pumcie and what size do you use?

Here is a reference to the glass akadama, I couldn't open the link at least at work for any more info. View attachment 527669

I use whatever local unsieved pumice we get by the truck load here in Oregon. Sarrs require little to no care. I have them along with Darlingtonia in wine barrels outside, but there's nothing to look at it now they are just stumps

I can believe 800C for akadama and maybe 1000C, but 1200C is ceramic temperatures and akadama would melt into a puddle, unless its like a flash process.

I just thought you might like hydroton. It has the texture of a fired clay

 

[Maiden69]

If you want something kinda similar to akadama but hard that won't break down take a look at Bonsai Jack Bonsai Block or Monto Clay. Monto Clay is the same as turface, but Bonsai Jack special order this with a rounder profile vs that flat plate that regular turface has.

Also, keep a look on Bonsai Tonight store, Jonas had some hard fired akadama a few months back, it is sold out at this time.

 

[Emanon]

[...] What's the hardest akadama brand? I know hardest isn't the best necessarily for Bonsai, however I don't want this for Bonsai and for my purposes I want the hardest possible.

[...] I heard Yaki is the hardest and fired at 1,200 celcius, but when I googled yaki akadama I couldn't determine which brands are and aren't considered yaki akadama.

This is what you are looking for, and I've been looking for years for a place to buy it (in America or Japan or anywhere on the World Wide Web). When I asked an AI chat bot on my computer to translate the Japanese characters into English part of its answer was: "The large characters in the center: Housen"; The text at the top: "King of Baked Akadama."

"Yaki", which you mentioned, is I think the word for "Baked" in the sentance fragment "The King of Baked Akadama." (According to the AI bot, "yaki" means "baked", not fired, in the context of pottery, but also "grilled" as in yakitori; yakisoba; teriyaki.) The rest of the label just refers to its suggested usage and the pH (which appears to be the same in Japanese as it is in English).

This akadama is fired so that the finished product is very hard to differentiate from brickbrat, or bricks that have been broken down to the size of akadama particles. I'd also compare it to a terra cotta pot that has been broken down. This product does not break down from use in a pot. (After years of use, you'd still be required to hit a particle of it with a hammer pretty hard to get it to break down.) It's hard to search for, in part, because it's so much harder than "hard akadama." Even searches for "super hard fired akadama" gives you baked akadama results.

If anyone knows where to buy this product, I'd be most grateful for the lead! I used to buy mine at House of Bonsai in Lakewood, CA but they no longer sell it, and have no plans to in the future or ever again.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Yep, I purchased the exact product from Lakewood a couple years back and could never find it either. It’s akadama, yet fired at a much higher temperature.

Speaking of which, we wash, heat, sift and refurbish components as needed to recycle our media.

Do tested heating the media various temperatures 300F 350F 400F 450F. As one could guess the akadama was harder at the higher temperatures. So nowadays I just use 450 in an oven that isn’t preheated for 90 total minutes, tossing in some new akadama. No more soft akadama…

Cheers
DSD sends