My soil washes away and leaves behind the grit

scrubpine

ok so I mixed up a batch of soil part peat and part grit. now 2 days later a go to water my trees and all the soil floats away and leaves me a pot of grit. Im ready to plant my trees in the yard and convert my pots to houseplants. You cant use normal potting soil because it doesnt drain well enough but all peat moss and grit does is float away and dries up in a day. Got any suggestions on how to keep my soil in the pot? And if you reply is akadama than dont bother replying, I'm just an exterminator not a doctor.

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jjeter

Peat is hard to use as a bonsai soil ammendment. When it gets dry, it is very light and floats away, so you have to keep it moist, which is hard to do without overwatering. Once it gets dry, it is hard to wet or absorb water.

Akadama is great if you can afford it, which many can't. Similar items include Turface, Baseball field soil conditioner, unscented kitty litter, Oil-dry, etc. Basically any fired clay product. I get the soil conditioner from a local landscape supply center for about $8 a 40lb bag and the size it perfect for my soil mix. Beats Akadama at $30+ for a 10lb bag.

You can also use fir bark, which many use to hold additional water to their mix.
Hope this helps.

scrubpine

thanks

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Fred-4-U

What is what you use; Peat or peat moss ?

scrubpine

canadian spahgnum peat

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midwestbonsai

This is why I do not use Peat in any form with my soil mix.
1 part Turface
1 part chicken grit
1 part Father Dom's Duck Doo

-Paul

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rockm

Peat is an iffy soil ingredient and has been dropped by most folks that make alot of their own soil. It is very difficult to wet--as you have noticed as it floats aways. It stays too wet when you get that chore done. It is also extremely difficult to re-wet if it dries out, which can lead to some very bad problems--the top layer of a peat based soil can actually become an solid umbrella that sheds water in the summer when the sun cooks it.

Do not substitute turface or other fired clay particles for peat. You should already have those in the mix. Substitute another organic ingredient for the peat.. Composted pine bark mulch is more porous, less likely to become a solid mass and is less expensive. It's sold in bulk as "clay buster" or clay soil amendment at stores like Home Depot. Check the ingredients on the bag...

scrubpine

Ok, so these are things that I have found at local stores. Would some mix of this be good?

fir bark(reptile bedding 100% ) chicken grit, perlite

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scrubpine

nevermind found a post on perlite seems the grit and perlite do same thing and perlite sucks lol

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