Soil and repotting frustrations

Joanie

John, I'm sorry if I sounded short, but perhaps yesterday my communication skills weren't up to par. The problem that I had with the mixes that these trees were in, was that the roots were in bad shape and it was almost impossible to get them trimmed, get the rocks out, and repot the trees. Yes, it's possible that the organic component had washed out of the soil, over several years, leaving only rocks. But trying to power wash the rocks out and trim, bit by bit, took forever. I've repotted trees in a lighter mix (more perlite and pumice, rather than these round and non-porous river pebbles) and you can almost shake the soil out from between the roots. In that sort of mix, the roots are soft, plentiful, and well branched. These roots are hard, woody, stringy, and lacking almost any fine root structure. I feel that the roots struggled to push through this mix of heavy rocks, and it slowed down growth of the tree. These don't look like typical maple roots.

I've repotted trees that were in akadama, and that mix falls away from the roots as well. Akadama is light in comparison to the river pebbles, and holds both moisture and nutrition. Same with pumice, or lava.

As was mentioned above, by mgodbee, climate has a whole lot to do with it, and I am struggling to keep my low-organic tree mixes damp. Some of my trees need to be watered twice a day now, and it isn't even summer yet. They are in a more typical pumice/lava/orchid bark mix, low on organics. Yes, they drain well..... but this summer they are going to give me fits. The last soil discussion we had at the club gave higher ratios of organics than are usually suggested on this forum.

Joanie

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wabashene

Joanie,

Were the trees imported perchance?

Much of the Korean stuff we see in the UK comes in clay balls or gravel. It can be sterilised easily and comes out of quarantine quicker I believe.

I had great fun untangling a squinzillion little clay balls froma Deshojo then it up and dies on me.:-(

TimR

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Joanie

No, Tim, they were from a fellow bonsaiist.

A squinzillion? Wow! Do you know why the maple died?

Joanie

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sauce

Hi Joanie, is this a mix that is available in garden centers? If so what is the brand name and manufacturer? I currently use pine bark, about 30% of my soil mix and for the same reason water retention. I would prefer fir bark and the addition of bat guano sounds like a plus. Even with the organics I need to water twice a day usually beginning around May or June and lasting until Oct. or Nov. I might consider upping the organic mix to 50% as an experiment. All of my trees are young and will be re-potted every one to two years so I don't worry about any break down of the composition. The other parts of my mix are Akadama, Turface, lava rock and Kanuma depending on the tree and my mood. I cannot bring myself to try a 100% inorganic mix, even though I have thought about it the soil would probably be bone dry by noon.

wabashene

Sorry for not answering sooner but am having trouble replying on my home PC.

To answer, yes I do and see the commentary on the pic. The soil was poor quality as well and I didn't re-pot when I should have.

In addition I had a "down" on the tree and I'm sure it knew that.


TimR

(edited : spelling)

Attached Images

deshojo.jpg (57.6 KB, 39 views)

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mudmantoo

I agree that soil composition has a lot to do with the location the plants are growing in, a major comcern is moisture retention and good drainage....living in humid South Florida my personal preference to achieve this is to use turface mixed with a well sifted compost , I really like a commercial potting component called "jungle growth", it is a mixture of pine bark, peat moss and perlite....the key to using this product is of course to "sift" it well to remove the fines....for junipers I use it in a 70/30 ratio , and with ficus and other tropicals about 50/50....these formulas give my trees a good mass of fine roots, good drainage and moisture retention, adding some coarse sand will help retain a little more moisture for the trees that need it.

World class bonsai master Jim Smith, one of the founders of our local bonsai club, grows his mature trees in 100% turface, of course he has a drip system to water them regularly, otherwise the soil would lose moisture rapidly on windy summer days.

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http://www.artofbonsai.org/feature_articles/mudman.php

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ozzerbon

Soil AGAIN, in my humble opinion [just kidd'n], there are only TWO soils for bonsai.

#1. Akadama.
#2. Kanuma.

Anyhting else is a waste of time [well at least mine].

All of my trees are growing [very healthily] in these two soils, and I would never use anything else, at the outset it may appear to be a costly business, but not when the health of one's trees is at stake.

Simplify, go look up these two soils in Google, when ya've got the time, ya'll be surprised.

Regards,
Nigel

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HB Smith

Nigel,

Do you use straight akadama and kanuma or do you use them in a mix?

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Sincerely,
Howard

www.BonsaiSmiths.net

Joanie

He uses them straight.

Joanie

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