Coral and bonsai?

Wattlebird

Hey everyone, I'm new here

I've been wanting to try out some rock planting for a while, and, being a bit of a scavenger whenever it comes to bonsai material, I went sifting through dad's rock collection in the garage (he used to go on business trips to mines around the world, and I guess the rocks were a lot more interesting than the staff meetings). That's when I stumbled upon a medium sized (about 5-6 inches long) chunk of coral. Bone-white, and riddled with holes like some mutant cross between pumice and swiss cheese.

Yes, yes, I know you're not allowed to take coral from coral reefs anymore, but hush, it was collected years ago I've been soaking it in water for some months to get rid of any salt, but I guess since I'm planning on planting some collected saltbushes on it it shouldn't matter too much.

What I'd like to know is whether there would be any problems with using coral.
Would the calcium and whatnot in the coral leach into the soil? Could roots "eat" the coral?

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sweety

Sorry I can't really give you any advice as i'm new to the hobby, but I also keep Tropical fish & Koi. With fish keeping you have to be carefully of the PH & water hardness for your fish among other things & crushed coral is often used to increase the waters PH & hardness. I would think the calcium in the coral would leak out into the soil & increase the soils ph up to about 8 & poss increase the hardness of the water in the soil. I would think if the tree you were thinking of planting liked acid or neutral conditions then it would slowly die due to the conditions the coral would poss cause.

I'm sure someone will be able to give you a much better answer than I have

PatArizona

G'day Wattle...

I've never tried coral, however, I agree with Swetty...probably not a good idea.

But...it all comes down to you...whatever floats your boat.

Pat

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Sors

I'm not completely sure about coral. BUT, I do have a friend who's growing a shrub out of a long horn skull. Since both bone and coral are mainly made up out of calcium, I'm thinking the calcium probably stays in and doesn't leech out. She'd been fairly successful with it as well, I'm thinking this is the second year she'd had it.

Either way you should give it a shot and report back eventually.

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