Mixing a soil

elmbonsai

Wow Will, your good, I tip my hat off to you,
I was blowing off steam, you I am sure know how that goes.

I am afraid my initial intention has been mistaken. That intention was supposed to convey that just accepting what someone else says without your own experimentation is inviting trouble. I however didn't mean to get invited to a bashing contest.

When I speak of dribble, I speak of knowledge that cannot be backed up, I in no way inferred that the experienced were in this category, but when someone says to use something and gives you an answer full of ahh's and uhh's, then this usually means they should have paid more attention to why the stuff works and not just what it was.

I ask a lot of questions, I get a lot of ahh's and uhh's.

When I say the tone of this web board is lazy I don't mean that every single person is lazy or I would have said that every single person is lazy.
What I do mean is, When I say that I like to use organic components in my soil and I get responses like "but you'll have to re-pot every year" upsets me. So what if I have to re-pot every year!
I'll just choose organics that don't break so easily.

If the tree is healthy then that's all that counts.

As far as my soil mixes go, I am constantly looking into new ways to make my soil better for my area, by posting pictures of my soil it won't help you all that much.

I have to be completely honest and say that I don't currently have any specimen trees.
Let me explain why, between six and ten years ago, I forgot, (I am on seizure medication, which I have been on for ten years, this plus the occasional seizure do wonders for the memory) we had a terrible summer here in California. I had about fifty actual bonzai trees and countless ponten-zai at the time, anyway, the summer came and my trees expired, I don't remember what I did or didn't do right, but I was left with the skeletons of what had once been.
Needless to say my interest in bonzai was low at this time.
I began to become re-interested in bonzai about one and a half years ago, so most of my stock is small.
I did however have one Japanese black pine and a blue spruce that grew through their pots and into the soil beneath.
I have recently started the black pine back on the bonzai trail.
Ok, enough with the feel sorry for me stuff.

Let's talk about soil.

What kind of mix do you use Will?
Being in Michigan what is it like seeing your trees get their true fall colors? I bet it is nice. In California the leaves are green then some turn yellow and then they all fall off, and then a weather change and a month later and their back, not good for the trees cycling.

Thanks for the thoughts Will.

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elmbonsai

Hey everyone,
I just checked my reputation, and thank you all for the inspiration!
Everyone who visits this post give me a negative.
I want to see if I can get into negative reputation territory.

You've already kicked me when I was down, thanks Carl, so why not just kick a little harder and lets shoot for something.

I'll make sure to whine whether you give me negatives or not, deal!

Will_Heath

I am currently using a soil mix consisting of lava rock, turface, and bark. I use a base mix of 1/3 lava rock 1/3 turface 1/3 uncomposted fir bark. For my figs I use 50% uncomposted fir bark and 50% lava rock. I adjust the ratios depending on if the plant is dry or wet loving. I also use aged pine bark for some instead of the fir.

I do sift according to particle size and have recently begun to layer my soil according to size also. Not as most would think, to increase drainage, but instead to take advantage of the perched water table layering creates and keep the water where it is needed the most.

Will

steez

Will,
Thats interesting. My recipe exactly. I switched from Pine bark to
Hardwood bark this year believing the source of a particular smell
coming from my soil would disappear.

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Steve

Elm237

Reputations are just opinions not all opinions are the same! Who cares, why are you getting so frusterated, you are going to make people want to give you a negitive reputation. With all due respect to every one in this forum- this is driving me nuts! I joined the forum to learn not to become part of a drama.I made a huge mistake before when I rejected peoples advice,even though I asked for it,now I have apologized and thats it !

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Elm237

brunch

Well, it took me a while to read through all of your posts, and there where a lot of great idea's, tips etc.
What I want to know: Do u use diferent soil mixes for training pots, and diferent for your's, how should I say this, final pots?
And if anyone repoted a serissa, what kind of mix should be apropriate?
Sorry if my grammar is not too good.

Elm237

I went to a local growers place and his tree's that were in training were in a mix of potting soil,top soil, and some fired clay. His finished trees were in regular bonsai soil. I think that this is because it helps the tree devolop faster.

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Elm237