The secret to soil revealed!

Will_Heath

The secret to soil revealed!

I fully expect to be assassinated for revealing this information, for indeed it is one on bonsai’s best-kept secrets. This knowledge has been withheld from the general public for many years and the veil of secrecy dates back to when the Chinese first introduced bonsai to Japan, when Europeans first discovered bonsai there and right up to this day when the experienced masters weave a web of mystique around soils and bonsai as I tried to point out here. However I feel it is high time that the simple truth was spoken, so here it goes….

I have spent a long time studying soil mixes and components, reading every single thing there is on soils; container gardening and the horticultural needs of bonsai and all paths lead me to the following conclusion.

Bonsai can be grown in almost anything that is not poisonous!

You could grow bonsai in glass shards, garden dirt, marbles, metal shavings, gravel, wood chips, moss, crumpled up newspapers, crushed concrete, discarded keys, chopped up automobile tires, yes anything! Chipped plastic, cut up milk cartons, broken beer bottles, crushed tiles, thumbtacks, pocket change, gold bits, old teeth, deer antlers, discarded electronic components, yard waste, small children toys, anything!

The secret is not in the components that make up a soil mix. The only thing you need is something that will retain a little water and also allow drainage. The secret is solely in the attention you give the bonsai in your choice of soil mix.

You could fill a bowl with marbles and successfully grow a bonsai in it if you are able to perform the near constant watering and feeding that such a mix would require. Go to your local dentist and take home all the discarded teeth, add some water retentive material like bits of cut up sponge to the mix and you could grow a bonsai in it. Garden dirt, potting soil, blasphemy you say? Not quite, as long as you closely monitor your watering and are prepared to repot often it can be and is done.

So why does everyone swear by their own mix? Simply because the mix they use conforms to their personal schedule of care, nothing more, nothing less. Change the annual rainfall amount; the temperature, the watering or feeding schedule of the individual and the mix will fail for them.

We mix soil to conform to our personal climate conditions as well as our personal care schedule and we tend to use readily available materials that have been proven to work in a wide variety of climates by simply adding a little more of one and less of another.

The actual ingredients are not important as long as they perform the required functions, which is why even in the same one square mile area, bonsaists will have different soil mixes. This is also why so many debates center around the best ingredients, we fail to realize the simply truth that it’s not the ingredient that matters, it’s the function.

And what is the function of soil components? Retaining water, air and nutrients while anchoring the tree would be the common answer which any materials that are non poisonous could provide. Bonsai also require the formation of fine feeder roots to assure optimal conditions in the confines of a pot and to create good nebari. If the saying that the top mirrors the bottom is true in bonsai, the fine roots are indispensable for aesthetic reasons as well. For this reason one may choose the glass shards over the round smooth marbles or the teeth over the rounded gravel, so we may adjust our thoughts to say that bonsai can be grown in any thing that is properly sized, not too smooth and not poisonous.

In closing lets take a common mix of 1/3 lava rock, 1/3 turface, and 1/3 bark and replace the ingredients with others. Would 1/3 glass shards, 1/3 chopped auto tires, and 1/3 cut up sponge work as well? Would a Lenz worthy mix of 1/3 small plastic toy skeletons, 1/3 crushed concrete, and 1/3 sphagnum moss work as well?

I may well be leaning toward the ridiculous here to prove a point and for that I apologize yet the point needs to be made. There is no secret ingrediant that will make your bonsai thrive, only your care can do that, the soil you choose must fit in with your ability to give the care it requires.It is not the ingredient that matters, it’s the function of such and the ability of care given to match the soil choice.



Will Heath


Been awhile since we had a really good soil debate

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Bonsai Barry

Thanks for giving us food for thought as well as crystaline description of the role of soil. Still, I search for the secret ingredient!

Barry

Will_Heath

Barry,

Go into your bathroom and open up the medicine cabinet, close your eyes and count to 13, now while keeping your eyes closed shut the medicine cabinet door. The first thing you see when you open your eyes now will be the secret ingredient.

It's the care you give! When your soil isn't preforming it usually means that it is not matched to the level of care you give or it has "worn" out. You change your soil to match this level or you change your care to match the soil...or, of couse you replace it because it has "worn" out.


Will

Jay

Interesting... Yes the person responsible for the care is far more important that the choice of mix. That said it does matter to a degree what you use. Perhaps 'anything' will do for survival, but for optimal growth there needs to be a certain mixture of 'types' of ingredients. That mixture will change from species to species and from geographical area to geographical area.

This is said because I have been told by many artist, Kathy Shaner to name one, who believe that trees in the northest need different mixes than those in California.

Interesting topic for sure
Jay

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A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

Bart Thomas(deceased)

Actually, speaking of the bathroom, I have always liked ground up toilet seats.

rockm

While Will largely speaks the truth, he also speaks in generalizations.

While it's true that most any soil component that drains and isn't poisonous can be used in bonsai soil, some soil components are simply better at draining and holding moisture and exchanging cation. A piece of crushed pumice is a better ingredient than crushed newspaper, for instance, as it won't degrade, yet retains moisture.

The epiphany he reached is one that most bonsai people do along the line. The realization isn't so much what works, but WHY it works. Once you undertand the WHY's, you can get to many "how to's" from there.

Ultimately, however, such epiphanies don't translate well for others. Despite the "secret" Will has revealed--there will always be a clamor for "bonsai soil recipes" since people tend to use stuff that works and are loathe to move away from it since it does the job. You can tell people "use anything that drains" until you are gasping for breath. They will always ask WHAT you're using, not WHY.

The"secret" isn't much of a secret. It's more learning than anything else.

Will_Heath

Shhhh, if they don't think I'm revealing a secret, they won't think it's the truth...


Will

rockm

Will,

Bonsai philosophy 101: At the peak of my "use native plants" pique I once asked a long-time bonsai nursery owner why he didn't sell native bonsai. His reply was "if people knew the "bonsai" they were buying was an ordinary backyard crape myrtle, they would drop it like a hot potato." In other words, knowing the truth killed the mystery, sucked the "specialness" out of the whole thing.

I think a little mystery keeps interest alive in alot of folks and (in the right measure) propel them to learn more. It can also lead to alot of junky bonsai and foul soil, but you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes.

EarthgirlOK

It's the motion of the ocean...



Heard it.



Sorry, just seemed to apply somehow.

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Sonlight NurseryGreen Country Bonsai Society