what's your recipe?

Joanie

Attached are photos of the bag, and the soil itself.

Joanie

Attached Images

	shohinsoil.jpg (70.1 KB, 86 views)
	shohinbag.jpg (59.5 KB, 46 views)

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nsmar4211

Depends on when I potted up the tree.... I experiment...

Portulacaria afra (a succulent) are in:
100% turface with a sprinkling of goat poo (new mix, so far so good)
100% Florida yard sand (compacts fast but WOW does it make fat roots....)
Half turface half jungle growth (local soil mix, seems to be mostly small bark with perlite and organics)
Regular potting soil (ran out of turface..... stays soggy)
Half soil half turface (compacts, but not as fast as yard sand)
Broken up chunks of red lava rock (pain to make)

Ficus are in half turface half various bark types (orchid, jungle growth, etc)

Bald cypress in 100% FLorida yard sand (I dug a hole in the yard because I didn't have enough soil... sand with organics)

JBP in 100% turface on recommendation... and they seem happy

I do not recommend 100% turface in the deep south for anything other than the succulent and the JBP (that I have), it's a bit too dry for someone living in south florida that only can water once a day....

Am staying far far far far away from anything with lots of peat in it in Florida, it dries out hard as a rock and very hard to rewet...

One local grower exclusively uses the half turface half bark receipie for everything. Another uses pure turface for succulents and ficus and half/half for all else... both growers water pretty much daily for about an hour a day with overhead sprinklers.

Repotter

Susan, When I lived in Florida I used a mix of 40% turface to 60% aged pine bark or as they called it "Soil Amender", I used this for evrything I grew. It was ideal and watering was daily with my trees under a 60% shade cloth.

One mix keeps it simple. And no screening needed.

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http://www.tellys.com

http://www.Fourseasonsbonsai.com
The original Four Seasons Bonsai Club of Michigan.
Our guest master in August is Pedro Morales.
Tellys Greenhouse, 3301 John R road, Troy Mi. 48083

Four Seasons Bonsai Club meetings monthly.
Troy, Michigan

"Anything is possible when you don't know what you are doing"................someone famous I think.

PatArizona

I'm with Hec...firm believer in the KISS Principle...

Somewhere in the past, 'teensomething years back, I combined 5-6 ingredients...I don't know why...

Pat

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THE ONLY WAY: Always remember, and don't ever forget, that whatever you read here is not cast in concrete... the intent of any advice is to help. In no way should you feel that I’m saying that my way is the only way…heaven forbid! I've seen far too much of the "my way or the highway" attitude in bonsai as well as in other areas of life.

SiNguyen

Hi everybody, the soil shown by Joanie is indeed from Korea. It is one of the best I have seen, and it is cheaper than akadama. I used it alot on my smaller trees and flat trays too. But somebody on here mentioned Schultz Aquatic Soil which is sold at Home Depot for $6 for a 10 pound bag. I found it the other day and I am very excited about it. It is made of small sifted fired clay particles and appears a lot harder than akadama. No dust at all! I haven't used it yet, but I think this might be the best and the cheapest. I am looking to use it as 100% in all my trees. By the way, I used to use 100% sifted pumice too, but I got tired of doing all the sifting.

Si

watzone69

Equal parts: Scotsman's Pride soil conditioner (a nice sized pine bark available at Lowes), coarse sand (blasting, aquarium or pool filter when I can find it), and oil-dri. All sifted!

I would like to start using Turface as soon as I find the local distributer.

I love using akadama and kanuma when I can get it.

I've also been experimenting with haydite.

soltan

Joanie Joanie Joanie
The Aussie gold stuff you use. I have been trying to get one of the components Diatomite. Although I can buy cheap from the supplier they are about 15 hours away and they nor couriers will help with transport for reasons I don't understand.
I see this Aussie gold stuff and hey maybe this company and thier product can help. I look into it and even though all components are Australian the product does not seem to be available to us

AAaaaasagggggg.

Some days these things make me wonder!!

I would love to hear more about how this stuff works for you.

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Joanie

Soltan, a guy in our bonsai club sells it. It is sold primarily to orchid growers. I only use the fine mix, the others are too bulky. The fine mix works instead of peat, to keep the mames and some of the tropicals happy. I pay him about $15 for a bag, which lasts a long time. Kuma Bonsai Nursery also carries it. (www.kumabonsai.com)

The nicest thing about the coir is that it doesn't resist water when dry, as peat does. You can rewet the coir easily. It retains water and still allows air to pass through. It doesn't seem to break down, but since the mame get repotted at least once a year it wouldn't really matter if it did.

The component that I am most interested in, and pleased by, is the coir. Not the diatomite. Although the diatomite seems to be the biggest selling point for them, it's hard to see that it brings that much value to the tiny trees. Their claims that diatomite makes silica available doesn't make a lot of sense to me... do plants need silica?* And some of the claims... "lateral movement of water and nutrients"... well, duh. Most substrates would allow lateral movement, wouldn't they? Unless you were using stalagmites or something. Read here for a list of attributes of diatomite. The water retention, however, is useful.

Lindsay Farr has mentioned using the diatomite on this forum, you might want to contact him for an Australian supplier.

*if plants need silica from their soil components, are we supplying silica when using perlite or scoria or turface? Wouldn't the silica being made available, mean that the actual components of the substrate were breaking down? Does someone have more knowledge of this?

Joanie

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Repotter

__________________
http://www.tellys.com

http://www.Fourseasonsbonsai.com
The original Four Seasons Bonsai Club of Michigan.
Our guest master in August is Pedro Morales.
Tellys Greenhouse, 3301 John R road, Troy Mi. 48083

Four Seasons Bonsai Club meetings monthly.
Troy, Michigan

"Anything is possible when you don't know what you are doing"................someone famous I think.