Soil?

Mar 24, 2008 19:04

Heya :) I thought I'd pick your brains again. So my japanese maple needs to be repotted. My research shows that now is the best time to do it. Currently since it is in regular potting soil and I wanted to transplant it to bonsai soil. I know they don't like akeline soils and prefer the more acidic kind. I was wondering if anyone had any online ( Read more... )

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nulldevice March 25 2008, 13:09:29 UTC
Depending on how hardcore you want to go with this, the mix is usually 1-1-1 of fine gravel, peat moss, and fired clay. The fired clay holds water, the peat moss provides organics, and the fine gravel is a good medium. This is the standard bonsai soil that you can buy at many garden centers or online. I mix my own, because I have a lot of trees to pot - the gravel I use is just "chicken grit" which I can get at an agricultural co-op for $5 per giant bag. The clay comes in the form of that stuff they put on baseball diamonds.

Now, these things aren't always easily accessible. You can, with good results, alter the mix, but each alteration will need some fine-tuning. I've known people to pot in nothing but the fine gravel. The feeder root growth tends to be spectacular, but since the water retention is nil and the nutrient amount is worse, it requires more careful watering and feeding. If you swap in a more organic soil or peat moss you need to be more careful with the watering schedule because a soil that holds more moisture leaves your trees susceptible to root rot and other fungi.

I've known of people potting in slightly altered cactus soil as well, but I never did find out how well that worked.

The real trick is to make sure the soil is coarse enough. Coarse soil/fine gravel encourages the growth of the small fuzzy roots, meaning in the end a stronger tree in a smaller space. A fine rich soil like potting soil tends to produce a strong taproot but few feeder roots, making it easier to kill the tree through root damage or even just regular pruning.

Your local garden center may have small bags of bonsai soil. That would probably be fine. It's fairly easy to mailorder too. Failing those, you've still got plenty of DIY options.

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thanks! darius_lee March 25 2008, 19:56:20 UTC
Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it. I've read through several books but some how reading it from a person is so much more understandable than reading it in published literature. Thank you again!

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