soil

This is my first Spring practicing bonsai and I'm wondering where everyone gets their soil supplies from? Last Summer I bought pumice and akadama from ebay and was not impressed by it's quality. I want to buy in bulk, none of those small 2 quart bags. I'm also curious what size akadama I should...

Dug up this chinese elm from the woods in Central Florida today. Here’s the plan with it: What do y’all think?

Hello, this is my first post on here and my first bonsai so I appreciate any feedback. I have a few willow cuttings sitting in a bucket of water, and they have strong root growth and branches starting. I have 2 questions. 1.) I was wondering what type of soil would work to move these into. I...

I've heard much about the ideal substrate for mature trees in their final pots, getting their ramification, but I don't believe I've seen much said about what to use for developing trees. Specifically I'm talking about trees that I'm just trying to thicken the trunks of. I think I've once heard...

I need some recommendations please... I’m subscribed to Ryan’s, Bjorn’s, and Peter Chan’s channels. However most of their content is more advanced. I subscribed to @KleinM channel that I saw after doing a thread search, so feel free to plug your channel or website if you have one. I’m...

It's getting closer to that repotting time and I think a big issue I had in my first year was not filtering out and going with set particle sizes for my substrate mixes. I learned this to be a big noob mistake as all the smaller particle substrate moves to the bottom as you water and you end up...

Have a number of tropical and deciduous tree that are in need of a repot this spring and further growth before settling down into a bonsai pot. I’m still quite the beginner, but thought I could learn from everyone’s different setups. Read some older posts related to this, and learned a lot from...

Does anyone have any advice on fertilizing a red maple/swamp maple yamadori bonsai? Like what type of fertilizer to use and how often to use it? Brand names are very helpful. The tree is most likely 25-30 years old. Also what soil mixture would you guys recommend? I’m seeing various...

Check out this beautiful Red Maple I just dug from the swamp. Stunning nebari and a leader branch already set in for me. Can’t wait to see where this goes! Trunk is about 6 inches wide at the base. Tips on styling are always welcome. Especially regarding those big cuts!

I'm looking for the best place to source the best/cheapest small grain akadama, black lava, and pumice. I'd like to buy it in like 50lb or so bags. Where do you guys get it like that? There's loads of online bonsai supply places selling it, but it's in small quantities, and cost way too much...

so i purchased this young juniper last week and decided to repot it in a larger 1 gallon pot so the roots can have more room space to grow without restriction. while doing this i scraped some healthy reused soil from the ground( 2-3 cm deep) and it had small feeder roots in it from hydrangea...

Hi all, I purchased three 1-gallon trees from Evergreen Gardenworks. 1 trident maple and 2 elms. Following Brent's advice, I would now like to move them from the 1 gallon containers to larger grow boxes. Does anyone have recommendations on a pre-mixed soil that is good but also affordable...

Hello everyone, I noticed lots of tiny insects in my red pine's pot. Curiously there are no flies around, so that might rule out fungus gnat? They move fast but not as fast as the red mites, and they are only in the soil. In a massive number. Sorry for the terrible quality of the photo. Any...

Hello All— I was planning on buying a couple of large grow boxes for some trees to thicken trunks for 5 -10 years. What type of soil should I use? Regular well-draining bonsai soil fitting to the species? Or something more organic like one would find if you just planted the trees in the...

Hey friends. I’m curious what you guys’ opinions are as to how good the backside of a bonsai trunk looks. Does it matter or does it not? Can an ugly trunk backside just be hidden by branches and foliage over time? or does it take away from the value of the tree? For example, I have this...

Ripped out this crepe myrtle earlier in the summer that was unwanted but I have no idea what to do with it. I can’t seem to find any kind of structure fitting for a bonsai. If I just chop off all the top and leave a fat stump I’d be waiting 15 years for a decent sized new leader to come in...

I'm trying to come up with a baseline soil mix at an economic price, using locally sourced products. After lots of searching, these are the products U've been able to source: -a product called SafeTSorb, which is Turfice, -Lava Rock that is used for charcoal BBQ's (which I have to manually...

As I am just getting into this hobby, I want to have basic control over what mixtures of soil I use for my various trees, instead of buying pre-mix from Amazon in 2-quart bags. I am thinking that I probably want individual containers of: Akadama (perhaps medium size for established trees, and...

Hi all, In our landscape, there was this crepe myrtle that my parents wanted to get rid of and I figured: why not use it for bonsai. I am relatively new to bonsai and would like to know if this is usable material. The leaves on this variety are very small and glossy and the flowers are red...

Hi all, new here. I got my first bonsai. It was stored in an outdoor greenhouse but is an indoor plant. I took it home, put it in place (window with natural light) but the following day i noticed this on the soil. Is this an issue for the plant? Or just symbiotic with the soil and tree?

I currently have two ficus microcarpa. The first is tiny and I've had it since the fall. It seems to love my apartment conditions so I made a much larger investment on a second one. The new one is about 25" tall out of the pot, so something fairly large that I desperately want to keep alive...

So I made the mistake repotting my yew in a mix I'm not sure was best. Now I don't know if I should repot in a better mix or wait till next year. I put him in a 33% Akadama, 33% Lava, 20% Pine Bark, 10-15%~ Peat Moss. I should not have added any peat moss and now worried it won't allow for...

Hey everyone, I’m working to formulate an affordable local alternative to buying Boons Mix, and have ended up with lots of bags of dirt and rocks! Welcome to crazy is right! I’m fascinated staring at stumps and dirt now. Will normal people understand? I am at this point thinking of mixing...

I've recently decided to "do bonsai" which for me means kind of jumping in. There was some raod work near me in January and February and I dug up 17 small tho pleasingly gnarly Doug Firs that were in the path of the work. For the most part they had good feeder roots and because of the...

I'm new to bonsai, been doing it for about a year or two now. I've got a red alder in my drive way that I'm planning on collecting this spring but I'm not sure about which substrate mix to use. I've got pumice, lava rock, and peat moss on hand, does any one have a ratio recommendations? Thanks...