Bonsai soil fines

[Aaron S.]

I'm going to be starting to mix up some bonsai soil at home. I'm going to be using what I'm calling the Nigel Saunders mix, turface, pearlite and organic matter. I don't want to get into a discussion on what makes the best bonsai soil etc. I'm using this blend because the ingredients are withing riding distance (I can't drive anymore so I ride a recumbent trike to do my running around with) and within my budget.
My question is, what do you do with the fines from the materials that you sift?

 

[johng]

use it for cuttings primarily, sometimes for extra small trees

 

[Gollum169]

Fines from perlite and floor dry I try to keep away from my lungs as much as possible (windy day, mask, etc). The stuff I have sifted can be terribly dusty/fine. I usually just dump that onto my driveway.

 

[Aaron S.]

I have a 15 foot by 30 foot dedicated bonsai garden (with out a single bonsai in it ) I typically rak up all of the leaves in the fall and chop them up and use it as mulch in the garden. I've thought about using the fines from the floor dry to create something like what is used in some Japanese gardens. I like the look of the gardens but it would take me forever to cover the garden with fines.
Here is what I'm think of.

 

[Cruiser]

My DF bark and pumice fines get used with small trees, germinating seeds/seedlings, and as an ingredient in muck.

 

[shohin_branches]

I dump them in my vegetable garden to mix with my compost

 

[Aaron S.]

Thanks guys, a lot of really great ideas. Better than anything that I have come up with.

 

[Paradox]

I just discard mine

 

[Kievnstavick]

I further refine my "fines" into extra fine and dust. The dust I either toss or throw it into a potting mix bag depending on how I feel that day.

I use 1/32in window screen to seperate the extra fines and dust.

I use my extra fines for seedlings and saplings (mostly my tropicals) as I have a tendency to water more then they probably need when they are inside for the winter.

 

[Weta]

I've been sprinkling fines on top of my New Zealand natives as many are swamp/river side trees.
I feel it helps water loss from wind sun and possibly gravity acting like a top seal.
Ive also been saving my scoria dust to experiment with concrete mixes for future pots.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Here we sift with a small screen to get the dust out.

No kidding about avoiding the dust in one’s lungs! Use at least a respirator mask and goggles.

The rest is used for small trees and cuttings or in clay like areas in the yard. We have layouts of those left over from glacial till.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Bubsamecium]

I'm actually working on a dry rock garden project at the moment, picking the right gravel was no easy feat!
True fines might not be ideal for a garden like the picture you have there. From what I can tell, shirakawa suna (the classic Japanese white river sand) is a bit larger than true fines, around 5-10mm (1/4-3/8'). The closest I could find locally (in the PNW) in a large enough volume (and bulk pricing) is a 3/8' crushed aggregate gravel. You'd want angular material instead of rounded, it holds the raked pattern better, and doesn't get tossed around in the wind like true fine sand would. You also would need at least a few inches of depth which means you need a good volume of material too.
Lots of other excellent suggestions in this thread for what else you could do with them!

 

[JudyB]

I have a 15 foot by 30 foot dedicated bonsai garden (with out a single bonsai in it ) I typically rak up all of the leaves in the fall and chop them up and use it as mulch in the garden. I've thought about using the fines from the floor dry to create something like what is used in some Japanese gardens. I like the look of the gardens but it would take me forever to cover the garden with fines.
Here is what I'm think of.
View attachment 573654

I saw this and thought it WAS your garden, I've always wanted to do a meditation garden. I bet the fines wouldn't stay put for long with any wind, and might be harmful for a pet to walk in and ingest that dust.

 

[Aaron S.]

I saw this and thought it WAS your garden, I've always wanted to do a meditation garden. I bet the fines wouldn't stay put for long with any wind, and might be harmful for a pet to walk in and ingest that dust.

I wish it were my garden. Here is the sad state that my real garden is in as of this morning.
This past winter I went through several surgeries on my back including 2 botched surgeries that was supposed to fuse both SI joints. So I wasn't able to care for my trees and garden like I normally do. Then this past summer we had over 40 days at 95 degrees and up, without much rain. My kids didn't water my trees like they told me they were. Hot temps no water makes unhappy bonsai. I went from 36 trees down to 4 (2 dawn redwoods, 1 Norfolk Island Pine, 1 Ginseng Ficus). So I guess I will be starting from scratch.
For a mulch I just rake up autumn leaves, run them over with a mulching lawnmower and spread them out in my garden.
The weed barrier for the entire garden is a rubber pond liner. I had a nice goldfish pond but my back went really bad so I couldn't take care if it. So we filled in the pond and I took the liner. It wouldn't work very good for another pond as it had holes in it and instead of tossing it I made my bonsai garden. I can't do gardening and yard work like I used to, but bonsai trees are generally small enough for me to work on.
For the past several years I have been keeping a blog for my other hobby, amateur radio. Since it feels like I'm having to start over in bonsai I decided to start a blog on bonsai (Rose Rock Bonsai ) I enjoy blogging and it is just an easy way for me to track the progress of my trees.
It is now November and come this spring I'm going to need a bunch of bonsai soil so I will be mixing it up over the coming winter, so I'm probably going to end up with a lot of fines thus the reason for this thread. I really can't afford even small trees and shrubs from DIY or nurseries. So I usually grow them from cuttings that I am able to get from my friends family yard trees. I have like just 2 actual bonsai pots. Mostly I use $1 oil drainage pans from the Dollar Tree. They are cheap, they work, and they make great training pots.

 

[JudyB]

I wish it were my garden. Here is the sad state that my real garden is in as of this morning.
This past winter I went through several surgeries on my back including 2 botched surgeries that was supposed to fuse both SI joints. So I wasn't able to care for my trees and garden like I normally do. Then this past summer we had over 40 days at 95 degrees and up, without much rain. My kids didn't water my trees like they told me they were. Hot temps no water makes unhappy bonsai. I went from 36 trees down to 4 (2 dawn redwoods, 1 Norfolk Island Pine, 1 Ginseng Ficus). So I guess I will be starting from scratch.
For a mulch I just rake up autumn leaves, run them over with a mulching lawnmower and spread them out in my garden.
The weed barrier for the entire garden is a rubber pond liner. I had a nice goldfish pond but my back went really bad so I couldn't take care if it. So we filled in the pond and I took the liner. It wouldn't work very good for another pond as it had holes in it and instead of tossing it I made my bonsai garden. I can't do gardening and yard work like I used to, but bonsai trees are generally small enough for me to work on.
For the past several years I have been keeping a blog for my other hobby, amateur radio. Since it feels like I'm having to start over in bonsai I decided to start a blog on bonsai (Rose Rock Bonsai ) I enjoy blogging and it is just an easy way for me to track the progress of my trees.
It is now November and come this spring I'm going to need a bunch of bonsai soil so I will be mixing it up over the coming winter, so I'm probably going to end up with a lot of fines thus the reason for this thread. I really can't afford even small trees and shrubs from DIY or nurseries. So I usually grow them from cuttings that I am able to get from my friends family yard trees. I have like just 2 actual bonsai pots. Mostly I use $1 oil drainage pans from the Dollar Tree. They are cheap, they work, and they make great training pots.

Just do what you can, and enjoy what you can do. It's not having what you want, but wanting what you got, as the song goes....Hope that you continue to recover! Be careful mixing soils as they can be heavy.

 

[Aaron S.]

Just do what you can, and enjoy what you can do. It's not having what you want, but wanting what you got, as the song goes....Hope that you continue to recover! Be careful mixing soils as they can be heavy.

Thank you