Mallsai

[Paradox]

Anything else to recommend? Perlite is on the bottom and regular potting mix on top.

Be very careful about watering.
New people tend to over water. If you do, youll probably end up with a dead tree.
Take a chopstick or a piece of dowel and stick it in the pot and leave it there.
Take it out once a day and look at and feel it.
Water when the stick is almost dry. Do not let it dry completely out.
This will help you learn when the tree needs water
If the stick stays very wet for several days, your potting mix is staying too wet and you are in danger of killing the tree

 

[nurvbonsai]

Be very careful about watering.
New people tend to over water. If you do, youll probably end up with a dead tree.
Take a chopstick or a piece of dowel and stick it in the pot and leave it there.
Take it out once a day and look at and feel it.
Water when the stick is almost dry. Do not let it dry completely out.
This will help you learn when the tree needs water
If the stick stays very wet for several days, your potting mix is staying too wet and you are in danger of killing the tree

I came back today and added pumice and perlite and potting mix in a uniform mix. I have several chopsticks at the ready. Thank you.

 

[thedougpierce]

Contrary to common sense, the roots need air and to not be sitting in water.

Bonsai soil is granular. The individual granules can hold water themselves, which the roots "drink" from, but also allow for the excess water to freely drain. As the water drains from the bottom, fresh air will be sucked down into the soil.

Adding fine peat or garden soil may clog up the drainage, not allowing water to flow freely, and will itself hold extra water. In bonsai, we often use more granular organics, like bark (depending on the species).

I'm not sure I'd recommend doing a 3rd repotting this spring, but you might do some more research in a couple years when it's time for the next repotting.

My recent experience is that a few of my Jade Bonsai grew way faster with peat moss mixture than other more “bonsai friendly” inorganic soil. It was a happy accident to find this out. But I have no experience with any thing other than Jade…Which obviously is a succulent…

 

[Gabler]

My recent experience is that a few of my Jade Bonsai grew way faster with peat moss mixture than other more “bonsai friendly” inorganic soil. It was a happy accident to find this out. But I have no experience with any thing other than Jade…Which obviously is a succulent…

Yes. Plants grow faster in organic soil. That's why nurseries use peat. It's a bad idea to use it in a shallow bonsai pot, especially for a tree in refinement.

 

[thedougpierce]

Good to know! Always learning…
Thanks

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Sieve - the single best way to improve any potting mix is to use a sieve. You can grow most trees in just about any mix if you understand when to water. However, the job of learning when to water becomes much easier if before you pot the tree you use a sieve to sift the mix and remove fines and coarse pieces to give yourself a mix with fairly uniform particle size. This will improve air penetration and ease of watering. Root growth will improve dramatically. Generally, anything fine enough to go through a piece of window screen is too fine for any bonsai mix. So even if you do not have a fancy sieve, a piece of window screen can be used to sift your mix, throw out the fines. The improvement will be dramatic.

Personally I have have very good results growing junipers in100% pumice, with no other additives. Nice thing about pumice, if you are happy with the pot, and position of the tree, you can allow the tree to go 10 or more years without repotting. Junipers in general do not like their roots disturbed, and will grow better if left in the same pot for a decade at a time. Obviously, if design reasons require repotting to change pot, or reposition the trunk, one can do so, but try not to repot your juniper more frequently than once every 3 or 4 years. I do let mine go for a decade if I can get away with it.