Never thought I'd Be Posting About Kitty Litter ......

[grouper52]

Well ... lots and lots of great bonsai material here in my new ex-Pat retirement home of the Philippines, but ... pots are usually home-made concrete things (no kidding), and the only soil available is "river sand", and if you're "lucky', the "red river sand," that comes from someplace called "ta'al" I think. Concrete pots plus dense, fine sand (nutritious as it may be), plus an aging back make for a rather limited logistical situation for this retiree: I can barely lift my larger trees, which was never a problem before. A few decent pots are at least starting to trickle in, but they are poor quality generally, and hard to get. Decent soil additives/components are simply not to be found.

I would die to get my hands on some akadama, Turface, pumice, etc, but none of this has even been heard of here to my knowledge, and fairly extensive searches and efforts have failed to find anyone who ships such items to this particular country, to the extent that I suspect it is illegal to sully the national dirt/filth - ubiquitous in all aspects of life here - with any highly suspect imports, no matter how harmless and/or useful.

So, I seemed to recall people talking about using kitty litter, and I wondered if it was available here, and if a mix of 50% - more or less - kitty litter and local sand might be at least as good as, or even better than the back-breaking "red riverv sand", alone.

Hardware stores and pet stores do have kitty litter, but the particles are very small - roughly <1mm - and the bags say nothing about its composition except to advertise that it "clumps hard" when wet, which I'm not sure is the desired quality I'm looking for in bonsai soil.

Any aficianados of kitty litter bonsai soil mixes who can tell me how best - if at all - to use this substance? Much appreciated, if you can.

 

[wsteinhoff]

The ones using kitty litter are in Europe where it's made out of diatomatious earth.

 

[theone420]

you want to make sure it is NON-CLUMPING

 

[Wilson]

Don't get the clumping kind, but some of the clays are ok.

 

[petegreg]

Yes, definitely, we are lucky here in EU. The best if not all DE comes from company called Damolin. I think they supply all Tescos and produce a soil for horticultural use called Terramol. There's some kitty litter sold by pet shops that is based on zeolite, we gotta be careful it's not perfumed and we're lucky we have zeolite mines. Suitable fraction is 2,5-5 mm.
What about importing some soil components and make own business?

 

[my nellie]

Harry Harrington uses cat litter. His relative article http://bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basicscatlitter.htm is considered to be the best source of information.
Numerous threads on this subject are posted on old IBC forum.
Cat litter shouldn't have perfume additives, just like Peter said above.

 

[Fonz]

$10 a bag

 

[RobertB]

If I saw a guy at the store buying that much kitty litter, I would definitely think somethings up.

 

[Fonz]

If I saw a guy at the store buying that much kitty litter, I would definitely think somethings up.

Online shopping prevents that
Although the FedEx guy wasn't too happy lifting 5 seperate 20lbs boxes.

 

[Vin]

As a thought, maybe fish tank substrate is available somewhat locally?

 

[Paulpash]

Most use Sophisticat Pink in the UK.

 

[Anthony]

Ah Mr. Grouper,
@grouper52 ,

you need to think like a local ---------- get a yardman or two or three.
That is what we do if you have large over 18 inch trees and use
5 mm silica based gravel.

There are always willing to help out.
On our side they work for $ 11 to 13 US for 7 or 8 hrs.

Very important, very important ---------- unless your wife is terrifying
and menacing, get her strict and terrifying brother / uncle etc.
a local you trust, to do the hiring.

Our trees are between 1 inch to 18 inches generally.
Apart from weight, the trees would have so much trimming
/ maintenance you would go nuts.

As to pots find a local pottery, show an image and just let
them make it.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[grouper52]

Update: I read all your helpful posts, then went to Amazon.com, saw no restrictions on shipping to the Philippines, ordered a trial container of some stuff that sounded exactly like the brands/types you recommend, and as soon as I hit the order button the by-now very familiar "This product does not ship to the Philippines" message appears. Same run around I've gotten on every other type of "soil"- based product I've made attempts to get hold of. I believe the country, in their infinite wisdom, doesn't want their land - which is one of the most filthy anywhere - to have the pristine quality of all this filth invaded by any conceivable soil-based organisms that may displace or disrupt the micro-flora/fauna that cause all their hideous diseases.

[One is reminded of a guest in our home recently lunging forward out of mortal fear for my life, and snatching in horror a bottle of beer I was about to open and enjoy, taking me to task because I hadn't thought the situation through to it's logical conclusion: didn't I know that the beer bottle had come from a store shelf, and that while on that shelf, or almost certainly in the store's store-room or a warehouse before that, the rats running rampant there had almost certainly urinated (or perhaps worse) on the neck of the bottle I was about to bring to my unsuspecting lips! Indeed, the neck of the bottle was then washed thoroughly, (but not autoclaved, I was horrified to see), and returned to me to "enjoy." After I had finished it, I went to the fridge - perhaps a rat-free environment, but who knows - and got another, opened it without the bottle-neck-washing ritual, and put it defiantly to my lips in the middle of the room and took a long, long, really enjoyable swig right in front of the guest, after which I let out a sigh of great satisfaction and told the woman, "You know ... I kinda like it better with the taste of the rat piss." And indeed I did.]

 

[Hyn Patty]

I feel your pain, Grouper5. When I lived in China there were all manner of things I was used to using (including soap and bleach) that were simply NOT available. I had to have family back home pack up and send me soap and powdered bleach for goodness sakes but the parcels did get through. Perhaps they would not if they had been marked what they were. They had also put things like clothes in there and that was what it was labeled as - we also couldn't obtain clothes that would fit. Chinese in the Southeast are tiny and even I was much taller than most of the men, let alone my husband (who isn't even very tall by American standards) loomed over them. Nothing they sold fit us and our building wasn't heated in winter, so...

Not that I'm suggesting you evade your customs restrictions, whatever they are. But I agree with Anthony that there are ways to get around things and find alternate materials. But it may not be easy. Finding a local potter is a good idea. Once you do that you can also ask that same potter for all of their discards and bust up the fired but unglazed clay into tiny bits to make your own media for potting up, if you have to. That could be mixed with some of your local sand and other things. Be sure to wash away dust though as you do not want to breath ceramics silicates.

 

[daygan]

@grouper52 - maybe this would help? It's a Philippines site, so I assume it's for purchasing things to be shipped to the Philippines: https://www.galleon.ph/product/detail/1857727/akadama-premium-bonsai-soil-from-bonsaioutlet

Try this google search - it selects only sites that are under the Philippines domain, so you're more likely to find something that is available locally: https://www.google.com/search?q=aka...BInl5gKq2rLwDA&start=10&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=649

 

[AZbonsai]

Just a thought. I read where there are about 50 volcanoes in the Philippines. Take a day trip with some buckets.

 

[daygan]

One more thing to try - this is the diatomite-based cat litter that Harry Harrington uses, for sale on the Philippines-based section of a site called Ubuy. I'm not sure if the fact that it is listed on the Philippines section guarantees that you can have it delivered there or not, but maybe it's worth a shot? Or maybe you've already tried doing this and received the message that it wouldn't ship? Anyway, here's the link: https://www.ubuy.com.ph/search/inde...sco-Low-Dust-Cat-Litter-10L/store/store/kk/dp

 

[hemmy]

I second the volcano idea, you are after all on the ring of fire! According to the USGS, the Philippines mines 6000 metric tons of pumice a year. Here’s a seed company there that sells different growing media including 10 liter bags of pumice (is that 1/3 cubic foot for $2.25 USD?)

http://www.ramgoseeds.com/products.do?item_id=23865

 

[Anthony]

Actually, when Robert Stevens posted here, he spoke of
easily available volcanic black soil.

@Hyn Patty,
try being half Chinese with a build more similar to that of the
English half. Broad shoulders, narrow hips and thick legs ----------- ha ha ha
No shirtee from China fittee.
Sorry, only 5' 9".
Sons are all 6'. Midget dad, ha ha ha
Mom, though English was only 5'.

Grouper has to learn adaptability and flexibility.

Yes, we also have a hollow brick building situation.
Crushed red earthenware brick is our porous inorganic.
Works very well.
Good idea with the pottery, all Grouper needs is to build a
smasher. As we are going to.

Used to be a room of broken brick for re-mixing with the
raw clay to enhance drying.
The factories changed their techniques.

So when we need , we will purchase broken brick from the
hardwares [ probably be given for free - clean up the mess.]
Grind it ourselves.
But we have a stock pile of a half 55 gallon US black barrel.

Living in the - thurd - world is not difficult.
Learning curve is steep for Europeans, most don't make it.
They need too much convenience.

Me, I can build with wattle and daub, solar power, grow
veggies, tend to the Bonsai and read.
Garden and Library, is all you need.
Folk in Trinidad are easy going, unless they have lived in
New York, then they are just weird.

Ang in there Gov.
Good Day
Anthony

* oh did I say we make 7 year old mead from honey...........

 

[Paulpash]

Contacting Robert Steven for information on where to get the right substrate might be a very good idea.