Sakadama is now also online available in the Netherlands and Belgium

[Sakadama]

Hello Everybody,

It's been a while since I posted. A lot happened since then. I was operating as the commercial agent for Sakadama in the countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan with my advertisement company Overal Reclame. Doing business via this name was clearly a mistake. People do not see a clear link as there is none and that made people have doubts. That's why I started the business Yougo Bonsai. Yougo Bonsai remains the commercial agent for the above-mentioned countries but is from now on not functioning anymore as a commercial agent for Holland and Belgium. We are proud to announce that we got licensed to be the official importer for the Netherlands and Belgium and to sell there ourselves (online) while searching for distributors in these two countries in the meanwhile. If you are interested let us know. Online selling for the Netherlands and Belgium for end users has started yesterday. Dutch en Belgian private customers who are interested in Sakadama can look at the website www.sakadama.com for info and if they decide to order go to www.bol.com and look up our product. We will have our own webshop for Sakadama online soon. In the meanwhile, you can also mail us to order as we can offer a little bit lower prices if we sell directly to you. This is because a platform like Bol.com of course takes a cut for their services. Business customers can contact us or the appointed commercial agents if they are interested in buying on a larger scale. For people in other countries than the ones that we serve: All commercial agents for Sakadama are listed here.

Feel free to ask questions if you have any. You can leave a message through this forum or read our info at our website www.yougo-bonsai.com or mail at info@yougo-bonsai.com.

Have a nice day!

 

[Rivian]

Links dont work?
I am curious about pricing. Liters per Euro?
Which soil components do you mean to compete with/ replace?

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

Wow, that's not cheap at € 39,00 for a bag of 14 liters of substrate.

Link: Sakadama on Bol.com

 

[BobbyLane]

Its on kaizen too, but Ive no idea what it is, not read up on it. a new soil I assume.

 

[Sakadama]

Links dont work?
I am curious about pricing. Liters per Euro?
Which soil components do you mean to compete with/ replace?

Hello. We are looking to compete with Akadama in general as our product gives better results, has a life expectation of 3 seasons and is frees resistant. The price on Bol.com is € 39,10. But this price is higher then necessary as Bol.com takes quite a big cut for it's service. For endcustomers who buy by contacting us directly true mail we can charge a bit less depending on how much they want to buy. For re-sellers we can give re-sale prices.

 

[Sakadama]

Links dont work?
I am curious about pricing. Liters per Euro?
Which soil components do you mean to compete with/ replace?

I just tested all links. They worked as supposed to. The price on Bol.com is € 39,10. But this price is higher then necessary as Bol.com takes quite a big cut for it's service. For endcustomers who buy by contacting us directly true mail we can charge a bit less depending on how much they want to buy. For re-sellers we can give re-sale prices.

 

[Rivian]

"

This page isn’t working​

www.sakadama.com didn’t send any data.

ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE"

But, not to talk tech support.

I can get Akadama 14 Liters for less than 28 Euros. Without even looking around for good prices. Akadama works decently even when broken down as far as Ive read
So why should I spend more money on an unproven (to me and the general bonsai public) product?
Akadama is already not cheap. So Sakadama seems like a luxury product

Edit: Now that I think of it, the exact type of tree that would be worth using luxury products on is expensive mature trees. The same trees that can stand in broken down Akadama for many years with no issues

 

[Ply]

I doubt there's much demand for a product that's even more expensive than Akadama.

One of the main complaints for Akadama is it's price. Now, if you were to offer a product with similar qualities for a significantly lower price you might be going somewhere..

Not to mention that outside of Japan a plethora of alternative mixes to Akadama are already being used, that are both cheaper and last longer than Akadama does.

 

[leatherback]

Why do I only see these advertisement posts from sakadama?
Right, because it is just a company pushing their product.
I guess I will have to check out how the ignore function works

 

[MichaelS]

Hello. We are looking to compete with Akadama in general as our product gives better results,

Akadama comes in at least 3 hardnesses. Which one are you comparing with? What species did you grow? Please show us the comparison trials. It's not that I don't trust you. I don't trust anyone. Also, why do you list the pH as being neural when it is in reality around 8 or 9 from my tests.

 

[Sakadama]

Good morning,

People are reacting on the heavy price on Bol.com. I can understand why. It is true that the sale via Bol.com is rather on the pricey side. This is because Bol.com takes its commission, which is quite firm and requires that the price includes shipping costs. People can also buy 1 bag and then we still have to get away with this price.

However, if you order directly by e-mail or on the website to be launched by us within a very short time (the launch is expected next week), the prices at which we are now putting it on the market are a lot more favourable. A bag of Sakadama then costs € 29.50 + shipping costs. The shipping costs within the Netherlands are € 6.25 per 1 or 2 bags. For Belgium the costs are € 9.25 per 1 or 2 bags. If you take into account that Sakadama gives better results (which seems the most important to me) and lasts longer than regular akadama, then these prices are suddenly a lot more attractive, I think.

If anybody has any questions or is interested, I would be happy to help. People can also email directly: info@yougo-bonsai.com

Greetings Hugo

 

[Ruben Bouwmeester]

Send you an email. I'm curious about it. I've also had fairly good results with ibuki baked akadama. Not better in growth, but easier with repotting young pines. Are there already examples or professionals who have experience with it in our climate?

 

[MichaelS]

If anybody has any questions

Greetings Hugo

I have questions above.

 

[AJL]

Good morning,

People are reacting on the heavy price on Bol.com. I can understand why. It is true that the sale via Bol.com is rather on the pricey side. This is because Bol.com takes its commission, which is quite firm and requires that the price includes shipping costs. People can also buy 1 bag and then we still have to get away with this price.

However, if you order directly by e-mail or on the website to be launched by us within a very short time (the launch is expected next week), the prices at which we are now putting it on the market are a lot more favourable. A bag of Sakadama then costs € 29.50 + shipping costs. The shipping costs within the Netherlands are € 6.25 per 1 or 2 bags. For Belgium the costs are € 9.25 per 1 or 2 bags. If you take into account that Sakadama gives better results (which seems the most important to me) and lasts longer than regular akadama, then these prices are suddenly a lot more attractive, I think.

If anybody has any questions or is interested, I would be happy to help. People can also email directly: info@yougo-bonsai.com

Greetings Hugo

You are claiming your product gives better results than Akadama - so where is your evidence?
How about you send us all a free sample to trial for you then we can all report back the results on here?!

 

[KikurageOtomo]

I think there is something to be said about exploring the potential of the medium, but boldly claiming the product is a direct improvement to Akadama without providing a single objective metric by which to prove it doesn't do the brand any good. I've had good results potting a Seiryu maple into a full SAkadama medium this spring, but its difficult to justifying investing any further in the product when It feels like the vendor hasn't the slightest clue what their product actually does well.

 

[Sakadama]

You are claiming your product gives better results than Akadama - so where is your evidence?
How about you send us all a free sample to trial for you then we can all report back the results on here?!

Sorry for the late response. Samples are available on the webshop for Holland and Belgium which is just launched (www.buy-sakadama.com). If you are from another country you can e-mail me.

 

[Sakadama]

I think there is something to be said about exploring the potential of the medium, but boldly claiming the product is a direct improvement to Akadama without providing a single objective metric by which to prove it doesn't do the brand any good. I've had good results potting a Seiryu maple into a full SAkadama medium this spring, but its difficult to justifying investing any further in the product when It feels like the vendor hasn't the slightest clue what their product actually does well.

Hello,

Sorry for the late response. To be honest I don't know enough about Bonsai (am working on that dough). But we work with people that do. Here's the answer I got to a question from another person stating something similar then to what you just stated:

We have tested akadama in the lab. The used akadama was from Ibaraki. In the beginning, we used this to compare it to our calcined product.
The results are shown on the datasheet which is available on www.sakadama.com, but I can also mail you one.

We have so far tested Sakadama in South Africa on various local species, Ficus, Juniper, deciduous trees and a few maples also.
At this moment we have the likes of Bjorn Bjorholm testing it in his nursery, Rafael Torres from Spain and Ryan Neil has just got a batch to test.
USA tests in a nursery have used 100% Sakadama on pines and had very positive results. Tests and data gathering is ongoing due to the new nature of the product in the market.

The lifespan of Sakadama has many different advantages, not just repotting lifespan.
In various parts of the world species have different growth rates and repotting needs. Some species require every year and others every 3 - 5 years. Most deciduous are repotted more often than conifer species. Another thing is as trees get older they require less repotting.

One main advantage of Sakadama is that it actively scales and helps keep the balance of oxygen and water in the media until repotting again. This helps in fertilising, balanced root growth and less guessing on the part of the grower. Akadama breaks down quickly and reduces the oxygen balance in the media and this affects the above fertilisation and ability to actively hold onto nutrients through cation exchange capacity.

The other very good reason is the freeze-thaw tests on Sakadama showed it is better equipped to handle the winters for much longer and keep its structure. This on its own shows the value in Sakadama for not only "normal conditions" but extremes in cold and hot conditions also. This value will show after the first winter using Sakadama.

 

[Sakadama]

For those who indicated that buying Sakadama from the Netherlands and Belgium via Bol.com was becoming too expensive, I have good news. Our new webshop went online this week. By removing Bol.com as an intermediary, we can offer better prices. You can find our webshop at www.buy-sakadama.com.

 

[Lutonian]

I just got one bag of Sakadama from Kaizen to trial, I'm a sceptic but we will see how it goes. my main concern is that it can't be a direct replacement for akadama as it is fired and wont break down as akadama does.

also it appears to be a much different material than akadama according to their website Sakadama is fired fullers earth we will see what the difference between this and kitty litter that is also fire fullers earth is.

Palygorskite - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

More info – Sakadama | Growing Media for Bonsai

sakadama.com

I have used akadama for years in the south of england, some trees have been in the same pot for years and years the akadama breaks down but its meant too (it needs to break down at a useable rate not to fast not to slow).

Also roots penetrate akadama so a lot of the pot space can be occupied by roots, if the sakadama is too hard i don't see how it could penetrate the particle leaving much less room for roots.

I will post up my experience but this will need to be tested for a few years to see how it responds.

 

[Taste]

Yay another "best"

Hello. We are looking to compete with Akadama in general as our product gives better results, has a life expectation of 3 seasons and is frees resistant. The price on Bol.com is € 39,10. But this price is higher then necessary as Bol.com takes quite a big cut for it's service. For endcustomers who buy by contacting us directly true mail we can charge a bit less depending on how much they want to buy. For re-sellers we can give re-sale prices.

what are these better results, how long have they been used to compare results? if it doesnt break down how does a fine root ball form? should i only expect long feeders at the edges? You mentioned not knowing bonsai yourself, but youre telling us this product is a better product than your competition only based on what? In the end this seems to be another product from a far off source in the world that will have to be processed, bagged, shipped and sold across oceans, making it as economical and environmentally destructive as akadama itself was with out any proof of true results. This feels like a HSN advert.

Also, id like to see proof of the claims of the high profile practicioners using this product. and will happily await their results, ive got my money on, bust.