So you like akadama (KA KA dama)

[Mudroot]

I was kicking myself for not takin pix of the last plastered mud kakadama removal.

Well today I took pictures.

This is PURE JUNK! I will NEVER trust this man made fired mud again. Maybe it was a bad batch but it sure looked fine. I've used it in the past but this episode is likely to lose me some trees.
DAMNED CRAP!

I'd guess this batch was fired with a hair dryer.

I just hope the JBP and 2 junipers I had to repot here in the heat of summer make it and MAYBE even grow a fresh white root or two.

LOOK at the pictured "root ball" (if you can call it that) of the procumbens!
Have you EVER expected to pull a tree out of a pot and see a black sour mess like this black wad of poison?

First clue this year was that suddenly lately the surface has not been drying during the day. It flowed fairly well when repotted earlier this year.

And..... in case you think the ka ka dama wasn't LOOKING good, I even took a picture of THAT in the barrel I have it in. Maybe someday I'll have to build an adobe fort and I can use this material.


Here are the pix of the poor juniper.
AND the concreted MESS they call "akadam...." No, it's kakadammit!





The black rootless ....uh....whaddya call a root ball with no roots?


Here's the sour tub it lifted out of.



Turning pot over, this was what gravity could get rid of:



But LOOKEE! It CAN be chiseled out!



And this is the unused garbage. (Had no idea a garbage can would prove so appropriate)

 

[Vance Wood]

I will go out in the shed tomorrow and get the product name of the stuff I am currently using.

 

[michaelj]

Dude, that tree was your namesake!

 

[Smoke]

Congratulations, you have become the poster child for people that should not do things they know nothing about.

EDIT: your first mistake was thinking its fired. What gave you that idea? That pot looks exactly like what it should look like.

 

[Mudroot]

No, my first ...scratch that because it worked for years...OK my next mistake was thinking it would remain constant.
I'll be the poster child for converting drains to stoppers.

 

[Mudroot]

NO pot has ever looked like that before.
Now I get to be concerned over the acer and the olive which are also beginning to stay surface wet too long.

 

[Mudroot]

Dude, that tree was your namesake!

That's for sure.

 

[Smoke]

No, my first ...scratch that because it worked for years...OK my next mistake was thinking it would remain constant.
I'll be the poster child for converting drains to stoppers.

Now that was damn funny, Sorry for your loss. You didn't use that big white bag with black letters on it did you?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Sorry about the loss...but losing trees is part of the deal. From the photos, and I could be wrong, but this looks:
1. Unsifted.
2. Over potted.
3. Over watered.
4. Over "handled"...digging around the surface, too-strong water pressure?

Fines will settle to the bottom of the pot and will not find their way out. This causes water retention.
Ovepotting means the roots don't fill the pot quickly and can't absorb all available water...then watering too often with fines in the bottom, and without roots everywhere to take it up, leads to a soggy mess. Read this: http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/earthpot.htm

I see improper cultivation here, not bad soil. What you dumped in the trash can, I would likely sift and use without hesitation.

Here is a Japanese maple I've had in akadama and lava (2:1) for a decade, annual repotting. I sift and striate, use a pot that the maple can fill in a few weeks, water properly, and don't dig around in the soil. No problemo.

Before repotting...full of roots, granular soil still visible on the surface, but normal, expected breakdown as well:


Bare-rooted, washed, nice fine feeder roots everywhere:

 

[Adair M]

Mud root, I have to agree with Brian here. Looking at the old, black rootball, I don't see any akadama in there. That looks like old nurserymans mix, not bonsai soil. It appears that the roots never penetrated into the new soil mix.

I don't know for sure since I wasn't there when you potted, but when you change the soil from nurserymans mix to inorganic, you have to tease out 1/2 inch or so of the new feeder roots so that the rootball looks "fuzzy" on the sides. (Don't do it on the bottom. Leave the bottom flat). Then, when you backfill with new inorganic soil, the little feeder roots will already be sticking out into the new soil.

If you don't, what appears to happen is the roots in the old root ball won't grow into the new mix because it's too open. The roots react like they've found the edge of a colander, and don't grow into it. So now you have a compact rootball close to the trunk, and open soil around the edges. When you water, it runs off the compacted center rootball, then drains quickly thru the new soil. But there no roots there, so the compacted rootball dries out.

What you should do is a "half bare root" repot when transitioning to inorganic soil. Get rid of all the old soil on one half of the rootball. Next year, do the other half. THEN, you will have eliminated the "old soil, new soil" problem.

 

[Mudroot]

I've had good luck with kakadama for YEARS.
Sifted and amended with pumice many times.
NOT overwatered as it is SUPPOSED to drain out the bottom. But it STOPPED!
This JUNK I have this year does NOT work like previous years.
I'm not willing to chance even WORSE potential mud.

So, unless I went against every SUCCESSFUL year I've had, the building material has to be the cause.

I just won't use it ever again. MAYBE a ...smidge... in a MIX.

But my hatred for the crap doesn't mean you can't use it as much as you dare.

 

[Mudroot]

Mud root, I have to agree with Brian here. Looking at the old, black rootball, I don't see any akadama in there. That looks like old nurserymans mix, not bonsai soil. It appears that the roots never penetrated into the new soil mix.

I don't know for sure since I wasn't there when you potted, .......

Well I was there and your post is correct. That IS the crap I bought as "akadama" this year.
It might look dark from some of the breakdown.
It is a SURPRISE to me and an unwelcome one.
When I repotted INTO the junk, there WERE white roots I could distribute into it.
NOW..... NO white roots.
I can only condemn the only change I made from many successful years.

I hope YOUR akadama continues to work.

MINE QUIT!

 

[Mudroot]

My ONLY HOPE is that these pore waterlogged mudballs can get it in their cambium laced "brains" to ...TRY... to make a new root into the grit they're in now.
It's POSSIBLE as the foliage has remained nice bright green even if I can't imagine WHY!

 

[Adair M]

Did you change brands?

Akadama is not "fired". It is heated a bit to sterilize it. It is mined. A naturally occurring substance. Some mines have better akadama than others.

I still think a "half bare root" repot is called for.

 

[Mudroot]

Don't know if I changed brands. I didn't change supplier but who knows?

 

[Geo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akadama
Clarification,Mudroot.

 

[Adair M]

The tsunami adversely affected at least one of the akadama mines, so the supply from it halted. Other sources of akadama were found to contain some organic material, so their importation was halted.

So, for a while, we were receiving lower quality akadama.

More recently, however, the supply has improved.

Contact Jonas at "bonsai tonight" dot com. He has imported a large quantity of "Clay King", which is premixed akadama, pumice, and lava. Wonderful stuff.

 

[Mudroot]

The tsunami adversely affected at least one of the akadama mines, so the supply from it halted. Other sources of akadama were found to contain some organic material, so their importation was halted.

So, for a while, we were receiving lower quality akadama.

More recently, however, the supply has improved.

Contact Jonas at "bonsai tonight" dot com. He has imported a large quantity of "Clay King", which is premixed akadama, pumice, and lava. Wonderful stuff.

That sounds suspiciously like a DIY thing.

 

[Mudroot]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akadama
Clarification,Mudroot.

Thanks. That should help my drainage immensely.

 

[Adair M]

That sounds suspiciously like a DIY thing.

Yes, you can make your own. I have. I've also used Clay King. By the time I mix all the ingredients, seive each component separately, etc, the cost comes out about the same.

If I dont have access to Clay King, I make my own.