The pictures of the tree in the plastic pot are the old soil. It was unsigned pumice and lava. No akadama that I could tell. It was the mix the tree was in when I purchased it.
I think this tree is a Japanese import. The guy I purchased it from had been to Japan, and I suspect he bought it there, and shipped it home. I don’t know for sure, I bought it thru a third party.
What I found when I performed the repot was evidence of a nice, flat base that had been incompetently potted. That is to say it was in a pot that was far larger than it should have been. The soil was very coarse, but had fines in it, too. It had apparantly not been sifted. The plastic pot had been drilled on the sides in an attempt to make it “air prune” the roots. But of course, roots don’t circle the sides, they circle the bottom. And the air holes were totally ineffective. The roots did not “air prune” and back bud, they were long and circling.
Under the trunk, there were numerous crossing roots and roots growing straight down. I could see that it had once been grown on a board or tile, but when he pitted it, he allowed some roots to run under the trunk from one side to the other.
I fixed all that.
My soil is my Shohin sized Boon mix. I use sifted Aoki soil with added sifted pumice. Aoki has a fairly large percentage of akadama. So pumice helps. When it gets refined to go into a show, I could put it in a shallower pot.
I think this tree is a Japanese import. The guy I purchased it from had been to Japan, and I suspect he bought it there, and shipped it home. I don’t know for sure, I bought it thru a third party.
What I found when I performed the repot was evidence of a nice, flat base that had been incompetently potted. That is to say it was in a pot that was far larger than it should have been. The soil was very coarse, but had fines in it, too. It had apparantly not been sifted. The plastic pot had been drilled on the sides in an attempt to make it “air prune” the roots. But of course, roots don’t circle the sides, they circle the bottom. And the air holes were totally ineffective. The roots did not “air prune” and back bud, they were long and circling.
Under the trunk, there were numerous crossing roots and roots growing straight down. I could see that it had once been grown on a board or tile, but when he pitted it, he allowed some roots to run under the trunk from one side to the other.
I fixed all that.
My soil is my Shohin sized Boon mix. I use sifted Aoki soil with added sifted pumice. Aoki has a fairly large percentage of akadama. So pumice helps. When it gets refined to go into a show, I could put it in a shallower pot.
