What do you do with your sifted fines?

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BonsaiPancake
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What do you do with your sifted fines?

Post by BonsaiPancake »

As the title says, what do you do with the finer particles once sifted? I have a huge tub of sifted fines and it feels like such a waste to just throw them out. It's a mix of UXP (pumice), Akadama, and Zeolite.

Quite a lot of it is very fine dust particles so I could sift further to end up with 0.5mm to around 1.5mm particles (most on the smaller side), so is there any real use for them?

I have a few swampies that might enjoy the more densely packed soil, but I'm no expert with them.

Curious to know what everyone is doing with them!
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Re: What do you do with your sifted fines?

Post by shibui »

I'm positive that you are not the first to ask the same question but could not find previous thread with a quick search???

There's been mention of pumice and perlite fines being used for cutting mix.
Fines can be a great start to a seedling mix.
Make a mix for small pots with the larger portion of your sifted material but not likely to use up all your fines in a few small pots.
Kusamono or accent plant pots can use finer mix but that's not likely to use a whole lot either.

Spread what's left as top dressing on the lawn or garden beds.
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Re: What do you do with your sifted fines?

Post by Daluke »

I use the super fines to plant seedlings and cuttings.

I’ve started re-sieving out the slightly larger particles and put as a top coat of my trees. It seems they grow moss easier.

You should try it as cat litter too haha
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Re: What do you do with your sifted fines?

Post by BonsaiBobbie »

shibui wrote: April 5th, 2022, 5:25 pm I'm positive that you are not the first to ask the same question but could not find previous thread with a quick search???
The search function isn't the easiest on this forum. I always have trouble finding things, even when I've posted them / seen them before.
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No idea what I am doing…
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Re: What do you do with your sifted fines?

Post by BonsaiPancake »

I also thought I saw a similar post a while back but couldn't find it and assumed I saw something similar instead.
shibui wrote: April 5th, 2022, 5:25 pm Fines can be a great start to a seedling mix.
No luck in the past with seeds/cuttings using these fines, but I haven't created a mix with some other soil which might work a little better.
Daluke wrote: April 5th, 2022, 7:13 pm I’ve started re-sieving out the slightly larger particles and put as a top coat of my trees. It seems they grow moss easier.
Interesting idea. I have some forests I'm working on and a sandy style on top might create a cool look.
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