Diatomite availability in Australia

[Kevin]

Hello All,

I have a question regarding the availability of Diatomite, which is hard and suitable for Bonsai usage.

There are many threads over the recent years advising that suitable Diatomite for Bonsai is no longer available in Australia.

However, viewing the recent post from the APAB Exhibition from Canberra appears to show many trees are potted into Diatomite. Is this correct

Is someone able to advise us as to the medium which appears popular in Canberra

I have researched the availability of the many suitable Bonsai mediums that can be easily obtained without costly postage and was on the verge of conceding to the fact that postage was the only alternative. Then finally I found a source which is actually very close to me. They actually state in their write-up that their Diatomite is suitable in Water filtration's, Bonsai and many other Horticulture applications. I have attached a link to their site below.

https://www.mineraland.com.au/copy-of-akadama3

Back to my original questions:
- Do the good folk of Canberra use Diatomite If so, where do you obtain it from
- Is suitable Diatomite actually available in Australia

As of yet i haven't made contact with Mineraland, but plan to very shortly. I just thought I'd check with the Canberra members first.

Thank-you,

Kevin

[treeman]

The diatomite from Mineraland is from China. It is very good. Very hard. Very expensive.
It really is unfortunate that they cannot get their act together in this country and set up a continuous, reliable supply of diatomite because some samples here are excellent quality. (Maidenwell comes to mind)

[GavinG]

in Canberra some growers use pumice, or something similar, which can look like diatomite in a mix. A few folk are trying Australian diatomite, very carefully.

I hope you liked the trees.

Gavin

[Kevin]

Hello Gavin,

Thank-you for your helpful reply.

The trees on display at the exhibition, all of them, were simply outstanding and very inspirational. I was unable to attend but very grateful to Watto for his time to post them here.

Recently a Canberra member posted that Diatomite was a major component in his mix when re-potting last year. Then when studying the trees closely I happened to notice a common theme. So I thought I would ask and very grateful for your time to reply.

The dreaded curl grub has me paranoid. I've recently covered many kilometres trying to purchase many / any components without success. At the moment I've been trying to locate kcpoole's web-site with little success. Does anyone have Ken's web-site link they could post please?

Thank-you,

Kevin