Balinese bonsai pots

[Luke308]

Hi, I went to a Bali import wholesaler today, and the guy that owns it is into bonsai. He had a new bonsai pots for sale, and I was interested in the larger ones suitable for group plantings. My only concern is they are made out of concrete. He assured me this is a positive as the pots are porous "which means it keeps the roots cooler" but I tend to disagree. So I thought I would ask the bonsai community, and see what the consensus is. They are coated on the outside and inside, but the bottom (underside) and the inside of the drainage holes are left un-coated, and you can see it looks like your average cement. He told me that these are what is used in the "bonsai cafe" at Sanur, but I am undecided. They are fairly cheap eg approx 80cm x 40cm oval pot approx 7-8cm thick is $38 whereas the same size, but 15cm deep pot is $68. He has some smaller ones too. I believe his website is http://www.islandimports.net.au/

Thanks,
Luke

[Luke308]

Hello.....anyone? surely someone has something to say about porous pots???

[bodhidharma]

To heavy.

[Greth]

Dont know much about his pots I do know he is a member of southern bonsai group and has a personal interest. The pots seemed quite reasonable to me and the prices are very good. Only large sizes available, suitable for a group planting or large tree but not really for me. I would buy from him if I had the money, just my opinion. Concrete sounds yucky but the only proviso is that it will tend to make your soil alkaline, only suited for some trees. And concrete or not, they look pretty decent.
Your post turned up while I was typing Bodhi, all respect, I have seen and considered these pots myself, anything that size is gonna be heavyish, the only reason I didnt buy is that they were too big for anything I was planning. Mr Imports has some lovely garden decorations too, sigh...

[fiveoffive]

I was hopeing for hand crafted stuff.

The Balinese are great with there hands. i have many wood carveings from the town of ubud.
oh well.

Thanks for the info

[Greth]

I think he is trying to make a good profit on really cheap goods, good luck to him on that. Most of his stuff is not handcrafted, not particularly special, but some is quite nice anyway. A question - if you like it and it will work for you, then its not a bad buy.
He must be a bonsai person, when I mentioned a 'forest planting' he immediately corrected me with ' group planting' , lol.

[Luke308]

I know who he is, and like me, he is learning, but he has the passion for bonsai. Yes his pots are heavy, but I am not planning on moving them, I'm wanting them for "training" pots for establishing group plantings. My main concern is the pots being porous.....will the pots draw water away from the trees, or once the pot is wet it stays wet??? I'm confused.

On a side note...... I was not impressed with the quality of trees at the Southern bonsai club's show last year, in fact I nearly asked for my $2 back A lot of them belonged to people who were new to bonsai, yet those were far from show quality, and needed a lot of development. The trees belonging to 2 or 3 members however were inspiring, yet the other lesser quality trees did nothing but detract from these. I went to 2 or 3 meetings at the Southern bonsai club, before deciding to join S.A bonsai society. I haven't looked back, as the society has more members and therefore more knowledge and experience to learn from. And they are one of, if not the oldest bonsai club in Australia (1964). The southern club members were very friendly, and very welcoming, yet the meetings seemed too casual for my liking. They told me they only judge trees meeting the Japanese bonsai criteria (eg 1st side branch, 2nd side branch, 3rd back branch etc) But from visiting their show, I found this contradicting. I'm glad I took the time to go to a few meetings of each club before committing my money to become a member. Although, I do miss seeing the few from the southern club who are great bonsai artists, and very friendly people.