Racks / shelves for display

[BonsaiPancake]

I'm looking to upgrade my display area as the wooden tables are rotting heavily.

I have around 100 trees with 30 or so in proper bonsai pots. I barely have enough time to tend to these so I need a solution that doesn't need maintenance (i.e. no varnishing / protecting wood etc.)

I was at Bunnings and snapped the below photo which I think would be perfect. Some cinder blocks with heavy metal racks which would need basically zero maintenance and is simple enough to set up. They are extremely strong and could easily support my heaviest trees without flexing in the middle.

20240715_120051.jpg

I asked the staff if they sold the racks and they had no idea. I was in a rush so didn't have time to ask someone who would know.

Has anyone see these at Bunnings or other hardware stores? And what would they be called? I'm struggling in my search to find anything similar.

Thanks!

[PWC]

they look like drainage grates hardware stores should be able to get them.

[SuperBonSaiyan]

I considered this a while back as well, but after doing some searching I found the cost of the metal racks too expensive to justify. I know a nursery in Melbourne has some racks made of metal (Bonsai Art).

[shibui]

Search steel drain grates for suppliers and prices.
Seems to be around $100 per metre for grate only (without the channel it sits on).
Most steel merchants should have something or be able to source it for you.
Here's one site: https://www.steelbuilders.com.au/produc ... al-pattern
Bummings do have them but as special order - https://www.bunnings.com.au/easydrain-g ... e_p0356581 $54 per metre.
Ebay suppliers also list a number of options and suppliers.

[BonsaiPancake]

Thanks everyone. Definitely a very expensive solution for so many trees! My local Bunnings has the whole nursery set up with those grates. Seems like the setup is more valuable than their entire nursery stock

[Joel]

Have you considered WPC? EcoDek has the bunnings monopoly ("buzzings" to the OG members) but there is a wide variety of products with realistic textures put there these days and I think many of the options available elsewhere have a more realistic appearance. Most will send samples to your door for free or a minimum cost for colour selection.

[dills]

I recently bought some gal steel benches for my bonsai from these guys and couldn’t be happier with the result. Certainly built strong enough to hold a fair bit of weight and nicely finished off.

https://adloheat.com.au/collections/pl ... gKWMvD_BwE

They are a bit of an outlay to begin with, but will last a lifetime, so worth it in my opinion. All built by a small local Aussie business as an added bonus.

[Redsonic]

I second the Adloheat recommendation. Nicely made, and sturdy. I recently moved, downsizing my collection and sold off a couple of the Adloheat shelves I had and they held their value well second hand.

[BonsaiPancake]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

For around 3 years now, I've had 1 display area using these plastic panels - https://www.bunnings.com.au/matrix-1200 ... l_p3042389

They held up extremely well with pretty much zero damage (slight colour fade if anything), are a great size, quite heavy duty, and not too expensive.

I also had 1,000-2,000 bricks laying around from some construction a decade ago. So I decided to use them as a foundation and use these plastic panels.

Here is a quick video of the display area. I will probably made some small improvements, but I'm really happy with how it came out (plus being able to hide the bricks that have just been sitting around for years!). Apologies for the vertical orientation of the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-oobi3v8Cs

If anyone wants any close ups of anything, let me know!

[DianeVH]

Thats a lovely display area for your trees.