AusBonsai

A must read!!! No rocket science, just good, reliable, sound advice!

http://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/bonsa ... -t3328.htm

I was just about to post the same article this one on Walters own Blog.
Everyone should have a read, Especially those thinking about using inorganic Mixes

For me only reinforces what I have been doing for 4 years now anyway but like to hear someone of the stature of Walter to back it up
http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/ ... glish.html

Love this bit
"There is no such thing as an 'ideal bonsai substrate'. There are in fact thousands of ideal substrates. I believe that IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOU USE AND IN WHAT MIXTURE as long as it is a modern substrate."

Ken

Hi Antonio, there's an old saying . "Its hard to soar like an eagle when your surrounded by turkeys".Old fashion methods are not in my regeme . I use a scoria and pine bark mix , i power feed with high balanced ferts , i water with a garden hose full power every day sometimes twice if its hot . Am i doing it right according to W.P i am . And my trees are very healthy , This should jolt a few comments .Thanks for posting .Cheers Alpineart

Sorry to be a stick in the mud everyone, but I don't particularly agree with Waltar in regards to fertilizing.

Sure its important to fertilise, but his explanation is too simplistic, I suppose that is always the case when trying to explain something really complicated.

In regards to putting Nitrogen on, it is known, and has been for a long while, that there are 16 elements required for growth, if any one is absent or in insufficient supply the plant will not grow. Putting more nitrogen on when Iron is deficient will not make the plant grow. Any fertilizer purchased from a hardware or nursery will not contain all the elements required.

Paul

Thanks ant great advice good article. It`s good to know I am doing all the right things . CHEERS ROD...

Great article, thanks Antonio.
Simple and to the point.
My only concern is our summer months and our water restrictions. Very severe heat and not being able to water more often than once a day as the article suggests.
I feel that I will continue to move in this direction but will want a mix that stays wet a little longer than Walter Pall. One or two 40 degree plus days could be devastating.

Thanks Ant.....I much prefer what works than the scientific explanation as to why something "in theory" should work . Plain and simple .

Cheers
Gott

Gerard wrote:Great article, thanks Antonio.
Simple and to the point.
My only concern is our summer months and our water restrictions. Very severe heat and not being able to water more often than once a day as the article suggests.
I feel that I will continue to move in this direction but will want a mix that stays wet a little longer than Walter Pall. One or two 40 degree plus days could be devastating.

Hi Gerard, I had to battle with water restrictions until I moved to the mountains in 2007 and it was a difficult management issue, that's for sure.
I don't know how many trees you have but if you has a small water tank, perhaps 500 litres, you could fill this on your watering days/times and use the water on your bonsai on the days in between. Surely you are quite within you rights to do this, given that an awful lot of Melbournians water on their designated watering days regardless of whether their garden needs it or not. If anyone took you to task on this, tell them a bonsai grower uses less water than is used on almost all domestic gardens.

Thanks for spotting this article Antonio, very timely considering the threads thjat have been getting written on this site of late. I personally would not be able to keep 1200-1500 trees if I didn't have a free draining, mostly inorganic mix that I can safely water whenever I want. I will say that the mix Water describes and the watering regimen he suggests can only be effective if your lifestyle permits it. If you leave for work at 6am and get home at 8pm, unless you have somebody who is reliable and able to water during the day, you are going to lose trees in summer, or are going to have to locate your trees in a very soft position(heavily shaded and protected from the wind), which is often less than ideal for their growth.

Cheers,
Mojo

As Mojo Describes I have my trees in this sort of mix and wat4er via Timer and sprinkler systems. I leave home at 7 am and get home at 6 at night and in summer find most trees are fine right thru the day but will rewater when I get home again in summer when hot.
I do not have that many trees in Bonsai pots, buit those I do I put on a Sand filled tray to keep the humidity up.
If a period of hot waether expected, i will set the timer to turn on again at 2 pm to water again then.

I run my system from a tank so really do not worry so much about it as I will top up the tank from mains if needed

Ken

Is there a local equivalent to the "rough peat" that Walter recommends? He uses 80% baked loam to 20% rough peat (or 85:15). And i imagine that we would need to use more of this organic component to compensate for our warmer weather. But the peat that i can find seems to be the fine stuff that is no good for this application.

He mentions "cut coconut fibers", but i am not sure if that's the same as the coco-peat which is available around here. (The stuff that makes your mix look 'furry')

Hi Mojo,
I have 4000 litres of storage but still worry about running low.
Chris, I do like to add a little coco peat but it sounds different to what Walter talks about. I use less coco peat for pines and none for junipers.

For an understanding of the peat moss Walter talks about see here
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4738&p=54018&hilit=
The closest I have found is Amgrow Killarney Peat moss. This is a mix of decomposed spag moss and coco peat. I am still not happy with this as I don't believe it is as coarse as the stuff Walter uses. I am considering wether it would be best to just use spag moss in the mix instead.