Sunday, November 13, 2011

Where can I find bonsai soil locally?

I bought a ficus bonsai and I need to repot it in a bonsai pot but I am not sure where to find the soil other than ordering it online. Can anyone help? Are there any major chain stores that you think would carry this or is it my best bet to just try a nursery?|||Try finding in local Plant nurseries|||from an article here--%26gt; http://www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basicsca鈥?/a>





Akadama, Turface and Seramis are among the most popular high quality (inorganic) soil components available in which to plant your bonsai. Unfortunately, they can be difficult to source and are expensive particularly if you have many large trees to repot, have to buy by mail order or just require a small quantity for a small number of trees.





These soil components are all (basically) clay granules that have been fired/heated to create small pellets or granules that are water retentive, extremely well draining and are stable, that is they will not breakdown over the course of the year.





Some cat litter products are exactly this; fired clay granules. Originally, a knowledgeable fellow enthusiast who has been using it as a bonsai soil for the past decade, introduced me to using clay granules intended as cat litter a number of years ago. I have been planting all of my bonsai in this particular brand of catlitter for a number of years now and it has proved to be an excellent material that I would now comfortably recommend as being superior to Akadama and Seramis.





As time has gone on since first writing this article around 2004, I have since heard from many enthusiasts who have switched to Tescos Low Dust Lightweight and a number of other similar (diatomaceous earth/diatomite) products with great success.





Very easily available in the UK, I use an own-brand product available from 'Tescos' called 'Low Dust Lightweight Catlitter' (previously known as 'Premium Lightweight'). There are other brands that make suitable bonsai soil (see the updates at the foot of the page) but this is the only one I have direct experience of and can therefore personally recommend.


I use this product for my all of my bonsai, with cuttings and air layers and even newly collected yamadori (collected trees) all to good effect.|||You can buy it from...


http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?u鈥?/a>


I hope this was helpful for you. Good Luck!|||i have a bonsai plant ... the plant comes with the soil and the pot (duh! otherwise it would be dead by now) ... i water them everyday ... why not try eBay?

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