What an amazing solution! Akadama is so expensive and hard to come by... But Woolies cat litter? 5 min drive and $10! Thanks for the percentage breakdown too... That's super useful to know!
Woollies cat litter works so well been doing it for a couple of years now. Don't have a cement mixer but I use a compost tumbler so it keeps it dry for when I need it. Cheers Sam
@@mariakellner5429 OK, fair enough. I am from Germany. So i am sure there will be differences. I just compared the dusty cat litter in the video with the zeolite I have. It's sold as a filter component for Koi ponds here, so it's pretty clean and the particle size is pretty consistent. You can choose from many particle sizes. like 2-4 mm or 4-8mm
I am really excited about the fact I can see myself making a nice mix of well draining premium bonsai mix and having a better success rate than I previously had in Geraldton western Australia
I decided to test the cat litter,I sifted some because I have small bonsai, sifted I get 60% 2mm and 40% 4+ mm could get other sizes ,i had only one size sifter , I can use for my lager bonsai ,getting the best of both worlds LOL better get my shopping in i get it delivered with my food order!
we have that same product in NZ, and will I'm an advocate for it, I really recommend sifting it with a kitchen sieve in water. ive had it clump up on me when straight from the bag, and made a solid layer that wouldn't let water through.
I’m watching and yes I agree I haven’t bought soil in many years but if you’re getting root rot you need to know more about your plants. I make my own but the amount of organic depends on the tree or the bush. I have 6 different mixes I use.
excellent for australian climates, we are a different climate all together. Also could you throw in the seasonal references when your doing maintenance rather than (some other channels) the months of the year, that way it is a world reference rather than a northern or southern substitute.
I have an old dryer I can modify to mix soil maybe...🤔 Thanks for all the tips! I'm going to look and see if we have anything similar! Cat litter here is usually just clay. Turns to much when you add water.
Was wondering if I was gonna see those orange bags when I clicked haha I was taught to do a 1:1:1 mix of potting mix, zeolite and perlite. Would you say that's probably somewhere in between your two mixes as far as watering and fertilising goes?
Yeh I mean yeh could use perlite but i wanted to keep it simple so every time I'd be happy to mix more. As far as how much you want to water that just depends on the ratio of zeolite to potting mix you choose
Such an obvious thing once it is pointed out (to use a cement mixer), and I do "happen to have one lying about". I wonder if it still runs? Hubby heard the mixer from across the room and wondered if you were experimenting with that poor olive again!
I guess the premium potting mix is cheaper and also the cat littler. I feel the 65 / 35 zeolite should be good and if still to wet just chuck in a little more cat little
You're lucky with that cat litter. Not every cat litter is zeolite, there are diatomae, bentonite, sepiolite... and the last one is not very good for bonsai because it degrades and compacts easily. Zeolite is the best one. I also have been using potting soil for decades. I used to mix it with standard construction sand, now I'm using construction leca about your percentage (much cheaper than plants leca, being basically the same). I only need to water once a day if hot.
Hi, love your videos. I’ve only been in the Bonsai train for a few months. I’m trying to grow all my own so I have a lot of pre Bonsai in growing pots and foam boxes. Would this soil mix be good for pre Bonsai. Keep up the great work.
It might help with a bit of drainage/aeration and water retention depending on what you're using and if its really poor at the above.... but generally you don't want to use inorganics like that for trees in the development stage. They're generally only for advanced trees in the ramification stage and mostly organics for development stage. I could get deep into the reasons for this but I doubt you want to read it haha and nor I type it. )) But simply put organics in larger pots or ground will give you long elongated roots and this is reflected in the top of the tree. Elongation is key. That's what you need to thicken up your trunks and develop the primary branch structure and surface root display/nefarious. Long internodes etx and let the shoots grow out Long as you can to thicken them up then cut right back to a few nodes (depending on species. Not cobifers) then let a new shoot develop and elongate and repeat repeat repeat to get all your thickness and cool movement and taper in trunks, branches, and negative.. When that's developed how you want the tree structure to look like (as it won't grow much bigger or thicker after this) then and only then you can start moving it into inorganics and shallow pots. Once you start mixing inorganics inches growth is going to alow right down so note that. Not a good way to develop trees. Once in inorganics besides slowing down this is where they'll start developing that fine feeder roots and a fine flat pad of fine tight feeder roots for a bonsai pot. The course substrate causing root division heavily. And just like above this will be reflected in the top of the tree...the foliage and branch structure especially. So this is how you'll get the real tight compact tree in scale with tight internodes? Fine branch structure, compact and small tight foliage masses and such to get the mini-big-tree look. :) And that's the "basically" short quickly typed ramble version haha. I'm not typing the long one😂
I really enjoyed the card board signing. You make bonsai approachable not so fussy!
That is a nice soil mix. Great slow motion. Like your display of soil in the glasses.
Cheers mate. Yeh thought it might explain it better if they were all lined up 😀
Great insight for making my own mix. I’m somewhat of a simpleton and your video makes it easy to comprehend without being a geologist! Thank you!
No worries mate 👍
How can you not like the slowmo... nice stir Sam.
Ha ha cheers mate
I’m loving the slow motion!! 😂😂😂
Cheers
What an amazing solution! Akadama is so expensive and hard to come by... But Woolies cat litter? 5 min drive and $10!
Thanks for the percentage breakdown too... That's super useful to know!
Loving the slo mo...
Woollies cat litter works so well been doing it for a couple of years now.
Don't have a cement mixer but I use a compost tumbler so it keeps it dry for when I need it.
Cheers Sam
Great idea with the tumbler. Cheers for the feedback 👍
Good looking mix, the slow mo looks like a surfing video 😎
Cheers mate glad to share 👍
I'm so glad I was put the cat litter ,I bought another brand of zeolite for $22 the same size ,it is the cheapest mix for sure,thanks for sharing Sam,
The difference (and disadvantage) is, that with the litter you get a bigger varitaion of particle size and it's very dusty.
I didn't find that ,there is more dust say from perlite and other substrates ,it may depend on the brand.
I think the brand matters. Woolworth is a new Zealand product. Even expensive akadama when sifted can give you bad returns
@@mariakellner5429 OK, fair enough. I am from Germany. So i am sure there will be differences. I just compared the dusty cat litter in the video with the zeolite I have. It's sold as a filter component for Koi ponds here, so it's pretty clean and the particle size is pretty consistent. You can choose from many particle sizes. like 2-4 mm or 4-8mm
Great information Sam, thanks for sharing. And of course,,, love the cement mixer.
Cheers mate. Always love getting that thing out😀😀
🇦🇺thanks for the step by step really helps the way you explain thing's.
F@#$ the haters🇦🇺
Cheers mate. Glad it made sense as I do ramble sometimes 😊
I am really excited about the fact I can see myself making a nice mix of well draining premium bonsai mix and having a better success rate than I previously had in Geraldton western Australia
At a fraction of the cost also 😀😀
Great video Sam maybe I’ll try 50/50 mix and what I need to change 👍
Yeh mix it up to whatever suits you. I have to do some trial work myself 😀😀
The cement mixer is what makes this a great system. I think I mixed up around 300 litres by hand this year. Cheers Sam.
Wow that is a lot by hand for sure mate. Probably 15mins in a mixer 🤣
Lucky I have plenty of room to store all my crap 😉
@@SamDoeckeAussiebonsaibloke That's true. By the way are you going to try doing that 'Top 7 in under 7' challenge? Cheers
Great tutorial on the mixes.
Cheers mate , great idea .
I decided to test the cat litter,I sifted some because I have small bonsai, sifted I get 60% 2mm and 40% 4+ mm could get other sizes ,i had only one size sifter , I can use for my lager bonsai ,getting the best of both worlds LOL better get my shopping in i get it delivered with my food order!
Great to hear. That's not too bad of a ratio. Gotta be happy with that 😀
we have that same product in NZ, and will I'm an advocate for it, I really recommend sifting it with a kitchen sieve in water. ive had it clump up on me when straight from the bag, and made a solid layer that wouldn't let water through.
Makes sense. Our woollies cat litter actually is mined in New Zealand 🇳🇿
@@SamDoeckeAussiebonsaibloke yup, woolies called countdown here. Same orange bag even
I’m watching and yes I agree I haven’t bought soil in many years but if you’re getting root rot you need to know more about your plants. I make my own but the amount of organic depends on the tree or the bush. I have 6 different mixes I use.
excellent for australian climates, we are a different climate all together. Also could you throw in the seasonal references when your doing maintenance rather than (some other channels) the months of the year, that way it is a world reference rather than a northern or southern substitute.
Good for all climates. Just adjust the ratio to what suits.
Normally do talk seasons and yes can be hard to work out when they talk in months. 😀
by the way your a legend
I have an old dryer I can modify to mix soil maybe...🤔 Thanks for all the tips! I'm going to look and see if we have anything similar! Cat litter here is usually just clay. Turns to much when you add water.
Nice
Super helpful - thanks
Cement mixer better than mixing with a shovel.
Sam. How have you found the change over to the 65/35 potting mix/cat litter going forward to know.
Was wondering if I was gonna see those orange bags when I clicked haha
I was taught to do a 1:1:1 mix of potting mix, zeolite and perlite. Would you say that's probably somewhere in between your two mixes as far as watering and fertilising goes?
Yeh I mean yeh could use perlite but i wanted to keep it simple so every time I'd be happy to mix more. As far as how much you want to water that just depends on the ratio of zeolite to potting mix you choose
Hope the wife doesnt find out you've been shoving dirt in the familys glasswares :P
When I saw the cement mixer and before I read the slug line, my first thought was: there goes another olive!
🤣🤣
Yeh I pinched her new Ikea cups cause they were the only 4 the same 🤣🤣🤣
Nice one bloke
Such an obvious thing once it is pointed out (to use a cement mixer), and I do "happen to have one lying about". I wonder if it still runs? Hubby heard the mixer from across the room and wondered if you were experimenting with that poor olive again!
Ha ha that poor olive 🫒 🤣
Yeh get it out, pump up the tyres and start her up 😀😀💪💪
upstream in the riverland I also tend to go organic to inorganic 60/40 - don't tell woolies they'll put the price up🙂
They already have it used to be $4 not to long ago. Just hope they keep their contract with the NZ zeolite mob.
I better buy 1 a week for the next year 😀😀
how come you did not use the cacti mix with the zeolite? At least with your watering system you would of have more drainage.
I guess the premium potting mix is cheaper and also the cat littler.
I feel the 65 / 35 zeolite should be good and if still to wet just chuck in a little more cat little
Hey sam do you use cat litter now?
You're lucky with that cat litter. Not every cat litter is zeolite, there are diatomae, bentonite, sepiolite... and the last one is not very good for bonsai because it degrades and compacts easily. Zeolite is the best one.
I also have been using potting soil for decades. I used to mix it with standard construction sand, now I'm using construction leca about your percentage (much cheaper than plants leca, being basically the same). I only need to water once a day if hot.
Awesome. Glad you have a cheap solution that works for you 😀😀
Hi, love your videos. I’ve only been in the Bonsai train for a few months. I’m trying to grow all my own so I have a lot of pre Bonsai in growing pots and foam boxes. Would this soil mix be good for pre Bonsai. Keep up the great work.
It might help with a bit of drainage/aeration and water retention depending on what you're using and if its really poor at the above.... but generally you don't want to use inorganics like that for trees in the development stage.
They're generally only for advanced trees in the ramification stage and mostly organics for development stage.
I could get deep into the reasons for this but I doubt you want to read it haha and nor I type it. ))
But simply put organics in larger pots or ground will give you long elongated roots and this is reflected in the top of the tree. Elongation is key. That's what you need to thicken up your trunks and develop the primary branch structure and surface root display/nefarious. Long internodes etx and let the shoots grow out Long as you can to thicken them up then cut right back to a few nodes (depending on species. Not cobifers) then let a new shoot develop and elongate and repeat repeat repeat to get all your thickness and cool movement and taper in trunks, branches, and negative..
When that's developed how you want the tree structure to look like (as it won't grow much bigger or thicker after this) then and only then you can start moving it into inorganics and shallow pots.
Once you start mixing inorganics inches growth is going to alow right down so note that. Not a good way to develop trees.
Once in inorganics besides slowing down this is where they'll start developing that fine feeder roots and a fine flat pad of fine tight feeder roots for a bonsai pot. The course substrate causing root division heavily.
And just like above this will be reflected in the top of the tree...the foliage and branch structure especially.
So this is how you'll get the real tight compact tree in scale with tight internodes? Fine branch structure, compact and small tight foliage masses and such to get the mini-big-tree look. :)
And that's the "basically" short quickly typed ramble version haha.
I'm not typing the long one😂
You not got any surgical gloves Sam? keep any shit out of the wound
🤣🤣
Is the zeolite the same as mohler clay used in cat litter! Thanks🙏🙏🙏
Not sure mate but I think no at a guess. More than one brand uses new Zealand zeolite
👌👍🙂
😀
Take care of your hand mate. Slowly Slowly.
Cheers mate
Cant enjoy a beer with the 100% zeolite....not suitable!!!
Very scientific demonstration. I use a wheel barrow and a hoe. Your way is better 👍🏼
Mate use what you got. A bucked with a lid and shake , but with smaller amounts could work great also 👌