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Personally I would not put it in pure akadama. I probably wouldn't even use akadama.

The white stuff on your soil is not mould. It is limescale and other salts, and a result of your watering & evaporation.

Do not use acadama unless you know what you are doing I would say. In my eyes, you have this as a nice plant, and are not truely into bonsai at this time. Treat it as you would any houseplant. Put it in a larger container, use resgular potting soil. Prune when you start to loose the shape.

If you do llike bonsai as an artform and would like to get into it, still proceed as above. Read up on bonsai. And in a year or so you know what the alternatives are, and which route suits you best.

Just my 2p.

Auk wrote: Personally I would not put it in pure akadama. I probably wouldn't even use akadama.

I would use akadama, i did use akadama. As you have more experience with soils and bonsai as a whole than me, just wondring what soil you would use? It would be good to know

bob wrote:

Auk wrote: Personally I would not put it in pure akadama. I probably wouldn't even use akadama.

I would use akadama, i did use akadama. As you have more experience with soils and bonsai as a whole than me, just wondring what soil you would use? It would be good to know

What LB wrote - standard potting soil.

Oh, ok. I dont know, never tried it before. Personally i would mix some grit in there as well. But i guess we all have different soil preferences. Thanks

When you do something, always ask yourself: WHY do I do this. So.. Why do you mix grit in there?

All my trees are in pine-bark, with non-lumping cat litter & ground up expanded clay, which is a bit like lavarock. I would NEVER suggest this to anyone who is not into bonsai as watering get inpredictable if you do not understand the micture.

Cool, i mean the grit works for me and ive seen good results with it. There is another better mixture but i have been using it for all my plants even before i stumbled into this art. I like the grit and compost cause it is economical and has good performance. But akadama is the one which definitely ticks the perfomance box for me but not the economical one .

bob wrote: But akadama is the one which definitely ticks the perfomance box for me but not the economical one .

Are you seriously saying your trees "perform" better in akadama?
I'd like to see those results then.

Thanks so much for your input, guys!

I'm new to bonsai art and this is the first one I've ever had, so I'm guessing I will be keeping it more as a house plant than really practicing it as an art form, although I am very interested in doing so in the future.

I'm guessing that using normal soil is the best way of keeping the bonsai, at least until I know some more? And is the limescale on the soil that leatherback mentioned harmful to the plant in any way?

The limescale is hardly harmfull. Just brush it off the soil or/and tree the limescale is caused by the use of hard water.

Before i stumbled into bonsai i was into herb and things like that. Just before i got my first mallsai my uncles brother gave my uncle some soil, but my uncle didntt think twice about it qnd asked me to take it so i did. Then i used it on basil, liquorice, mandrake and dandilion. They all did well-better than if they were in normal soil. Because first i just used compost then i put grit in there thinking of their drainage and and then i got the mystery soil off of my uncle later to find that it is akadama and then to find out about this art.

I as well think it would be a good idea to just keep simple for now and master the care of trees and plants. Then after that you can start assending into the styling of bonsai. I know how tempting it is to fiddle with trees . Once your beautiful starter tree has grow more of a branch structure then you could ask us again or read up and try it yourself. For nowi think it would be good to research about bonsai primarilly by joining a club but reading books or the internet is still good.