Bonsai Tree progression

[Bonsai Si]

My pleasure.

He spends 50 quid on a junk tree, I tend to pay a lot less heh, but I'm guessing he is rolling in it going off the prices he charges on his site.

If I go to anywhere that sells plants, first thing I do is ask a member of staff where "Casualty corner" is, that area where they dump all the dodgy stock that missed a couple of waterings or is looking a bit shabby or is out of season. I've had some utter steals from a quick look, then if something catches my eye, I give it a little scratch, see if I can look at the roots and see if the Nebari hidden beneath the few inches of extra soil they always add at a nursery shows promise and then usually walk away with a few trees or shrubs that have some potential or make good donors for cuttings.

No looky, no findey being my motto and for a couple of quid, even if it is a DOA you still get a decent sized pot to keep so not a total loss.

I can only offhand think of maybe 3 trees I bought from a Casualty Corner that were DOA or died shortly after, 2 of those I knew were touch and go but for the few quid they wanted the pot they were in alone was worth at least twice the price they wanted for the tree and pot, lol.

[donksey]

Si, I see you use cat litter in your soil mix. Is it useful for potting other plants, can it be used as a substitute for vermiculite?

[Bonsai Si]

I personally use it in most of my soil mixes for flowers and veg and not just the Bonsai to be honest.

It has the benefits of Perlite and Vermiculite by allowing aeration and holding some moisture while allowing fast drainage and giving easy root runs. It's great when used with Cacti I've found.

The way I see it, bags of compost are not uber cheap, so adding sand, grit, perlite, vermiculite, recycled glass and Cat Litter bulks out the quantity of soil you mix up and often as not a pot full of just John Innes Number 2 say for example; goes from totally soggy to bone dry pretty quick so it's harder to control moisture unless you sit watching it like a hawk on a warm day.

Chucking the other stuff in saves you money I guess but also helps you keep that happy medium of a moist substrate with nice aeration properties.

Then again when I go to B&Q I load up with Sand and Recycled Glass which is pretty cheap (especially with a Trade Point account), then I'll visit a local nursery and load up with Horticultural grit, Terracotta crocks/chippings and Composts. If I do 1 good trip to each and get a full load at the start of a season while there; I can get seriously busy and not have to worry about needing to go back for a while or even at all.

I just bought 100 litre bags of Perlite and Vermiculite from ebay at a reasonable cost so I won't have to worry about that again till next year at least.

When Pets At Home finally deliver my Sophisticat Litter I definitely won't have to worry about that till next year as I am waiting for 120 Litres to be dropped off. That said... I will use the Cat Litter down on the plot as a top dressing to suppress weeds and also help retain moisture by stopping the sun evaporating the soil where my Bonsai trees have been planted.

As for non Bonsai growing, the cat litter and other stuff I use makes potting on so much easier. I potted on some Sweet Corn this afternoon. I had 4 Sweet Corn seeds in some 7cm pots, 3 in others and a few with 2 in. Tap the pot a couple of times, then tip them, slide out the seedlings, give the pot a little shake and all the Terracotta falls back into the pot (Rinse and stack and then your pots are good to go for next time with the Terracotta already in the pots so just add soil!)

Then give the root balls a little shake over your potting tray and most of the old substrate falls off leaving you with intact roots that are not damaged, grab a leaf, chuck it into the 9cm pot, add some John Innes 2 mixed with the other stuff I use, tap the pot or give it a little shake and the Sweet Corn are ready for a drink and more sun once they are put into the tray.

You can then either chuck the seed compost into a bag as it is for the compost heap/top dressing/mulch, or riddle/sieve it to get the Cat Litter back to reuse again.

As it is fired clay it's reusable for a few uses at least, if you are a natural worrier, chuck it in a bucket and add some boiling water and leave it for a while. I've so far never had an issue reusing it.

It's a very versatile medium, you can actually grow stuff in it alone, but you have to of course then use liquid feeds or solid feeds to put nutrients into it.