How to make bonsai soil, you will need one cup or container depends on how much you want to make, now the soils you want to mix to make bonsai soil are Turface Clay , Organic Potting Soil, Aged Pine Bark, we are going to use parts that is where the cup or container comes in at, start with 4 parts Turface Clay, then add 2 parts Organic Potting Soil, then add 10 parts Aged Pine Bark and mix them there you have Ready to use Bonsai Soil put tree in pot add you new mixed Bonsai soil and add water, if you do not have or can not get Turface Clay, use Oil dri you can get about any where http://www.oildri.com/ if that is hard to get a hold of get cat litter, when using cat litter get cat litter that does not brake down, you can put the cat litter in a container of water for 2 or 3 days if it does not turn to mud it should be ok to use, most people use Michigan peat but i use Organic Potting Soil, because you can find it anywhere is also has soil nutrients like Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), boron (B), molybdenum (Mo), and chlorine (Cl) that plant/ trees need to live and also a lot of bacteria that trees/plants need, as for the Aged pine bark you if you can not find it you can use just pine bark try to brake it up with a hammer or blender even can use a food processor what ever makes the large pine bark smaller or it will not hold water to good to keep the soil damp, or could be to big to use in your Bonsai pot, Bonsai soil is not to hard to make and with the parts i showed you to use even hot weather you can use this soil in i will add some photos for you to see what it all looks like to make. I hope this helps out people so you do not get riped off with Bonsai soil prices.
Bone meal or blood meal is Organic it will not burn your tree or anything, if you use less potting soil, that is ok it will just be more well draining Bonsai soil you just will have to water more times a week. if you would like to add Bone meal or blood meal to your mix that will be fine.
In the U.K. there is now this big thing about cat-litter (adsorptive calcined clay) and that's what the experts now use over here. Having said that, only certain brands are recommended such as the Danish Pink. I enclose a pic of my trees and you can see how the soil in the pot is made up of this calcined clay granular mix). When I scraped off the old muddy, Chinese potting mix, I replaced with the calcined clay which is far more free-draining.
This stuff is very similar to Akadama but what they do is add slow release food in pellets and then the trees grow very very well.<br><br>Post edited by: DrSmith, at: 2008/05/22 03:47
I can get you some perhaps if you ever want to try it. Cat litter may work better with some trees than akadama, especially those kept outdoors in harsher weather conditions. I'm told when exposed to harsher weather, akadama used neat may break down so they always mixed akadama with grit and organic stuff. Danish Pink cat litter doesn't break down and is far hardier. I know people who claim it's the best potting mix they ever used although I still reserve opinion myself as to whether that's true. But, one thing's for sure: You do get far less pests and bugs with this kind of clay mix and you can soak the trees throughout without too much worry about root rot.
My next plan is to try akadama indoors and see how it compares with the Danish Pink. I imagine indoors akadama should be perfectly O.K.
View Profile
View Forum Posts
Private Message
Reply With Quote
Very helpful indeed. Hope to get back to this when the times comes I can set up my own Bonsai "collection" 
