Please excuse my ignorance as I'm new to all of this.
I recently bought a bonsai from B+Q (Mallsai?). It is a Chinese Elm.
Now I'm quite a decent gardener, but know nothing about bonsai, so after reading these threads for a while, spotted an article about using dried Tesco catfood in place of Akadama. It seemed a good idea at the time, but can I find the article now?. No.
Anyway, it's been a disaster. My tree looked fine for a while, but now it's starting to smell funny. Every critter within miles seems to be eating my 'soil', and I'm having to replace the majority of it most days. The tree is ready to give up the ghost, but at least I'm getting some interesting looking fungus growing.
I'm starting to think that the original poster was having a bit of a joke, but it's cost me 5 quid on a tree and nearly 30 quid on replacing my eaten soil. Not funny.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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joe public
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Gnome
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joe public,
You are going to have to re-pot the tree into some decent soil or it will surely cause you nothing but trouble. If you choose to try again with the kitty litter make sure you purchase the correct brand and I would still test it to make sure it remains stable when wet. It might be easier in the short term to purchase a bag of ready-made bonsai soil.
Norm
You are going to have to re-pot the tree into some decent soil or it will surely cause you nothing but trouble. If you choose to try again with the kitty litter make sure you purchase the correct brand and I would still test it to make sure it remains stable when wet. It might be easier in the short term to purchase a bag of ready-made bonsai soil.
Norm
I belive I posted the post .
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6359
althought it says nothing about cat food .
ive used the cat litter but you have to use more grit than cat litter in the mix if the mix also contains other organics , as the soil mix just gets sticky and causes water related prolems for the tree/s as I found out the hard way by losing a lovely little blackthorn due to flower
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6359
althought it says nothing about cat food .
ive used the cat litter but you have to use more grit than cat litter in the mix if the mix also contains other organics , as the soil mix just gets sticky and causes water related prolems for the tree/s as I found out the hard way by losing a lovely little blackthorn due to flower