Since I sent out this email the other day asking for advice I went on a
shopping spree. I've been to Agway; they sell Chicken Grit (crushed
granite). It was only $7 for a 50 lb bag, so I picked up two. The
granite looks to be a perfect size; it doesn't seem to have any fines!!
I also went over to another local store, about 5 miles away and picked
up two more 50lb bags of Turface MVP, for $8 each. Then I went to the
local Home Depot and picked up 2 bags of Pine bark mulch, for about
$2.50 per bag. The only thing I still need to do is to get some window
screens and some sort of larger screen to get rid of the fines. The
larger screen would be to get rid of the large, uglier pieces of pine
bark mulch. Any recommendations on screens? Or where to get screens?
Do window stores sell screens with varying hole sizes? Thanks!! You
guys have helped me out a lot!

Antonio Quental


-----Original Message-----
From: Donald Veasey ]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 10:48 PM
To:
Subject: [IBC] Pre-Bonsai Soil

Billy,
I'm over here in Tampa and I use the Pine Bark Mulch. What do you
use
for the organic material?



"Quental, Antonio" wrote in message
hemdc.net...
I have a question on bonsai soil. I understand the concepts of the
soil
you would use in a "bonsai pot", good drainage etc. I buy my bonsai
soil pre-made, it's cheap when you're only using it in small bonsai
pots.

What do you use on your pre-bonsai? Large containers, 5 gallons or
more. Five gallons of pre-mixed bonsai soil is expensive. I was
using
potting soil, but I lost a lot of trees this winter. We had a VERY
cold
winter in Connecticut. A lot of other things other than the potting
soil may have contributed to the death of my plants in training. What
I
started using this spring, after the harsh winter is a 50/50 mix of
turface mvp and pine bark mulch, do you think that's fine for LARGE
training pots?

Antonio Quental

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