The word “chabasai” showed up again in last night’s Mirai Live event. I’ve seen this product mention briefly on video feeds and discussion forums in the past year. Like many, I’m curious about it’s properties and its use as a bonsai substrate. What immediately strikes me is the “-sai” suffix of the product name. Sure enough, the word “chabasai” is a portmanteau of the words “chabazite” and “bonsai”. As a bonsai enthusiast, I’m constantly re-evaluating techniques and resources. I want to know more about Chabasai®; what it is; how it performs; and how to get a cubic yard of it delivered to New Orleans for less than premium registered-name-brand prices.
Chabasai® is a registered product of the French company Somez. The company touts itself as a leader in the field of zeolites. A look at their product page shows that each of their products has a registered name. Somez is marketing Chabasai® as “The reference substrate for the cultivation of bonsai, cactus, succulents and rare plants.” Including “rare plants” in the description makes me chuckle. I’m a fan of marketing techniques. This is a good one.
A product name is nice if we want to order a bag or a truckload of Chabasai®. But before I order anything, I want to know what it is. Somez specializes in the use of zeolites, but that’s not enough. Zeolites are a family of minerals. They’re typically porous and have a high cation exchange capacity (CEC). As bonsai enthusiasts, you should recognize that CEC values are important in substrates for evaluating their ability to hold on to nutrients. Low CEC values mean that much of our fertilizers are being washed out of our pots, rather than being held for use by our trees. With high CEC rates, water absorbancy, and porous structure, zeolites deserve our study.
Visiting https://www.chabasai.com/, with a detour through Google translate, tells us what Chabasai® is made of: “Chabazite is a natural mineral of the zeolite family, derived from the geological alteration of volcanic materials.” This particular zeolite was orginally name chabasie in 1792 by French scientist Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc.
What we have up to here is Chabasai® the product of a French company, chabazite, the mineral, with an original name of chabasie given by a French scientist. What I don’t have yet, is a porous granular form of chabazite from anyone other than Somez.
Zeolite was named such by “Swedish mineralogist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, who observed that rapidly heating the material, believed to have been stilbite, produced large amounts of steam from water that had been adsorbed by the material. Based on this, he called the material zeolite, from the Greek ‘zeo’, meaning “to boil” and ‘lithos’, meaning ‘stone’.” Zeolites can be either natural or synthetic. Search the web for chabazite shows numerous photos of a salmon-pink mineral. For example:
While Chabasai® is a porous dusky brown:
The work of Cronstedt makes me think that Somez is processing chabazite into Chabasai®. I might be able to confirm this by contacting Somez directly, but I’m not fluent in French and “Are you guys boiling chabazite?” is a weird question. I could purchase chabazite crystals and heat them in my kiln to see what happens, but even if I do manage to produce a quantity of a Chabasai® knock-off, I won’t be doing this on a scale large enough to produce even one bonsai pot-full of the substrate.
The next part of my Internet journey is finding out where chabazite is mined. Chabazite is found in “India, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland, Bohemia, Italy, Germany, along the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Oregon, Arizona, and New Jersey.” The mention of Great Britain and Germany makes me chuckle because of a bonsai forum discussion on Chabasai® mentions that Walter Pall (in Germany) is using Chabasai® and forum members (in Great Britain) were lamenting the high cost of the product. I cannot find much mention of chabazite mines in France, but chabazite has been found in deposits of the hot springs of Plombières and Bourbonne-les-Bains in France. Just being a deposit doesn’t make a mine. Is Somez getting chabazite from Great Britain and/or Germany and selling it right back to them? If so, this is why we need to research our materials before paying premium prices for products we could resource locally.
Chabasai® has one other property that makes it attractive to bonsai enthusiasts: It’s brown. After all, shouldn’t soil be brown? Dark brown being better and black being the best of all? It may be a little lighter than akadama (from what I find in photos), but for anyone looking to replace akadama in their substrate, jumping to Chabasai® makes little visual difference. It also makes very little difference in cost. Both can be rather pricey.
I’m currently beginning tests with another member of the zeolite family, clinoptilolite. It has many of the same characteristics as Chabasai®, high CEC, porosity, and water absorbancy. As it is mined, getting it to the size we like requires no more processing than crushing. It’s toxicity level is the opposite of toxic if you believe statements on the Internet. As a powder, it is being used as a food additive to remove toxins from your body. I won’t stand by that statement, I merely found it amusing. If any of you keep aquariums, you may already be familiar with clinoptilolite. It is used as re-usable filter media for the removal of ammonia. The only thing it lacks is a dark color. Clinoptilolite is very light green and almost white in color. If this bothers you, then I recommend a dusting of red and black lava rock as a top-dressing.
I’d like to order a bag of Chabasai® to test add it to my current soil test, but shipping a CAD$40 bag of Chabasai® from Quebec is CAD$72.27. That brings the cost of the bag up to CAD$112.27. The current exchange rate makes that USD$84.29. That’s going to be a hard pass for me. I’ll look around the Internet for a little while longer. I’ll keep you updated on my search.
As for clinoptilolite, I get it through Grainger.com I have a business account with them and a 40lb bag costs me just under USD$30 including tax. It’s sold as “EcoTraction Pro” and used as a traction grit for icy surfaces. It’s advertised has having no negative impact on the invironment. Again, I’m only at the beginning of the soil comparison test. Nothing has died, yet.
I would like to ask the Mirai community to do their own research into Chabasai®. While exhausting, my research is hardly exhaustive. Somez may own the name, but they don’t own the mineral. If Chabasai®, or chabazite, can be found in generic porous granular form, then it can sourced cheaply. If Clinoptilolite works well as a soil substrate, I’m developing a source in China to send me a raw ton or two. I wouldn’t mind also being able to receive a raw ton of chabazite granules. All I would need is a name to register… How about Cha-Bill-sai? Yeah, buddy…
More to come.
All in all, zeolites are a pretty interesting family of minerals. So much so, that someone has even created a song about their favorite aluminosilicate hero:
I figured the Internet was such a silly place that I could search the phrase “zeolite song” and I’d get a hit. Sure enough, the Internet didn’t let me down. Hey, if my college geology teacher could find a naked woman coated in oolite back in the 80’s for his slide show, I should be able to find a zeolite song, right?
If you want to sing along, here are the lyrics (please note that chabazite and clinoptilolite are both mentioned)
Lyrics:
Here’s an ode to my friend with a ‘Z’ like a Zorro
Just like that man, you convert the people’s sorrow
Your acid strength and capacity provide chemicals for society
your narrow pores and stability really turn me on
A tight embrace yields fuel for tomorrow
Those awesome qualities, I wish that I could borrow
Your topology and morphology, a tidal wave full of mystery
I exaggerate, my apology, here’s what I say
Zeolite! aluminosilicate hero!
Zeolite! In a powder extrudate!
Zeolite! aluminosilicate hero!
Zeolite! I wish I could marry you!
Diffusion rates may be keeping it real slow
But with some mesopores, this complication is gone, now
Unlimited tunability gives us mountains of creativity
Here me say with audacity, you’re all I need
Zeolite! aluminosilicate hero!
Zeolite! Racing through my mind
Zeolite! aluminosilicate hero!
Zeolite! I think I’m gonna marry you!
In every shape or form, there’s a zeolite for you too
just take my word for it, and make your dream cum true
Your acid strength and capacity, but how about some longevity?
Narrow pores, instability, what’s going on?
Zeolite! aluminosilicate hero! Zeolite!
X, Y, chabazite!
Zeolite! aluminosilicate hero!
Zeolite! Clinoptilolite!
Zeolite!
I see your light!
Zeolite!
One final note, if you’re wondering how to get the registered symbol ® to display, on your Windows keyboard, hold down the Alt key and press 0174 on your numeric keypad. The number key row does not work.
