Hey all I was watching the Soil archive video the other day and was wondering what’ if any, changes we should make to the standard 1:1:1 Akadama/Pumice/Lava mix for conifers/Pines.
For my deciduous trees I’m going to be using 100% Akadama as Ryan suggested in the stream.
Many Thanks in advance,
-Steve
The only concern i would have living in the UK myself, is that possibly the 100% Akadama for deciduous might break down after a wet and cold UK Winter.
Thank you the reply Stavros.
Unfortunately I’ve repotted my Maple into the 100% Akadama mix today so I guess I’m going to find out the hard way if it’s going to break down prematurely after next Winter lol. Fingers crossed that that’s not going to be the case
-Steve
I would offer some sort of protection to the tree during the winter, making sure that i have some control over the wetness of the substrate. Hopefully you used hard, good quality Akadama 
Thanks for the tip Stavros. Yeah I used a good quality Akadama - Double Red Line from Greenwood’s in Nottingham
I’ve taken out most of the pumice from the standard mix for some junipers, and got a pretty much 50:50 akadama:lava rock. I was noticing they were struggling with the rain, particularly the ones that were a bit too sparse (so werent drinking it up).
I’ll watch them carefully during the summer, and see how they do with the oxygen:water balance in the 50:50.
Thank you for the reply @Jimothy. I’m running my own little experiment with Akadama vs Diotamacious Earth (DE) with 2 European lLarch that I purchased from Greenwood’s in Nottingham this coming growing season so would love to hear your results
Nice one. A controlled experiment! That’s real science. Let us know how it goes.
Any update, did you find anything interesting to help guide us poor soggy bonsai Brits?
any update? keen to see how these two performed.
