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.
Yeah I will do @Jimothy
Any update, did you find anything interesting to help guide us poor soggy bonsai Brits?
any update? keen to see how these two performed.
