Hi there, I was recently sifting some pumice and I was wondering whether people typically save the fines that fall through your smallest mesh? If so, what do you use them for? I’ve seen super fine akadama used for starting cuttings, I wonder if pumice fines would be a suitable medium for the same thing?
It might work even better for rooting cuttings than the fine akadama. It won’t stay quite as wet and pure pumice is frequently used to develop roots on newly collected material.
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I use my fine pumice, anything that falls through the 1/16 screen, in my heat bed. I do take that and run it through a 1/32 screen to try and cut down the amount of dust I put in there though.
I have used the dust from sifting akadama for making bonsai pots. Just mixed ~25% of it with regular clay. It worked well but didn’t have any real benefits. It’s kind of cool though to put your akadama in pots that are made from akadama.
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I sift the dust from the fines. Dust goes into the garden and fines are used for cuttings, kusamono and the occasional small tree where they get added back to the mix. As a experiment today I put a small hinoki in 1:1:1 fine particles.
similar use fines for kusamono and dust for top dressing garden paths
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@Robert can you state what size screen you use to separate the dust from the fines?
It is very fine kitchen strainer around 0,8mm. Making my fines 0,8-2,5 mm, for smaller and medium trees they may get added back in but for larger trees and those appreciating more oxygen / less moisture they are kept out. The laboratory soil sifters should have this mesh size as well but I haven’t acquired one yet,
@Robert thanks for the reply. It sounds like your fines are what I call 1-3 mm and Ryan would include when he keeps the 1/16" in. I looked up galvanized wire mesh at wire mesh | McMaster-Carr to get actual opening sizes. The openings in 8 wires per inch are about 0.1" (2.5 mm) square and in 16 wires per inch are about 0.045" (1.1 mm). 4 wires per inch openings are 0.21" (5.3 mm).