AusBonsai

I inadvertently did a potting medium experiment on some Bougainvillea cuttings at their first repotting. The ones in forestry tubes are destined for my Mother to plant on their acreage, so I used Searle's "premium" potting mix, with the fines sifted out. The one in the squat pot is my keeper and is planted in my diatomite/scoria/grit/pine bark mix.
All three were roughly the same size and had similar root deveolpment when I potted them three weeks ago. Same position and care, although the keeper has had a bit more water due to the open mix.
Pretty dramatic difference in growth. Sample size is too small to make a scientific judgement, but I thank Ausbonsai muchly for the wonderful advice given in this forum

I am new to bonsai (and horticulture in general) and, following the advice here, have been mixing my own substrate. With no prior knowledge to compare, I didn't know if my labour was worth it, but now I am convinced!

Well done
That result does not surprise me at all givent eh following,
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=18932
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5138

and a link to my own testing here ( with other links off it
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1879&start=0

Ken

Redsonic wrote:I inadvertently did a potting medium experiment on some Bougainvillea cuttings at their first repotting. The ones in forestry tubes are destined for my Mother to plant on their acreage, so I used Searle's "premium" potting mix, with the fines sifted out. The one in the squat pot is my keeper and is planted in my diatomite/scoria/grit/pine bark mix.
All three were roughly the same size and had similar root deveolpment when I potted them three weeks ago. Same position and care, although the keeper has had a bit more water due to the open mix.

Cuttings2016.jpg

Pretty dramatic difference in growth. Sample size is too small to make a scientific judgement, but I thank Ausbonsai muchly for the wonderful advice given in this forum

I am new to bonsai (and horticulture in general) and, following the advice here, have been mixing my own substrate. With no prior knowledge to compare, I didn't know if my labour was worth it, but now I am convinced!

I'm afraid the only thing this proves is that the Searle's mix is substandard.

Or watering more often gives better growth??

Redsonic wrote:The one in the squat pot is my keeper and is planted in my diatomite/scoria/grit/pine bark mix.

Red - Can you please specify your ratio?

Thanks.

cmndapnda wrote:

Redsonic wrote:The one in the squat pot is my keeper and is planted in my diatomite/scoria/grit/pine bark mix.

Red - Can you please specify your ratio?

Thanks.

I use 25% Pine bark
20% scoria
45% diatomite
10% grit.

I included the scoria when I lost faith in diatomite after a very dodgy batch. The 10% grit is just to save a bit of money as I can get mine free from a local creek.