AusBonsai

I have recently made my first soil mix containg about 60% https://www.bunnings.com.au/yates-30l-p ... r_p2961566 (potting mix with dynamic lifter) and about 40% https://shop.coles.com.au/a/a-national/ ... y-7016010p (coles brand clay cat litter) which I sifted to remove excess dust. I am not sure how well the clay will withstand yet. My favourite thing about the soil at the moment is the price costing roughly 37 cents per litre -good for my yamadori in large pots-. I am also considering adding perlite and maybe charcoal, any advice/criticism?

Cat litter. I've never tried it but have considered it.

I stayed away because I figured that if it was any good In the garden it would be sold at a nursery.

Why risk your trees on stuff which you cannot guarantee?

Charcoal is good-

Perlite could be good depending on size. I've found that I lose a lot as it is light and floats on the surface when you water.

Have you considered pumice? I bought two bags a few months back, reported a few trees and can honestly say all trees in pumice are thriving. All are firm in the pots / are throwing growth / looking healthy.

For larger and deeper pots you can get away with any reasonable potting mix. It is only with smaller and, especially with shallower trays where it becomes important to use a special mix.

A little charcoal can be good but don't go too heavy. It tends to be alkaline and some species don't like too much.

With those 2 ingredients you will have very little background fert so remember to either add some to the mix and use supplementary fert every few weeks.

I would think a good p/mix with the Aust standard ticks would be a much safer bet for growing on. It will conform - by law - to have all the properties needed including nutrition for at least a couple of months, AFP, WHC, pH etc. Don't risk using unproven and suspect ingredients for no apparent advantage. Both shibui and I use commercial potting mix for EVERYTHING we are growing on. It works. I have a Japanese white pine - on it's own roots - in a standard commercial pine bark mix in a normal pot for 3 years and it's roots are perfect. It has been watered every day this summer. If that's not proof I don't know what would be! The real important thing is the interaction between the new and the old mix. When they are a different texture - especially the root ball in a fine mix and the new mix coarse, that's when you run into trouble.

If you want to make and use your own mixes, then you have to have a good reason to do so and a good plan on what you want to achieve from it.

Generic products like kitty litter are dangerous as you never know what goes into them from batch to batch.
Kitty litter is designed to absorb liquid and odour for up to a week, and then be thrown out and replaced. not to be immersed in water every day ( or more) for a few years. Most of them will break down to mush in a few weeks and clog the pot.

Some Kitty litters are Diatomite, but not all.
Some forms of Clay are OK to ue as a soil additive, but not all.

Whenever you obtain a new product ( or batch of existing product) then you must test to confirm its suitability and i wil do that for at least a month before use on my own trees.
Do a site search for the many threads on using substrates as potting medums.

Ken

Hi Bailey, I've also started to make my own potting mixes still a newbie but what I've learnt recently is that if your making it you might aswell adjust it according to the plant. So for example maples like a 60-70 % organics like pine bark and rest grit. I use zeolite (cat litter), pumice, diatomite perlite as components of grit instead of using rocks or gravel.
I think when you say cat litter I turns people off, ofcourse not all cat litters are ok but I think this might be alright, it's just naturally mined zeolite no additives maybe this picture might help. However I wouldn't use it as the main component in a mixture.

toshtony wrote: I think when you say cat litter I turns people off, ofcourse not all cat litters are ok but I think this might be alright, it's just naturally mined zeolite no additives maybe this picture might help. However I wouldn't use it as the main component in a mixture.

Sorry just noticed the cat litter you got is different from the one I got from Woolworth's. The One I got is just zeolite, I'm not shore what your one is made of you need to check the ingredients as it could be made from heaps of different stuff no good for soil from paper to other man made stuff with additives.
After researching different types of soil mix I saw zeolite was a pretty common substrate so while at wooleys I noticed this cat litter as being made of just zeolite.

Nice one Tony,

Are u having success with that Woolworths Cat litter?