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| I just bought myself a pony tail palm, it's beautiful!
So I got a cheapie from Home Depot, and there are little rocks on the surface of the "soil," and they are actually glued together, How do you water such a thing? I tried to put a little water in, and wouldn't go through the stones. Should it be prepotted? I've always LOVED bonsai, but never took the plunge before... |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by simsedward 5 (My Page) on Tue, Feb 7, 12 at 8:48
| Repot that thing immediately. Get it into some fast draining bonsai soil |
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- Posted by greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a (My Page) on Tue, Feb 7, 12 at 10:22
| Ditto what Simsedward said. Remove those stones with a butterknife (and maybe some warm water to loosen the glue). A fast-draining soil is essential, so that you can water copiously and thoroughly without fear of root-rot. I re-potted mine a few months ago (not the best time of year to do so), and it pulled through just fine. I used screened fir bark, perlite, and turface for the mix.
Josh |
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- Posted by grullablue 5 (My Page) on Tue, Feb 7, 12 at 16:00
| Thanks for the input! I will repot it today! Well, I'd need to get some bonsai soil first....maybe someplace like home depot carries it? I have regular potting soil...and perlite...if I made a mixture of that, would it be ok? I wonder why they do this. Sure, it looks pretty enough...but I figured it was meant to be spray watered...and that surely doesn't seem like enough water to me! Will be interesting to get it out of the pot and see what the root ball looks like... I also have four ponytails (in soil) that are all bunched together in one pot. I would like to separate them...so perhaps could take care of them all at once. Thank you for the input! I started growing some tropicals a year ago....but this is my first "bonsai type" plant...and figured leaving the stones in would kill my plant! It feels quite dry... Angie |
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- Posted by simsedward (My Page) on Tue, Feb 7, 12 at 16:24
| I see you are in zone 5, where do you live? |
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- Posted by greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a (My Page) on Tue, Feb 7, 12 at 20:31
| I doubt you'll find appropriate soil at Home Depot. If you're going to use potting soil and Perlite, you'll want about 80 - 90 percent Perlite in your mix. In short, you'd be better served to wait to re-pot, and look for better ingredients in the meantime. Josh |
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- Posted by simsedward 5 (My Page) on Wed, Feb 8, 12 at 5:17
| This is what you want http://www.etenix.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&I temid=6 I live in Southeast Michigan and we have a nice bonsai dealer here who sells a great mix very similar to the one in the link. If you cannot find a bonsai dealer who sells something similar, these are the ingredients and ratios you should shoot for. |
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- Posted by grullablue 5 (My Page) on Wed, Feb 8, 12 at 6:49
| Madison, WI, just outside of. We have a Jungs store 5 minutes away, and they've sold bonsai in the past, so I'll give them a call today to see if they have any soil. Thanks for all of the input! I'm new to this! |
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| Lolol - I couldn't agree more with Simseward's soil recommendation. That stuff looks superb. ;-) Most commercially prepared bonsai soils have too many fines in them (especially Hoffman's) because the soil maker doesn't want to go through the effort of screening the ingredients (time is money) and doesn't want to waste the fines that he paid for. Al |
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- Posted by simsedward (My Page) on Sun, Feb 26, 12 at 17:20
| LOL AL...gotta stick with what works - your mix has never failed!!! |
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| We received one of these last year and the instructions said to put the pot in a shallow pan of water in order to water it. Eventually the little rocks/stones broke off and one of the 3 sprouts (don't know the technical term!) broke off due to underwatering (oops), and then some mold or something grew on top of the soil, but it's still chugging along. We need to repot it ASAP if we want to give it a real chance to thrive, though. I'm going to make some of Al's mix - it was recommended to me for another of my houseplants that I have yet to repot and I think now is the time! |
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- Posted by BonsaiGinseng none (My Page) on Wed, May 9, 12 at 1:10
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