Akadama

And now everybody is like seeking that.

But it's like, but we have these species at our disposal that are beautiful and max their power in native range, right? And like we have potential substitutes, although I'm not saying we have a substitute for Akadama.

It's kind of a unicorn.

But like we have potential substitutes.

That's what makes the topsoil dark and rich.

And the akadama? Akadama doesn't contain much humus.

It's accumulated volcanic ash.

Pumice is weathered rock.

Because when I compare repotting some of these old trees and taking them out of the pot and they've been repotted in the last few years, within the last five years, and I'm taking it out of the pot and I'm looking at it and everything's falling away.

real root structure there it's just breaking off and falling away or there's a decent amount of roots but it's very different to a set of clients I've been working with over a period of time that are using a non-organic volcanic substrate of either Pumice, or Pumice and Scoria, or Akadama, Pumice Scoria, or Zeolite.

Those mixes, in stark contrast when I go and repot some of those trees that are in those mixes that may have been in those mixes for 10 years and haven't been repotted.

And some of them are old trees too.

And all of them offered very similar volcanic substrate recipes.

They'll vary a little bit because everybody's environment is a little bit different.

Someone may use a little bit more Akadama there or more Zeolite there or neither of them.

But none of the professionals that I read books on, modern professionals or professionals that I communicated with via email, suggested using potting mix soil for pre-bonsai, bonsai and certainly not like refined bonsai