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Recommended Products from The Bonsaify Team

Recommended Products from The Bonsaify Team

Below is a list of the products that are used or recommended by Eric.  Please consider using the links below to make your purchase. Thank you!

Fertilizer

Fertilizer For Bonsai in Refinement and Maintenance

Slow release fertilizer is the name of the game when your bonsai is mature. If you want faster growth you can use more. Japanese Black Pines, for example like a lot of fertilizer in spring prior to decandling.  Some species are salt-sensitive and better fertilized with organics. For these scenarios we recommend Bio-Gold Original.

Buy from Bonsaify  

Fertilizer for People who forget to Fertilize

Fertilizer is important in a container!  If you find you don't stay on top of fertilization, use a time-release dose to keep your plant growing strong.  Supplement with other fertilizers in rotation to speed up growth further.

Bonsai All-Purpose Fertilizer by The Bonsai Supply (Time release!)

2lb bag

3lb (organic)

The classic fertilizers:

Miracle Grow alternating with Fish emulsion on a weekly basis is a tried-and-true fertilizer regimen. 

Bonsai Soil

For young plants in growing containers: 60:20:20 Perlite:Coco Coir or Bark:Lava

Perlite 

We recommend coarse perlite. Perlite sizing is inconsistent across brands - we use #4 from NorCal Perlite.  #3&#4 from Mother earth are too large and porous. Size should be about 1/4"+/-

4 CU. Ft.

Coco Coir

Coco Coir comes either in compressed bricks or hydrated bags.  The bricks are cheaper but a pain to work with.  Bags are bulky, but ready-to-use.

Bricks

Bagged

Akadama and Japanese Mixes - For older and more refined trees.

We use soil imported by Bonsai Tonight for our refined and older trees. Because Akadama is mined in Japan, it is more costly, but it is the gold standard for bonsai growth! Keep in mind it's not necessarily a better soil for rapid growth, in refinement we want steady moderate growth.

Bonsai Tonight Shohin size 

Bonsai Tonight Banzai blend - great for pines!

Domestic Mixes - Bonsai Soil by The Bonsai Supply 

Domestic pre-blended soils are a great lower-cost substitute for imported Akadama mixtures.  

4 Quart

20 Quart

2 Quart micro/Shohin

Premium New Zealand Sphagnum Moss

Sphagnum moss can be applied to the top of the soil to retain moisture near the surface, particularly right after repotting. Shredding it with a sifter and mixing in shredded live moss is a common practice for re-populating the surface with moss. 

500g (40L when hydrated) 

Soil Handling

Scoops

Aluminum ice scoops are great soil scoops and they come in many sizes:

1 & 2oz scoops are great for mame

24 and 32 oz scoops are good for normal soil handling

Soil Storage

Rubbermaid Tough Tubs for storing soil and/or mixing. Note: these are best for indoor storage as the lids collect rainwater which is annoying. For outdoor storage, use the 'Action Packer' series.

Soil Sifting

Bonsai Soil sieves are not particularly expensive and have mesh sized correctly: Bonsai Tonight sieves

Gold sifting pans are more expensive, but they're stackable and the mesh is built in.

Watering Supplies

Geometric Watering Can - Bonsaify

No Hose?

Get a small watering can for a small collection. 

Hose Valves:

Eley Brass Hose valve with or without a swivel. Feels like butter in your hand. Definitely our new favorite.

Dramm Solid Brass valve - slightly stiffer than the Eley valve, but durable and tough. Over-tightening it will cause the valve lever to be hard to use. Adding an extra hose washer can mitigate this, but the nylon valve assembly is slightly too close to the threads.

Watering Wands:

We recommend you use a short watering wand to make it easier to rotate the stream and reach the plants while watering.  We DO NOT recommend wands that have integrated valves as the valves normally wear out quickly and begin leaking from the assembly and can't be repaired. 

16" Dramm Wand (comes with a plastic valve which is fine but annoying to use, I normally discard it.) We use these in the nursery and greenhouse.

The Joshua Roth wand is what we use in our small city yard, substituting the Eley valve (see above) for the provided one. The included breaker is very soft and good for refined bonsai.

Japanese wands

These typically do not have a threaded connection, so you must cut the fitting off your hose to use them and/or add an extra small section from an old hose. Jam the tapered end into the rubber and you get a surprisingly good connection.

Stub Hose

Japanese Wands: Bonsai Tonight.

Dramm Water Breaker Nozzle with 1000 Tiny Holes 

This is just the nozzle/breaker.  If you purchase a Dramm wand it will have a smaller hole-count (and larger holes) in the breaker head. This is the softest one we use but it's still a high-volume water supply. It fits standard American hose thread so you can also just screw it straight onto the end of a hose or add a valve  without a wand, but the watering pattern is a bit more even with a wand in the middle.

We've been using these since 2016

Hoses

As a bonsai hobbyist you'll get a PhD in hose wrangling. These are our favorite hoses:

Small yards

Larger Yards

Also Great:  https://www.eleyhosereels.com/collections/garden-hoses/products/5-8-polyurethane-garden-hose


DOSATRON

D14MZ2: Buy on Amazon

An Inline system powered by water to add precise levels of fertilizer, or other liquids and soluble products to your water. The unit will draw from a reservoir (e.g. a 5-gallon bucket.)  You can plumb it from your hose bib with adaptors (threads on it are 3/4" IPT) or use standard PVC inlets and outlets. In the nursery we use this for soluble fertilizer, adjusting pH with acid injection and pesticide drench applications.  More useful for those with larger collections. 

Low-Tech Venturi injection systems can work, but are less accurate and require some practice to use effectively. Keep in mind that the amount of concentrate injected may vary with the speed of water flow. We haven't used them successfully so we don't have a particular one to recommend.

Water Treatment and Analysis (See our Article Here for more info.)

TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) Meters.

If you live in an area where water is typically "hard" you should monitor your water quality. You can also use TDS meters to effectively avoid fertilizer dilutions that would otherwise burn plants.

Cheap and good enough for occasional use, get the water as close to 75F as possible when doing the reading for consistency

Temperature compensating TDS meter with higher accuracy

Temp/TDS/pH meter all-in-one

Acid Treatment?

If you have high pH water (7.0 or above) and high TDS (300 or above), acid treatment can help with nutrient uptake.  

Mixing 1/4 tsp of Citric acid to 5 gallons of water is a good way to purge Chloramine and chlorine from water while lowering the pH

If you use a Dosatron or other injection method and want a larger and more stable solution you can use pH Down, but it is VERY concentrated, so use caution wear PPE and measure carefully.

Reverse Osmosis Systems

For a complete solution to poor water quality use an RO system, which strips out all the salts from the water - then supplement with a nutrient solution to avoid micronutrient deficiencies.

HydroLogic RO system

You'll need a couple barrels, a float valve on the end of the RO outlet (in case you forget to turn it off!) and a small pump if you want to be able to water with a hose.

To add micronutrients, use DynaGro "Grow" or a similar fertilizer that contains the right ratio and all the micronutrients. Bring the TDS reading back up to ~100 to avoid nutrient deficiency. 

Micronutrient solution

Propagation Supplies

Hormex #8 is the standard rooting hormone we use.

We use Anderson Flats filled with perlite/coco and fir bark to stick cuttings.


 

 


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