IBUKI BONSAI SIEVED SUBSTRATE MIX AKADAMA 50% / PUMICE (BIMS) 50% – LARGE – size 6,5-7mm – 5L

MIX AKADAMA 50% / PUMICE (BIMS) 50% IBUKI Bonsai Sieved Substrate for needle trees

5L bags

Size: 6.5-7mm for pine bonsai or larger bonsai trees. For pots 35-40cm wide or bigger.

If you buy substrate at IBUKI, please chose prefered akadama type.

– about red akadama -fired (red colour) It is fired at 480C. It’s mostly used by professional bonsaists. It is the strongest and hardest. It can stay in the pot much longer in a cooler and wet weather, even 5-6 years. It is great for trees with advanced structure, old trees as well as fresh yamadori trees in development that need to stay in the pot for longer.

– about golden akadama – semifired (redish/orange colour).It is fired at 400C temperature that is low enough that the internal water in the clay does not evaporate during the process, so the Cation exchange capacity remain virtually unchanged yet the particles become much harder. Best choice for regular use nowadays.

It means that this akadama retains it’s best properties like great water and nutrition absorption, retention and what is important it decomposes much slower. You can count on it that for 3-5 years it will work well in the pot and hold it’s structure. The decomposing process of akadama is beneficial for the roots as the super fine roots can penetrate the particles and develop well.

semifired akadama after sieving at IBUKI virtually is 100% usable, no dust and very small particles.

– about doubleline akadama – regular , it takes the same amount of water and fertilizer as the semifired akadama but recently one can notice that the quality is much lower than in the past. This akadama is soft and there is quite a lot of dust.

A few comments from bonsai pros about semifired akadama:

Mr Walter Pall:

semifired Akadama .. this is great news. As you and others know I have strong problems with akadama. The main reason is that it is decomposing. Especially in my climate where trees are exposed to frost for many weeks akadama creates big problmes. Often I get trees which are imported from Japan and have not been repotted for some time. They sit in full akadama which is hard like a birck and very difficutl to remove without really disturbing the root ball. I even go so far to call normal akadama dangerous. But I am fully aware of the positvie properties that akadama has. With the firing method this totally changes the situation. If akadama does not decompose anmore I would definitely use it and can only recommend it.

In addition I would like to raise another point. It is my conviction that old bnsnai are usully repotted too often. Yamadori trees can and should be undisturbed for ten to twenty years or more. When repotting old collected trees roots should not be cut at all if possible. In this situation the fact that akadama decomposes is unbearable. With noromal akadama one has to repot frequntly which is not my aim. So I suggest to use pumice or lava only for collected trees. Now I can extend this list to semifired akadama. Walter Pall