Do people use Akadama soil for growing seedlings? It seems growers from other plants use it a lot because it has some good caracterstics with watermanagement and it is very clean.
People growing Bonsai use it a lot to get a good rootingsystem. I am wondering if it helps getting seedlings a good start. I saw someone at a rose propagation site did a test and the roots formed 4 times bigger. Wondering if people used it here.
I suspect a lot of us needed to look it up to know what it is, which might be telling for you…
In view of the fact that a “successful" hybridizer probably creates, I’ma say, 1000 seedlings for each potentially introduction-worthy plant, and would cull the bulk of those inside of a month or two, using bonsai soil would probably translate to a lot unnecessary expense, imho. Bonsai have a ridiculous requirements to be kept on that threshold between growing too much and dying too much over an extended growth period, and are typically a huge investment in time – clearly meriting anything to improve their chances. Rose seedlings don’t require quite so much attention, and over a much shorter time span.
Those with the money to dispose might be interested in looking into it, but I don’t know that the payback would warrant such, personally.
What do others think? That is an impressive claim regarding root growth (though I wonder what the medium for the control was.) Can akadama be reused?
Hi TimoNL!
I don’t know about using pure akadama, but I guess in theory why not, aside from the obvious cost issue. Also, akadama is relatively soft and will break down to a powder over time, so reusability is poor.
It brings to mind the following:
I recall from my days on Houzz that there was a poster there (username : tapla) who was very adamant about using bonsai-style coarse soil mixes for all kinds of non-bonsai potted plants. He has numerous threads over there detailing his formulas for soil mixes (he calls these mixes 5-1-1 and 1-1-1 aka “gritty mix”). There is no akadama involved in these mixes, but instead another clay product called “turface”, as well as granite and pine bark fines. You may want to have a look at those posts.
In the EU where Turface is basically impossible to find, there is an alternative clay product called Seramis. Still relatively expensive, but still cheaper and harder than akadama (so it can be reused easily).
If you do end up trying it on your seedlings I would be very interested to read your results!
Akadama is expensive! It’s fine for bonsai, since you don’t need a ton of it per tree. Akadama is imported from Japan.
I’ve also noticed many plants do appreciate more aeriated soil, like using domestic pumice. However, these soils all have much lower cation exchange capacity, basically nothing compared to pure organic soil, which means almost hydroponic growing conditions, not to mention just drying out much faster. Bark fines/perlite mix is much more economical, and the organic content allows the soil to hold nutrients as well as support good mycorrhizae. I used peat/perlite.