It looks fine. WOuld not worry too much about the soil mixture. imho soil mixtures are heavily overrated. Watering regime, 'green thumb' and paying atention are way more important. Just make sure your plant gets air to the roots, so an open micture is important. I am a little worried that peat compost may be very fine, blocking the soil pores.

Most people was the cat litter before first use (Tossing it in a bucket of water, draining the water and rinse it 2, 3 times) to get rid of dust & perfume. As I use it in combination with other very open components (Bark & ground lava) I find that just flushing the pot with a full watering can als cleans it well. But this depends a little on your setup: I do all repotting on the lawn, so the dust drains in the ground, rather than in my sink..

leatherback wrote:

I am a little worried that peat compost may be very fine, blocking the soil pores.

I have another bonsai that came with mostly bark in the soil mix. I read somewhere that it breaks down and compacts, the only reason I didn't opt for it. I could give the bark a go although I have 40l of perlite left that needs using Maybe I will save it for my veg in spring

I.m not a fan of perlite, found it tends to float to the top on first watering which makes it less effective as a soil ingredient. Vermiculite is better

Dave

ironhorse wrote:

I.m not a fan of perlite, found it tends to float to the top on first watering which makes it less effective as a soil ingredient. Vermiculite is better

Dave

Yes watering from bottom. I found it confusing as there are some books that suggest watering from top and others below. Watering from top I must admit the mixture compacts but as you said in your post, from below the perlite floats.

drummerboy wrote:

Yes watering from bottom. I found it confusing as there are some books that suggest watering from top and others below. Watering from top I must admit the mixture compacts but as you said in your post, from below the perlite floats.

I se no reasons whatsoever for watering from below.

poor little tree.., excuse the newbey for dropping in. Long before you met the plant it's been over watered. If it were a willow, it'd love to sit in water. But, it's an elm, they can live in wet conditions, but would rather not. Keep it moist, not wet, until spring. Yes little trees know if it's winter or not, no matter where you put them. Come spring, maybe re-pot it, i wouldn't rush into that.

It's really a cool tree, the moss so close to the trunk isn't so good. just put moss there for the "Show". as for the salt (chalk) deposits, try not to use the hard water from the faucet, if you need to, let it sit for a day or so, hopefully, most of that stuff will settle to the bottom, most likely won't hurt the tree.

Of course, I've killed a lot of plants, but that's what the compost pile is for. Some I thought were dead, sprung up in the pile.

Never mind, elms are tough.

Samantha wrote:

Yes little trees know if it's winter or not, no matter where you put them.

No, they don't know. Put them in a greenhouse with higher temperatures and a few hours extra light, and they'll 'think' it's summer.

Samantha wrote:

try not to use the hard water from the faucet, if you need to, let it sit for a day or so, hopefully, most of that stuff will settle to the bottom, most likely won't hurt the tree.

Nonsense. Salts in solution dont't 'settle to the bottom'. THe only ways to remove them at least partially, from the water are by cooking (Kettle-ston formation) or evaporation=>condensation cycle

Boiling= boil water and the calcium hydrogen carbonsate will become insoluable so you can just get tiny mesh...

Disstilation/condensation method= condensing the steam coming from the boiling kettle. But not worth it as you profits are less than the work you have to do for this method.

Would also be bad environmentally... I could just use some bottled water (17p for 2 litres) but it may well have just as much crap in it