Right I understand about Akadama, Kiryu, Kyodama, Kanuma and what to use them on but my question is on size of the particle.

I have been sifting my Akadama, Kyodama and Compost mix with my sieve. I have a stainless steel sieve with 3 inserts that's on every bonsai sight :silly:

I have been using the middle sieve which has around 5 mm holes.

What size have you guys been using for your shohin / baby trees that you are training to be full sized bonsai?

I did use the smallest sieve and made a small test batch of using the finest mix possible with looked good and held water i just wasn't sure if it was way to much

Cheers just =]

shaunbrook7104 wrote: I have a stainless steel sieve with 3 inserts that's on every bonsai sight

I got one too. Bought it... erm... 20 years ago maybe. I used it once. 20 years ago.

What size have you guys been using for your shohin / baby trees that you are training to be full sized bonsai?

Not sure if I understand you, but you don't grow shohin trees to be full sized bonsai, you train them to be shohin sized bonsai.

I don't sift, I use akadama straight from the bag.

I mean a shohin tree soil grade and a smaller tree I will develop into larger bonsai soil grade. My wording must not be correct

Is it the case that a smaller tree i.e a baby tree I am developing needs smaller grade akadama than a larger tree?

And will a tree i am training to be shohin size need a smaller grade soil?

Will the particle size not affect the development of the tree at all?

I'm currently using Irabaki Akadama

I feel that sifitng to a specific partical size create an unneeded artificial growing medium. In nature plants also do not encounter evenly graded substrate. So I do not sift to a specific size. (But then again, I also do not use acadama, as I find it crappy substrate)

shaunbrook7104 wrote: I mean a shohin tree soil grade and a smaller tree I will develop into larger bonsai soil grade. My wording must not be correct

That's fine, no worries.

You asked what 'we guys' do, and I do not sift on particle size. I do not even rinse - the dust will flush out when I water the tree.

But that is what *I* do. I have read - from knowledgeable people - that shohin require a smaller particle size. Again, I don't do it. I just use it straight from the bag (for the ones that actually are in Akadama, of course. I don't use it for all my trees, I have none in full Akadama).

Ok cool if you guys are using it with no sifting I may give it ago.

I am using a mix of compost, akadama an kyodama at the moment that I have sifted for all my trees but they are young.

I'll buy some sacrifice trees from a nursery for cheap to see how they react to partial sizes!

I'll look at adding some different photos of my mix so I can compare and show you guys

What do you mean with compost????

I hope you do not mean the fine brown stuff.. That will block your drainage, defeating the purpose of working with granular substrate.