So I took a piece of quartz stone river rock and fashioned a pot out of it with 2 3/8" drainage holes. My question is, is there any problem with putting a Bonsai in it? The tree going in it will be a Hawaiian Umbrella.

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Here's the tree that's going in it.

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No issue. Go for it.

if it'll fit

abqjoe wrote: So I took a piece of quartz stone river rock and fashioned a pot out of it with 2 3/8" drainage holes.

For drainage, I think that's too small. I'd make one hole, at least twice as big. Use a mesh to cover the hole, so the soil doesn't fall out.
I'd drill a third small hole to thread wire through, to secure the tree in the pot.

Read more here under:
How to re-pot bonsai trees and
How to secure your bonsai into its pot
www.kaizenbonsai.com/bonsai-tree-care-in...-to-repotting-bonsai

Auk wrote:

abqjoe wrote: So I took a piece of quartz stone river rock and fashioned a pot out of it with 2 3/8" drainage holes.

For drainage, I think that's too small. I'd make one hole, at least twice as big. Use a mesh to cover the hole, so the soil doesn't fall out.
I'd drill a third small hole to thread wire through, to secure the tree in the pot.

Read more here under:
How to re-pot bonsai trees and
How to secure your bonsai into its pot
www.kaizenbonsai.com/bonsai-tree-care-in...-to-repotting-bonsai

Thank you for the link, I'm about 3/4 of the way through it right now and have a question for you. Yesterday I carved out a 12x12x6" piece of lava rock for a little Juniper that I rescued from Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago (yes I drilled drainage holes). For soil I used an inorganic mix consisting of:
25% 1/4 Pumice, 25% 1/4 BonsaiBlock(calcined clay), 25% 1/4 Lava and 25% Turface

Being very new to Bonsai but not to plants it felt kind of weird to use something like that, that seemed like a bunch of little rocks and furthermore it concerns me a little bit because of our climate out here in Albuquerque NM. Yesterday was 100 degree's with 14% humidity in the morning but the humidity dropped to 4% in the later afternoon. My concern with the inorganic soil is in it's ability to retain enough moisture for the tree's happiness. I have my tree's in a spot that allows them around 4-5 hours of direct sunlight in the morning and then around 12 o-clock when the sun moves west my tree's have significant shade until around 4:30pm. At that point they receive another 2 hours of partial sunlight. I do mist them often (every hour-hour in a half) and make sure the humidity trays have a little bit of water in them too. My question is, would you think it would be beneficial to do a 50/50 mix of inorganic and organic Bonsai mix? If so, completely mixed or inorganic in the bottom half of the pot and organic on the upper half? Thank you for your time and I appreciate your insight as I have two more tree's to root trim and re-pot tomorrow or Tuesday.

It is odd, indeed. I personally have shredded bark in all pots, eventhough our temperatures do not normally are around 40C during spring. I al afraid it is a matter of trial an error a bit.
Why are you repotting when it gets this warm?

leatherback wrote: It is odd, indeed. I personally have shredded bark in all pots, eventhough our temperatures do not normally are around 40C during spring. I al afraid it is a matter of trial an error a bit.
Why are you repotting when it gets this warm?

I'm re-potting 1 Ficus and 1 Hawaiian Umbrella.

abqjoe wrote: My question is, would you think it would be beneficial to do a 50/50 mix of inorganic and organic Bonsai mix? If so, completely mixed or inorganic in the bottom half of the pot and organic on the upper half?

I've used mixtures with organic and mixtures without. With bonsai substrate, organic matter is really just a sponge for water and fertilizer. It hardly provides any nutrition on its own. Mixes with no organic just means you water more. If you are to use it, make sure particle size is relatively the same as your inorganics. Pine bark works great and takes a while before it breaks down (buy pine bark soil conditioner and sift it). You may also look at an orchid mix, but make sure you sift it first. Mix it all up evenly instead of layering it in the pot.
Go easy on the roots and protect it from direct sun for the first few weeks. Let it recover.

brkirkland22 wrote:

abqjoe wrote: My question is, would you think it would be beneficial to do a 50/50 mix of inorganic and organic Bonsai mix? If so, completely mixed or inorganic in the bottom half of the pot and organic on the upper half?

I've used mixtures with organic and mixtures without. With bonsai substrate, organic matter is really just a sponge for water and fertilizer. It hardly provides any nutrition on its own. Mixes with no organic just means you water more. If you are to use it, make sure particle size is relatively the same as your inorganics. Pine bark works great and takes a while before it breaks down (buy pine bark soil conditioner and sift it). You may also look at an orchid mix, but make sure you sift it first. Mix it all up evenly instead of layering it in the pot.
Go easy on the roots and protect it from direct sun for the first few weeks. Let it recover.

Thanks for the advice! I going to do a 50/50 mix of my Bonsai Jack inorganic and some Black Gold organic.