
Bonsai trees can be grown in almost any type of soil but to keep them in the best of health they must be grown in a suitable soil mix.
The soil's function is to hold sufficient nutrients, water and air to provide a regular supply of these three vital components to the roots of the tree.
In order to achieve the optimum conditions to match tree requirements and local climatic conditions the growing medium is often a mix of two or more key ingredients with growers developing their own special recipes. The basic consituents potentially include grit (which can come in several grades), loam and humus - or one of several different mediums imported from Japan (Akadama, Kiryu, Kanuma).
Given that these imported mediums can be quite expensive, a number of growers have developed the use of alternatives, one of which is cat litter (see cat litter for more information).
There is an excellent article on the Kaize Bo9nsai web site which you will find linked from the Web Link above.
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