u/AGeckosPecko

Sorry to discuss soil as this will never be a conclusive or well agreed upon topic.

As I read and from accumulated knowledge, plant soil in general and bonsai soil needs 2 things largely: to be well draining and while still retaining nutrients. The combination that does this well is, as we know, lava rock, pumice and akadama. However, this can be rather costly. I believe that many find cheaper alternatives and I would like to discuss one such option that I feel needs further attention and/or true experimentation.

Lava Rock + most oil dry/leak absorbent products

Lava Rock is free in most places if you’re willing to search Facebook marketplace and go haul a bucket or 2 back to your house (plus washing, boiling and breaking) - this is already well known and the free price tag is worth the labor expense for some (me).

But the oil dry products on the other hand, need more discussion and I think should have a larger presence in bonsai. Most of these products are either granular diatomaceous earth or some low fired clay. These products allow for drainage and aeration while ALSO having very good nutrient retention. For montmorillonite clay specifically, it has a high CEC (cation exchange capacity) which is great for our purposes. I think part of the reason it’s not used could be that it feels bad/wrong to take something meant to be thrown on a garage floor and put into our expensive trees. Another thing I have heard/read is that if not low fired, it can break down easily, and same thing for those with many freeze, thaw cycles. Even if this is the case and I need to repot every single spring, this is insanely more cost effective than the traditional ingredients. I could repot a tree once a year for 20 years for $8 - this bag of clay I just got was $7.59 for 50 pounds (~23 kg) + free lava rock.

I mostly prefer trees that happen to prefer inorganic soil but even if you have trees that like some organic material, it’s not like adding 10% pine bark is going to change the main point of this post.

Sure it might break down faster, but outside of this I really can’t see any downsides. Please correct me if I’m missing a glaring issue.

Thanks for reading.

My substrate layer is held up by egg crate light diffuser (air underneath). Above this is weed fabric and window screen. My substrate stays decently wet - like moist but not soaked by any means. Water drains through if I water the plants and I’m hardly misting. Is this acceptable level of moisture? If not, not really sure what I could do differently while not choking out my plants.

Didn't there used to be a tool where this app/site would make you a best deck based on your specific cards? This definitely used to be a thing when they had an app.

Side rant: why did they get rid of the app? the website is highly aggravating to use and is way more clunky with less features from my observation. The deck "builder" is just a place to make decks and save them?

Not sure this is a “pro” tip but just a tip in general and a learning point from a tree I had die this week.

I hard pruned and Azalea back in early/mid summer (a little over a month ago) and I said it in the shade out on my patio. Last week it began to push new green growth as expected. Seeing this, I decided to move the plant back to the sun. The leaves (including new growth) began to brown, so I moved it back to the shade but it was too late. As for the exact mechanism as to why it died, I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact that it’s been 90 degrees plus this month or just moving it back to the sun that fast at any temperature - maybe someone could chime in if they know.

Mostly wanted to share this so others first trying to work with azalea don’t meet a common demise.

Not new to keeping amphibians/reptiles, but new to keeping dart frogs and I want to know your opinion to best species to get from these options: Ranitomeya imitator vs Ranitomeya variabilis.

More info: I have a 18x18x24 tank so I want to get a more arboreal species hence the 2 choices being from Ranitomeya. I also would prefer to be able to have more than 2 frogs in the setup. I plan to make the tank with a small water feature and a few inches of water for something small like cherry shrimp or something like that. I can also scape and plant it so there is adequate separation. I think that’s all the relevant info, would appreciate any opinions, recommendations and/or feedback.

I think I’m mostly wanting to type this out just to see it fleshed out. I always played games with my brother when I was younger and was never addicted, I enjoyed it but not like after high school. After high school I went to college and didn’t make friends at first for a semester and a half I didn’t meet anyone I wanted to continue investing in. People knew I played Rocket League and introduced me to a guy who also played, he was pretty cool and we shared a hobby. He was better than me at the game so I worked hard to get to his level. After that, we eventually became roommates and went on to play other games. I mention all this to say that I wonder if I gained this addiction as a proxy to friendship and approval by others?? Nonetheless, my love for games increased heavily. I would grind whatever game my friends were playing so I could be the best in the group (or at least try to be). I neglected classes and underperformed but I’m blessed with a good memory so I was able to maintain my GPA to keep my scholarship. After I graduated I got a job and bought my first PC and I was in love even more than before. I went from rocket league, Fortnite, apex, COD all with friends in real life to playing DayZ, Rust, Escape From Tarkov. None of my friends had PC so I eventually made new friends(?) in these new games to make myself believe I was playing to maintain relationships.

I’ve just completed my third year of medical school and still addicted. When I wake up in the morning, I think, what do I need to get done today in order to play video games. It’s all-consuming. I love to excel and win. It’s such a fantastic feeling. I found myself sitting here tonight, neglecting my wife, because I was playing video games - a nightly occurrence - and it just felt different tonight. I also need to mention the full truth in that the other half of what has brought me to this point is God. I am a Christian and every time I go to genuinely pray about more than surface level things, the topic of giving up games is always brought to the forefront. Don’t mean to make this into a religious discussion but mentioning it because it’s part of my journey to quitting games (and the beginning matter from the world all had to come from somewhere - just a quick thought).

Anyways, the approach I believe I am going to take is to just sell everything and invest in a docking station for my school laptop so I still have a nice study spot. My only question being, what thoughts do you have on keeping the posters and figurines I have from various games? If I’m selling my portal to play those games it seems fine to keep them as a memory of the fun that was had?

I appreciate anyone who reads this or has anything to say/advice.

There’s a skin and chroma that has an Ult where the arrow is super lowkey and harder to see. Do any of you guys know what I’m referring to and if so what the name and chroma would be?