Minutes Page

      Minutes of the April 12, 2015 meeting of the Michiana Bonsai Study

Present:     Larry Benjamin, John DeMaegd, Mary Hesser, Bruce Kennedy, Kathy Lee, Mary Morgan, Bill Osborne and Norma Osborne,

     and Sue Salach

Location:    Home of Larry Benjamin, Bristol        Refreshments:  Rose Benjamin

Program:

The focus of this meeting was bonsai soil. Larry had researched the topic and provided members with five sources of information, including various formulations of ingredients. He encouraged participants to peruse the options and choose the recipe(s) that they wanted to put together. The following materials were available to create the chosen mixtures: Akadama, black lava rock, turkey grit, pine bark mulch and milled sphagam peat moss. The previously unsorted akadama was sifted to obtain the desired size particles. The bag of pine bark mulch (purchased at Meijers) was composed of primarily large pieces. In order to get the smaller size needed, Larry use his lawn mower, collecting the chopped up pine bark in the bag. Then, we used the screen sets again to remove the particles that were either too small or too large. With all of the ingredients in hand, members created the mixture(s) they had chosen and put them in one gallon zip loc bags to take home.

Photos from the meeting (courtesy of Mary Morgan):