low cost bonsai soil mixture suggestion please

i agree with the findings of Leo above,

I have never had or seen excelent results with a 100% single item soil mix. While quite a number of people are using single component soils recently there are not many long term results with mature trees to see yet. (I know that in my climate the club members who jumped on 100% cat litter as a soil steadily weakened many trees and had the poorest growth in years -it stayed too wet for us).simple cheap mixes can be done but the worse the soil is the better the fertilising needs to be so you will save with one hand and spend with another - fertilising can be harder to get right as well.

I had been using garden mold at the very beginning, and it was a real trouble for me!
I used many different mixtures including worst ones to have my own experience, and saw that mixing ratios (even in my best mixture) should be changed for each species.
I mainly use grits/rock chips, pumice, compost, turface in my mixtures, and still experience their mixing rates for each species I have.
But my still-question is that I can't be sure 100% about contents of composts and turface I purchase (sellers dont say the truth always). So, I adjust fertilizer amount depending on the symptoms on trees/leaves.

Leo,

thanks for the information on rounded aquarium gravel, I just started testing this and compost, to see if it could work better than what I use.

Marcus,

thanks for your observations on 100% smae ingredient mixes. I won't try that either.
Saves me a lot of time and space [ used for tests on multiple subjects.]

Sakaki,

all my years of using compost, I have never had problems, but then I used the information from English books on how to make compost and which weeds to use and what they would do. Which weeds draw and collect what from the soil.
Additionally, I use a lawn fertilizer during our dry season, to keep up the deep, rich greens of the leaves at 1/3 strength and added into moist soils.

I also grow tomatoes, green/bell peppers, aubergenes, and papayas all year round, not together mind you, those three are of the same family and that would be inviting trouble - insect or disease feast.
So I have to get good crops, using compost and a coarser blend of red earthenware brick, sifted silica gravel and just stones. Yes, I do use a little man-made fertilizer along with bones meal [ porcine ] and blood meal.

I am at the point with the vegetable garden, not just wanting beauty, but produce.
Later.
Khaimraj

Here is an image of tomatoes, seed sent to me by a friend in the US, from his harvested tomatoes. Last of the season and the vines are dying.

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote:Sakaki,

all my years of using compost, I have never had problems, but then I used the information from English books on how to make compost and which weeds to use and what they would do. Which weeds draw and collect what from the soil.
Additionally, I use a lawn fertilizer during our dry season, to keep up the deep, rich greens of the leaves at 1/3 strength and added into moist soils.

I use sterile manure compost made using worms. And I cannot be sure e.g. about the quantity/rate of "N" in it. That was what I mean

i came into a 32 litre bag of the linked product [promotional 'gift'].
http://www.seasoil.com/about.html
http://www.seasoil.com/original-sea-soil.html
before working the bulk of it through the vegetable bed, i sifted enough to supply the organic component for an arbor-vitae re-pot.
the feel of the stuff gives me to think it will breakdown fast, forcing a sooner than intended repot --- but time will, as always, tell.
the price was right & the tree is still developing [not specimen], so thought i'd give it a go.

anyone else work with this or similar product?