@Don Dunn
Welcome to another orchid person. When I give orchid talks I do end up telling people you can grow anything in any soil if and only if you understand how and when to water it. More or less holds true for bonsai.
Actually after a long close read of Walter Pall's fertilizing recommendations I have modified this statement. By the way, I could not use Walter's method, for reasons that follow.
Potting media components and particle size, water quality, water frequency, fertilizer, and local climate (whether indoors or outdoors) all interact and will determine the success or failure to grow. You can change to just about any media, and if you can modify the other factors in the right directions, you can grow in it. The reverse holds true. If you don't water as frequently as Walter Pall water's his trees, you can not, and should not try to use the fertilizer concentrations he uses. He needs to use high concentration fertilizer because he flushes plants twice daily with clear water, every day for the two weeks between fertilizing. Use his high concentration without the heavy flushing with clear water, and your trees will burn up in a month.
Back to akadama, I don't like two things about it, it is not easily available near me. I can only get it at three shows, each show venue is more than one hour drive from me, so a long drive and only 3 days a year to get Akadama without spending an arm & leg on shipping make it a less than ideal media. Second thing I don't like is inconsistency. One bag, one brand (I can't read Kanjin) breaks down to a gritty sand consistency in one season, the next bag I got the particles are still hard 3 years later. Can't read the labels, can't be sure what I am getting. Often by the time I get to the shows there was an earlier mob scene, and there is only a bag or two left.
I think a stable particle size is key in choosing soil components. Multiple component mixes have less trouble with compacting than single component mixes. But not need to get too complicated. A 3 or 4 component mix should be adequate. I like Turface, Dry Stall, and Poulty grit or Turkey grit grade of crushed granite, all available 6 days a week from a Feed store and Farm and Fleet store. Source should be local, so any day you run out you can get more by the next business day. It should not feel like you have to re-finance the house to get. (that's relative, to some Akadama is cheap enough, to some it is expensive)
Savior of many a tree are the sieve sets. Screen all potting materials, eliminate fines.
Experiment, settle on one mix design to test, try it, try adjusting water and fertilizer to match the mix design. This is key - different potting mix demands a different watering schedule. Give it a growing season or two, then evaluate and either tweak it or try something new until you settle on the right mix for your own growing technique.
Unfortunately, while this is all easy to say, it always seems to be a moving target. I am constantly changing the way I grow, so I haven't quite 'settled' down yet. Some summers I get in the nearly daily watering, some summers I have to find ways to help the trees get by with once every 3 or 4 days, as work, life and other things interfere with the hobby. In the end, the few trees I have that have survived more than a decade with me are trees I cherish for their adaptability and resilience.
