# The secret to ADA Wabi-Kusa? They are filled with rocks!



## JustLikeAPill

So I have really been pondering and researching and I think I have a great way to make the next best thing to a branded wabi-kusa ball, and will make a guide with pictures if it works once some supplies get here.

In the meantime, I have been looking at Japanese websites with pictures of REAL Wabi-Kusa balls.

In this website: http://translate.google.com/transla...//pxyg.blog50.fc2.com/?tag=%D0%C9%A4%D3%C1%F0

The owner of the ball says (I think) that one of his wabi-kusa got old and/or died and so they were curious and dissected it. ROCKS! You can see there are several relatively large rocks in the middle! This must explain why they sink easily as is seen in the ADA catalog. There is no planting... you just place them where you want them. Before I found this website I saw another website where the same rotting straw was wrapped around a single larger pebble, but the translator didn't make it clear enough for me to understand so I assumed someone was making it themselves, but in retrospect I think they were tearing one open.

Also it seems that they are not peat or clay based, but instead are mostly straw and moss. My attempts to make them have always failed because when I try to use soil and /or sand and clay, they always are loose at best and make the water muddy. The fact that they seem to be straw or grass based could explain why the pictures of the real ones seem to always be in clean water (especially in the "waterfall" type aquariums"

There may be some peat and/or clay in there, but it appears to be mostly straw. If anyone with a genuine ADA brand wabi kusa, like Frank (he's the only person I know of who has real ones) would like to help us all out and confirm or deny the presence of rocks, all that would need to be done is stick a safety pin or needle into one and see if it pokes a hard rock or if it glides through without resistance. That would be a good test since it wouldn't harm the plants or structure of the wabi-kusa and you wouldn't need to dissect it and ruin it.


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## niko

This interests me because of the beauty of it.

I have no idea how it's done so I can't contribute with any actual information.

But just speculating... Maybe one can think of these "balls" simply as a hydroponic setup in the shape of a ball. Then the make-up of the actual "subtsrate" that forms the ball is easy to theoretically figure out. In hydroponics the substrate only provides a way for the plant to stay straight and nothing else. In the case of a "ball with plants sticking out of it" one can say that the ball itself could be any kind of matter that will provide support for the plants. Even plastic scruby pads:









I'm not advocating using cheesy dish scrubbing pads. Just using them as an example of a "holding media".

And of course - the ball needs not be too dense (so it allows gas exchange), it needs to be able to wick and hold water, and one can do anything they think of to provide built-in nutrient sources (that do not pollute the water). Or just make sure the water in which the ball sits provides some nutrients.

I can imagine a rock placed in a mesh bag with a little AquaSoil. Tied up together so somehow the AquaSoil is all around the rock it should work very well.

It all seems too much like hydroponics really. But I still would like to know how ADA does it.

--Nikolay


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## JustLikeAPill

I think you're right. I think it really is just straw as a supportive media with rocks inside to make it sit upright/sink. 

That is probably why they sell Be Green, which is a fertilizer just for Wabi-Kusa that you can spray on the plants or pour a capful in the water each week. If it was aquasoil based as I had assumed before now, you wouldn't really need to fertilize for quite some time.

I did have an idea to mix aquasoil with a little bentonite to hold it together, wrapped in long fibered sphagnum moss. I even ordered the bentonite last night to try it out, and then I saw this and think I am going to ditch that idea. 

I collected a liter of long dried grasses and their dead seed stalks and am letting them soak a few times in hot water to remove tannins and make them more pliable. There is some pine straw in there too I think. I am taking pics to document the process. Fun!


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## niko

Two mediums commonly usedi in hydroponics are rockwool and coco fiber. 

I can easily see how both of them can be used to cover a rock and wrap with some very fine black net. Or just wrap with the thinnest fishing line you can find. The cocofiber maybe too fine. Rockwool is basically perfect, but ugly looking in my opinion. Mosses growing on the ball will cover all ugly details.

Googling for both medias always leads you to marijuana growing websites. What they all sell is basically everything hydroponic. I bet you can find these stores locally too. I never felt comfortable in anyone of them. Back when I grew HC hydroponically I went to look for some hydroponic fertilizers and those stores looked so strange to me. I could not understand the fascination for hydroponically grown petunias and strawberries until it finally dawned on me what it was all about, haha.

--Nikolay


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## almightydolla

With a little inspiration from armedbiggiet and a trip to my local hydroponic grow store I was able to pick up large blocks of rock wool. 10 minutes sitting at the table later, and with a sharp serrated knife I had a perfect ball carved out of the wool. I then hollowed it out, filled it with aquasoil, and topped it with a thin piece of rockwool. I only needed string to cover the outside with moss and/or riccia, and then I was ready to plant.

The rockwool holds up real nice, and soaks up water like a sponge, so it sinks right to the bottom of my wabi-kusa bowl.


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## niko

Pictures?

--Nikolay


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## joshvito

subscribed, I am interested.
Also, where do you find wabi-kusa bolws?
I have been looking at dollar stores, walmart, and such looking for inexpensive plain glass, with no luck.


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## JustLikeAPill

Josh, I got mine from ADG because I couldn't fine one as wide and short as the glass cylinder 3005 they sell (I think that's what it was) and it was $30 IIRC.

You can find other vases at places like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Ikea, Ebay, etc. Look in the floral department. I have seen smaller cubes and cylinders that are pretty much the same as the ADA ones but only cost $5-$10!

I am waiting on a ball of aquasoil powder to freeze in the freezer before I finish up. I am freezing it to make it solid and easier to work with white I wrap it up.

I had to boil the grass four times before the water was clear enough for me to use the grass. The boiling didn't degrade the grass, and the grass strands are about a foot to a foot and a half long so it should be easier to use than coir.

Here is the grass before boiling:









Water after the first boil: I had to do this four times until most of the tannins were out.










Grass after the boil: soft and pliable!









Moss I collected from the back yard. I expect the submerged moss to die and the emersed moss to live. If it dies anyway I will just plant HC or Glosso or something over it. I would have used aquatic moss if I had this much lying around.



















I stole ten granite rocks from the neighbors driveway and put them in the center of the grass, which I patted down to compress it in this container. It's a ten or eleven inch container.










1/2 cup of aquasoil in some of my mom's pantyhose. I'm going to freeze it solid then remove the pantyhose to make it easier to work with while I wrap up the ball. I'll place it over the rocks. I don't know if the aquasoil will "leak" silt through the grass and moss to dirty the water. Hope not, but I have a feeling it will. If I try not to water from the top or move the ball it might be OK.










I'm trying to keep with the philosophy of wabi-kusa and use natural things like grass and moss instead of plastic pot scrubbers or rock wool. Nothing wrong with that, though, and should work great too!


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## JustLikeAPill

Here is the finished product! It's pretty big....

The aquasoil powder does not leak silt from the ball! All of that grass and moss catches it all! Yes! I wrapped this ball pretty tight so it is dense but hopefully not too dense. It is very nice I think and isn't going to fall apart or spread out. It should keep this shape. It is pretty firm and sturdy.

Freezing the ball of aquasoil definately made things a lot easier.

I have seen several different methods to making these balls, and I have tried them all. I honestly believe this method is superior to simply wrapping dirt and/or sand with moss. It uses straw and rocks so it is most like a genuine wabi-kusa ball compared to the other methods I have seen, with the added nutrients in the aquasoil. With the other methods I tried, all I ever made was a mess or a loose, leaky ball.

Using rock wool or other artificial components would have been easier and probably better than straw since straw decays, but I am very happy with my wabi-kusa! If you don't care about using all-natural stuff, I'd go with rockwool.




























I want to make a few more smaller balls to balance this dish out and cover them with Glosso, Hydrocotyl sibthorpioides, dwarf lobelia and eleocharis. Maybe some ludwigia or rotala. Spreading plants. I'd like to try making one with sphagnum moss instead of grass to see if it is as good. If it is as good and doesn't rot faster or anything like that, I'd rather use Sphagnum because it is a lot of effort to boil the grass four times, and Sphagnum absorbs water better as well (plus at our cabin there is a lot of live Sphagnum moss  )

I am going to be on the lookout for mold. That has me worried a little.


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## niko

When I was groing HC hydroponically I found 2 things to be an issue;

1. Mold
2. BGA

Mold is fought successfully with a daily immersion of the plants completely under water for 10 min to 1 hr. I don't know how that can be done with Wabi-Kusa. But Copper sprays and other anti-fungal chemicals did not work at all for me.

BGA - Erytrhromycin.

--Nikolay


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## Michael

Sphagnum moss is naturally mold and fungus resistant. Long-fiber sphagnum should hold the ball together like the grass in JustLikeAPill's wabi-kusa.


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## niko

Nice info on the Sphagnum moss! 

I was afraid that fungus and BGA may prove to be a recurring problem. Hope this moss really makes a difference.

Once again when I grew HC and was trying to fight fungus with Copper containing chemicals it dawned on me that big aquarium plant growers probably spray all sorts of stuff on the plants agains pests. Then you put that plant in your tank and wonder why shrimp and other sensitive animals die. Few months ago that speculation of mine was confirmed. Without making a big fuss out of that - lets be at least aware that emersed plants coming from a commercial nursery MAY need to be put through some form of quarantine. Until you are sure they do not release anything funky.

As far as Wabi-Kusa is concerned - you can spray this thing of beauty with anything you want to keep pests away. But as I said - from the large selection of anti-fungal chemicals none worked for me. At least be aware of that. And that's why the info o Sphagnum moss was so interesting to me.

--Nikolay


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## JustLikeAPill

I used to grow carnivorous plants so I used sphagnum a lot. it does have antifungal properties, but IME time after time if I used anything but pure R.O. water it would grow algae, turn slimy and disintegrate. 

For me, atleast.


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## niko

I hate this hobby!

Haha

--Nikolay


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## JustLikeAPill

I made another one today except this time I added a couple tablespoons of bentonite to the aquasoil ball and it really holds it together. No need for freezing.

Edit: it holds it together well... but then when you put the ball in water it clouds up all of the water so I tore it apart and re-made it without the clay. The clay is messy.


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## niko

Time to reach further instead of keep on with these Japanese mud pies!

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...b/76637-aquatic-plant-jewelry.html#post579514

--Nikolay


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## JustLikeAPill

Damn it lol


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## JustLikeAPill

My Japanese mud pies are starting to grow mold as the moss I wrapped it with is dies off. I don't care about the moss dieing but the mold doesn't look fantastic. 

Other than that the mud pies are growing in nicely but slowly compared to subleased growth. I made two, one for me and one for a friend. 

I also discovered that you really don't need a lot of water. At first the balls were half submersed but all you needs enough water to cover the bottom of the dish and the way-kusa soak it right up just fine. The bottom of the balls still smell a little anaerobic though when I change the water : (


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## JustLikeAPill

If anyone is still following this, a sprayed the ball with H202 heavily at the time of my last post and all the fungi died, and hasn't returned. The moss mostly died from that, but has mostly grown back.

Now that it is spring, I may put the ball outside to get the morning sun. I was happy to discover than white roots have grown through the wabi-kusa and out of the bottom : )


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## joshvito

Thanks for the update. Any new photos?


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## JustLikeAPill

It's still a "baby" but I think it's a good start.

Here it was on Feb. 2nd:


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## joshvito

looks great! thanks for the update.
Do you have any microscopic scuds and such in the water, or do you change it regularly? I was thinking of putting one on my desk at work, but wasn't sure about the smell...


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## JustLikeAPill

I change the water weekly. A protein film builds up unfortunately. When my cherries breed I might put some in the water just for biodiversity. 

It only smells when I change the water, when the bottom half is exposed. I rinse it under the water faucet (it all stays together) and then the smell is gone. It has no odor normally unless you lift it out of the water. The odor is not totally disgusting, but it is there. I guess it you sniffed the ball it would have a slight odor but... Why would you do that lol.

I don't know if the "real" wabi-Kusa have the same smell or if Amano has figured out how to keep them from going anaerobic. I mean... It seems hard to keep a ball of dead moss/grass sitting in stagnant water for a week from not having any sort of smell at all.

I think it would be fine on your desk. The odor really isn't A big deal.

The wabi Kusa has shrunk a little, which is good because originally it was the size of a large grapefruit. You can see how it sort of "deflated" and isnt a perfect sphere anymore which is fine. The aquasoil is well contained in all of the grass and never leaks out, and the integrity of the ball is still good so far. It is still firm and held together very well.


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## Submarinr

Thanks for the update and still looking great too!

Appreciate all your efforts in documenting your progress as well.


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## Zapins

Looking forwards to seeing the purple bamboo in there somewhere


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## JustLikeAPill

I was, too, but it wilted and died within 24 hours. Maybe some will come back from the roots.

My household humidity was too low, I guess.


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## JustLikeAPill

Sorry for the horrible iPod picture : (










I will upload GOOD pics when my camera charges.


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## JustLikeAPill

I filled it in with aqua soil because I got tired of algae growing in the water and changing it. Not sure if it is still considered a wabi-kusa ; )


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## flwrbed

what are all the plants in this thing. 
that is great.
i would love to try and make one. anything you would do different if you did it again?


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## JustLikeAPill

Glosso, Hydrocotyl sibthorpioides,Ludwigia repens, Bacopa, polygonum, a couple different types of rotala and in the center I put an arrowhead plant from our lake (leaves died so just the petioles are sticking up. Hope it comes back.) and some blue flowered grassy type plant. Also from our lake.

If I would do it again, I would make the ball smaller. This was the size of a grapefruit and I think maybe that contributed to anaerobic substrate inside. I think a three four inch ball would be better.

Also,I would use fishing line instead of cotton thread to hold it all in to help maintain it's shape.


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## flwrbed

thanks. im going to try one of these soon. 
very cool.


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## JustLikeAPill

Also plant heavily at the beginning, and maybe stick some osmocoat in it, too. 

Wrap it as tight as you can to make a nice ball that isn't too loose. It will be a little tough to plant in at first because of the fibrous grass but the ball will soften up over a couple of weeks. 

When plantng it is easier to use unrooted stems.


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## ianmax

Hello friends,
today i published on my site an important article "Kokedama - Aquarium preparation"
link: http://www.rareaquaticplants.com/in...arium-preparation&catid=45:article&Itemid=188

Thank you for interest.
Massimo Iannella
www.rareaquaticplants.com


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## Iloveplants

Sorry to dig up an old post,

I tried to use some aqua soil but they keep falling apart.

Any method or step by step guide which can follow or picture illustration?

I am very interested to make one myself.

do we mix the aquasoil with the small granite stones and straws before making into a ball? 

How do i put in the plants too?

Can some one shed some light?

Thanks


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## JustLikeAPill

You don't really need the stones in my opinion; I believe they are just to make the wabi-kusa sink if you want to submerge them. 

Regardless, I wrapped the stones in aquasoil and molded it into a ball shape with my hands. I then put the ball of aquasoil (with stones inside) in panty hose and put it in a freezer to make it easier to work. After it was frozen, I gently peeled the panty hose off and then while I wrapped tightly with grass and moss. 

After It was all done, I planted it with stems and cuttings randomly with tweezers. You want the ball to me kind of tight when you are done so jab it with tweezers as you plant. It will loosen up as the moss and grass decays but the plant roots will hold it together.


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## Phil Edwards

To go way back to the original post; I can confirm that authentic ADA wabi-kusa are straw (likely rice) and moss balls with rocks in the middle. I wasn't about to chop up $25 US products to figure out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, but I did do a little prodding and poking. There's definitely something hard and heavy in the middle of these things.



This setup is about as pure and authentic ADA as is possible to get. It was 1 medium and 1 small wabi kusa ball in the cute little (and amazingly affordable, in yen) Do! Aqua bowl that got a standard dose of Be Green and Be Bright until I decided I wanted to try growing other things too and put Amazonia down around them. Then it just got Be Green.

The only thing I've been curious about is how they get the standard hemispherical shape rather than a full sphere. It looked like it was hand wrapped with their brand of cotton thread but all the wabi kusa I saw in the stores had the same shape...beyond even Japanese standards of uniformity. There's got to be some sort of mechanical process going on that I'd love to figure out.

As far as "planting" they're 3/4-1" bits of emersed grown stems that are just tied down with the same brown cotton thread. I saw some pictures in a wabi kusa catalog that showed cute old ladies mashing handfuls of what appeared to be a pre-mixed assortment of these cuttings on top then tying them down. Everything is grown out on massive mesh tables that get lovingly watered by hand.


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