Did I fertilize too early??

[Jason]

I live in zone 8b in the Willamette Valley, OR. The buds on many of my deciduous trees (Hawthhorn, Maple, and quince) were starting to swell. Most of my trees are in turface, pine bark, granite mixture (some have some lava). I got spring fever and fertilized with some of the slow release Osomocote 14-14-14 yesterday. Did I mess up?? Last frost date is about May 15. Should have I waited for the leaves to harden off??

 

[Smoke]

I live in zone 8b in the Willamette Valley, OR. The buds on many of my deciduous trees (Hawthhorn, Maple, and quince) were starting to swell. Most of my trees are in turface, pine bark, granite mixture (some have some lava). I got spring fever and fertilized with some of the slow release Osomocote 14-14-14 yesterday. Did I mess up?? Last frost date is about May 15. Should have I waited for the leaves to harden off??

Osmocote shouldn't be a problem since the coating is heat activated and won't break up untill a good stable temp is reached like about 70 degrees. If your going to jump and fertilize early I might suggest an organic fertilizer rather then chemical fertilizers. It's still pretty early to do any fertilizing even for me and I have third sets of leaves already.

 

[Shima]

Like he said...........also, it matters if they are stock and you're building mass, or in refinement phase; early nitrogen will lengthen inter-nodes and create larger leaves.