Favorite Liquid Fertilizer?

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@Vinnie Charity ,

Been using Miracle Gro lawn fertiliser for years.
At 1/3 strength. Once a week into moist soil.
Additionally the organic in the soil mix is a blend of weeds, and
Leucemia/ tree / bamboo as aged compost.

No more than 1/3 of the soil mix, less with the local Ficus.

No problems, placement for most trees / shrubs full sun.

Bonsai time growing almost 40 years
Good Day
Anthony

Whatever works right? I'm experimenting with different fertilizers to see which gives the best results. So far the Jobe's organic has worked very well and I'm adding the Neptune's Fish and Seaweed as a liquid fertilizer for both indoor and outdoor trees.

I've seen that you've been using lawn fertilizer, which is basically the same as regular fertilizer, but much less expensive I presume?
 

Anthony

Imperial Masterpiece
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@Vinnie Charity ,

trees in what might be called - branchlet refinement -, already have
the trunk size [ say 3 to 5 inches diameter ] , branches at the correct
thickness and number of branches needed, They have no need of
large amounts of NPK.

So if you look up the NPK of say oil seed meals -
Soybean for example - 6 to 7 N - 4 to 2 P - 2 to 1 K
Which is what is in the fermented tea bags or discs placed on the soil.

1/3 Lawn Fertiliser is 36 N - 0 P - 6 K plus 2 other smaller %'s of S and Fe.

In the US, 2 to 1 K would be a % of K20.

So 1/3 would be 12 N- 0P- 2 of K20

Leucena leaves are - 2.6 N - 1.2 P - 0.9 K plus micro-nutrients because
we also blend other weeds/ grasses/ kitchen scraps.
Leucena leaves are similiar in NPK for Rabbit droppings.

More or less the fertiliser / compost blend is a match for the oil
seed meal, plus you get soil microbes.

So you can focus on training and not feeding.
HEALTH is satisfied.

So DESIGN can be first in the mind.

The type of fertiliser really depends on the stage of development.
With the ground training, NPK can be greater say 20 - 20 - 20 plus
micro-nutrients,
Hope the above is clear.
Good Day
Anthony

* Also even though I am in the Tropics - trees don't grow in the open
ground with our 6 month dry season and also stop growing with
the heavier rains.

So Tropics or Sub-Tropics or Temperate, growing seasons are very
simililar.
 
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I use liquid fertilizer NPK 6-5-5 substral universel as a basic fertilizer for almost all of my trees. Once or twice a week depending on the moment (birchmeier aquamix 0,2% (edit))
. Most trees i supplement with normal dosis firm fertilizer. I am experimenting with shifting timing and dosing fertilizers last years. With the building stress and the need to use tap water i clearly saw a decline in health in a lot of my trees. Hoping for a better year. The more organic fertilizers leave a green / black layer really fast.
 
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MiguelMC

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@Vinnie Charity ,

trees in what might be called - branchlet refinement -, already have
the trunk size [ say 3 to 5 inches diameter ] , branches at the correct
thickness and number of branches needed, They have no need of
large amounts of NPK.

So if you look up the NPK of say oil seed meals -
Soybean for example - 6 to 7 N - 4 to 2 P - 2 to 1 K
Which is what is in the fermented tea bags or discs placed on the soil.

1/3 Lawn Fertiliser is 36 N - 0 P - 6 K plus 2 other smaller %'s of S and Fe.

In the US, 2 to 1 K would be a % of K20.

So 1/3 would be 12 N- 0P- 2 of K20

Leucena leaves are - 2.6 N - 1.2 P - 0.9 K plus micro-nutrients because
we also blend other weeds/ grasses/ kitchen scraps.
Leucena leaves are similiar in NPK for Rabbit droppings.

More or less the fertiliser / compost blend is a match for the oil
seed meal, plus you get soil microbes.

So you can focus on training and not feeding.
HEALTH is satisfied.

So DESIGN can be first in the mind.

The type of fertiliser really depends on the stage of development.
With the ground training, NPK can be greater say 20 - 20 - 20 plus
micro-nutrients,
Hope the above is clear.
Good Day
Anthony

* Also even though I am in the Tropics - trees don't grow in the open
ground with our 6 month dry season and also stop growing with
the heavier rains.

So Tropics or Sub-Tropics or Temperate, growing seasons are very
simililar.

Normally I just use the same fertilizer 13 6 10 and since at the moment I'm not in a refinement stage, mainly wanting to improve my trunk thickness and branch structure, as such in your opinion would you think a heavier fertilizer would be better maybe a 20 20 20 or is this fine enough?
 

AaronG

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I'm also looking for a good organic liquid fertilizer because anything left on top tends to attract nature. I have used Miracle-Gro for years with decent results, but I'm thinking about switching to see if I get any improvements from purely organic. I was also looking for something low in phosphorus because I had also read about that building up in the soil (although I have yet to find it). These are the three with decent reviews that I could find on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Hydr...&sprefix=fish+fert,aps,172&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OWBUSA/ref=psdc_3752891_t4_B009CZH7UU

https://www.amazon.com/Fox-Farm-FX1...ZJBKKNSFX45NSF4C&qid=1553786411&s=lawn-garden

It looks like some have used Neptune's, any updates on success with that or any of the other's listed?
 
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I use the Neptune's which is pretty good stuff. I use it as directed inside, but I will hit my trees a bit harder once I put them all outside.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on Fox Farm too...
 
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Normally I just use the same fertilizer 13 6 10 and since at the moment I'm not in a refinement stage, mainly wanting to improve my trunk thickness and branch structure, as such in your opinion would you think a heavier fertilizer would be better maybe a 20 20 20 or is this fine enough?

If you want to grow your tree, feed, feed, FEED! In my research, I have found that there are people that feed their trees VERY heavily in order to make them grow fast and grow BIG. All of my outdoor trees are covered in tea bags full of fertilizer during the growing season...
 

Fonz

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I use liquid fertilizer NPK 6-5-5 substral universel as a basic fertilizer for almost all of my trees. Once or twice a week depending on the moment (birchmeier aquamix 0,2% (edit))
. Most trees i supplement with normal dosis firm fertilizer. I am experimenting with shifting timing and dosing fertilizers last years. With the building stress and the need to use tap water i clearly saw a decline in health in a lot of my trees. Hoping for a better year. The more organic fertilizers leave a green / black layer really fast.
I'm using Substral too. NPK 7-3-5.
If you read the small print in the back you'll see it's from a company called 'The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company' ;)
 
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