Fertilizing then rain

[JesusFreak]

So I just got some fulvic/humid acid in the mail as well as some fish elmusion/kelp. I fertilizer my plants and then a couple hours later it rains. Did I just waste my time or does it stick to the roots and soil longer than I expect? Thanks in advance

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Plants will begin taking up fertilizer within seconds of application. I would not worry about it. Your trees had an hour or two to feed. Some will remain in the soil. I would continue as per your normal schedule.

 

[sorce]

Last year, I ferted after the rain, since I don't have to regularly water,
It took the same amount of time.

But now I read fert dry soil not wet.

Year before that fert every other day and they were happier for it.

Just fert more!

Fert da Dirt!

Sorce

 

[MrWunderful]

Whats the soil type? If its fully inorganic and drains well then the fert has probably been washed out (whatever the tree didnt use by the time the rain came).

im in the school of thought that most with fully inorganic soils dont fertilize ENOUGH because of how free draining it is.

 

[JesusFreak]

Mixture of oil dry, perilite, pine bark, and Akadama. Have other mixtures where I have black lava instead of pine bark

 

[Shima]

So I just got some fulvic/humid acid in the mail as well as some fish elmusion/kelp. I fertilizer my plants and then a couple hours later it rains. Did I just waste my time or does it stick to the roots and soil longer than I expect? Thanks in advance

Now you know how to make it rain.

 

[rich815]

How heavy was the rain?

 

[Forsoothe!]

As in above several answers, there is a linear relationship with the percentage of organic materials in your mix and the amount of fertilizer elements that stay in through continuing waterings. The more free carbon in your mix, the more fertilizer elements will be retained. I use a lot of bone char which absorbs & bonds chemically with elements and locks them into a matrix of carbon where they stay, for the most part. Only the surface of any solid body is available for bonding to, mechanically or chemically, so the greater the surface are, the greater capacity for capturing elements and holding for consumption by micros, thence available in the form of a compound that plants can use. See below the available surface for bonding in an electron microscope photo of activated charcoal...

Photo by Heshmatollah Nourmoradi

There is 32,000 sq ft of surface area in each gram of activated charcoal. Not much gets by them, that's why it's used as a filtering and purifying material. For our purposes, it filters the liquid fertilizer from the water and holds the elemental materials and some of the H and O, indefinitely.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I used activated charcoal at work a lot. Because of the hollow structures, after using the stuff 10x it started leaking as much as it took up. So it could be a good buffer, so to speak.

As for rain messing with your ferts, I used a rain meter to check some things out. Most of my bonsai pots get less than 200mL of rain during a good shower. That's less than the total pot volume, maybe a dilution of 20-50% at most.

 

[Shibui]

Good point about how much rain actually makes it to the pot.
I know the OP only has very young trees, probably with little canopy so most rain will go straight through to the pot but I was quite startled to realize how little rain actually makes it to the pot through my older deciduous canopies. Most runs off from leaf to leaf and drops outside the pot. Unless I get more than 6mm (1/4") of rain I still need to water because so little makes it into the pots.

There is a big difference between elements being tied up to particles and cation exchange capacity - CEC. Elements that are tied up can be difficult or impossible for the tree roots to access so might as well not be there. CEC measures the ability of the soil to store and then give up nutrients to the roots. Organic components generally have some ability to hold nutrients and reduce leaching but can still make those nutrients available to the roots. Some of the inorganic components are also used because of a good CEC.
Most bonsai mixes have the ability to hold some nutrients so they are not immediately leached out with subsequent watering or rainfall but still allow roots to access those stored nutrients.
We fertilize regularly to make sure our pots do have a relatively constant supply so anything the rain washes out is only temporary. Fertilize again in a week or 2. The plants will get on OK until next application.

 

[M. Frary]

If you fertilize like I do you can just go out and dump more blue juice on them the next day.
But then again the only organic component in my pots are the trees.

 

[A. Gorilla]

It rained? On your plants?

Your f#$%ed.

Appeal to the UN for plantatarian hunger relief.

 

[BrianBay9]

I've posted this before, but I did an experiment with total inorganic soil, fertilizing with chemical ferts then watering thoroughly once a day. I measured the amount of amines coming out in the wash as an indication of fertilizer retention. I lost the ability to detect amines after 5 to 7 days of watering. I'm pretty sure in your case, with pine bark (better CEC than my inorganic mix) you have plenty of fertilizer remaining after one rain.

 

[rich815]

I've posted this before, but I did an experiment with total inorganic soil, fertilizing with chemical ferts then watering thoroughly once a day. I measured the amount of amines coming out in the wash as an indication of fertilizer retention. I lost the ability to detect amines after 5 to 7 days of watering. I'm pretty sure in your case, with pine bark (better CEC than my inorganic mix) you have plenty of fertilizer remaining after one rain.

Yup. I read that most rainfalls, unless a complete deluge, really don’t water your bonsai very much let alone flush out your fertilizer. I confirmed this for myself a couple of months ago when I went to repot one of my bonsai after a couple of days of fairly decent rain and was surprised to see most of the substrate fairly dry.

 

[AaronThomas]

most with fully inorganic soils dont fertilize ENOUGH

Curious how often you fertilize?
I have trees in fully inorganic soil which I fertilize once a week as well as trees in a 30% to 40% mix of organics which I also fertilize once a week.
I’m using a chemical fertilizer.

 

[JesusFreak]

I’ve been fertilizing once a week. I’m considering diluting the mix and do it on Wednesdays and Saturdays

 

[MrWunderful]

Curious how often you fertilize?
I have trees in fully inorganic soil which I fertilize once a week as well as trees in a 30% to 40% mix of organics which I also fertilize once a week.
I’m using a chemical fertilizer.

During growing season, (starting march basically here)

most of my trees in development get a heaping of organic once a month, then fulvic/humic/fish/kelp diluted every 1-2 weeks.
I use bio gold on more refined material.
be-1 pelletized for most everything
Doctor earth Life(the one with all the inncoluants)

Pines have a different regimen, of slowly adding more each month until decandle.


My Portulacaria gets a large amount of organic every month, then miracle grow at 2x-3x strength at most waterings depending on frequency- if its very hot, I will let them go for a few days then blast them with 3x blue juice and water daily with a diluted blue juice after that for a week or so. Then repeat the process!

 

[AaronThomas]

grow at 2x-3x strength

Thank you so much for the reply! Damn… I need to up my game LOL. Do you use the fish/kelp (brand?) fertilizer in correlation with the other… Or do you use one or the other?

 

[MrWunderful]

Thank you so much for the reply! Damn… I need to up my game LOL. Do you use the fish/kelp (brand?) fertilizer in correlation with the other… Or do you use one or the other?

i dont use chemical on most of my trees. Only the portulacaria and maybe elms/tridents that I have in the ground. Everything else gets strictly organic. Brand is below.


And for what its worth, I am going to fertilize (liquid) later today because it rained hard 2 days ago, and barely sprinkled this morning so the soil should “just” be moist enough for the trees to suck up the fert.

 

[bonsaichile]

I use only inorganic, otherwise my dog digs through the pots to eat the fertilizer. I have granular slow-release at all times and use full strength miraclegro once a week. Substrate is completely inorganic.