Thanks so much for sharing your methods. I've been encouraged by your posts to start my own batch of JBP this year. I water automatically with tap water and I noticed quite a stall in growth in late spring and early summer when it wasn't raining much, and all I fertilized with was Joy organic Japanese cubes made for bonsai. I suspect that the tap water around 7.8 ph was not allowing for optimal absorption of nutrients and the rain wasn't coming to help balance ph.
Since mid July, or so, we have had much more rain and I started using your feeding program (or hybrid) including liquid humic acid, kelp, amino acid, cal/mag and all purpose 20/20/20 fertilizer in low concentration 1x a week. I give kelp and humic foliar 1x week too. I ph to around 6.0. I have seen great growth in my JBP and other developing bonsai since starting this and I thank you again!
I've attached some photos of some of my seedling cut JBP. I have two more flats too. I had some extra seedlings that I placed in groups of 2 or 3 as shown. One pot in particular has a group of 3 JBP that have above average growth but the color is really light and yellow. I suspect from nutrient def since they are fighting for it all in the pot. I transferred out the biggest yellowed JBP and placed it in its own pot as shown. It appears to be healthy except the needles fall off easier and the color is off. Do you have any ideas what is going in with this one?
Also, I bought the raw powder humic, kelp and full up per your recommendation and I'm excited to switch to that when I run out of my other stuff soon.
Cheers!
The ph is definately everything good at the moment!!!!
Organic look so much fun…..be sure to add a little mycorhiza innoculant since the phosphorous is probably of organic origin……. Organic phosphorus needs mycorrhiza….. regular phospherous like salt based does not need mychorhiza and the roots actually expell mycorrhiza for a pathogen.Mychorhiza only needed for organic phosphate breakdown and absorption to an ionic form.
The soil looks good definitely no potting soil good draining!!!
your tapwater is it springwater or city tap?
if it’s city tap it probably has chlorine or worse chloromine I will definitely get a cheap 75 gallon per day RO filter….. if you have city tap and even if you want better you can even use it to your well water……… it will get rid of all the junk mineral that may be too large anyway to be absorbed especially city tapwater.
it will improve everything even more trust me RO and rainwater is essentially pure and is the bomb.
I would definitely add the black powder humic acid to your pure water if you do go the RO route it will add some much-needed mineral…. that way the pure water doesn’t suck mineral right out of the roots pure water will do that in hydroponic soil which is what you are using it is stones……. Rainwater is good for clay soil loaded with tons of mineral….. not stones…..Pure water draws calcium out of the roots and a few other very important minerals ,so definitely add the black humic acid powder if you use RO water or rain on a regular basis.
Black humic acid powder has much natural mineral is great for hydro………. Specifically if going the organic cake route and pouring water over them you want some mineral in that water.
pure water with the addition of humic acid is way better than the mineral in your water everybody says the plants use it but it is not largely that true a lot of it is way too large to be even absorbed and does nothing but diminish ability for roots to absorb water because they are salt ions.
PH definitely is what fix your trees up pH between 5.5-6.5 is absolutely essential in hydroponic or stony soil ……..clay soils it’s not terribly big of a deal because the rain is what it is and the soil are very well buffered and actually hard to change unless you’re dumping lime into it.
So essentially what I’m saying if you’re using well water or city tapwater you can make everything a step up if you filter the water with a cheap RO filter….. you can get them for 100 bucks and you can rebuild your water it’s absolutely great!!!
