Kadebe
Chumono
That's very interesting
Please advise on organic fert
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Leprous Garden
Yamadori
Microbes prefer wet environments over dry, in general. This is why sandy soils are low in microbes and also nutrients and often hard to grow in.
Yes, microbes can be good or bad. But it's not realistic to think you're going to really manage the millions of microbes present in your soil. More so in a bonsai pot, but even then the same culture in Thailand versus New York is going to have totally different microbes. You can fight off a certain disease and promote mycorrhizae but the microbiome is way too complex to be truly managed.
As for the nutrients, I don't know if I agree. Plants literally take up individual nutrients as ions. They don't break things down in a stomach like we do. Why should we think plant health is like human health? Again, plants don't eat. They just pick up Nitrate ions that are available to them (or get them from fungi) and then move them around to do what they need. There is not a lot of good evidence that "different types" of nutrients are really better or worse for plants. "I used this and it was good" is information of limited use. Many fertilizer regimens are successful (if not equally so) because the same basics apply: NPK, micronutrients, in appropriate ratios and consistently available. There is more to it than that but if you get that part down you're doing a lot of the lifting. And to the point of this post, all the ideas about organic gardening just aren't directly applicable to bonsai.
leatherback
The Treedeemer
I think this overlooks the effect of mycorrhiza on plant health & resistance to draught. Feed the fungi in the substrate and they help to keep the plant healthier.
leatherback
The Treedeemer
check for OSCORNA Animalin - Pelleted.That's very interesting
It seems to be low in trace elements though
Leprous Garden
Yamadori
I'm not saying it doesn't matter. I'm talking about applying concepts from gardening to bonsai. What makes plants very successful in the wild isn't what we try to do in bonsai pots.
leatherback
The Treedeemer
I tend to disagree
Leprous Garden
Yamadori
You plant your garden with bonsai soil? Repot every 2 years to keep the roots shallow?
Kadebe
Chumono
So, junipers with their mighty dead wood in the wild is because they are very successful? It is rather survival. In a bonsai pot they're thriving.
Same for other plants. They try to survive in the wild... look at a forest.. every tree trying to get some sun.
Katie0317
Chumono
Am not sure why but I wasn't seeing optimal results using Osmocote plus. Switched to Biogold and liquid Bonsai Pro weekly with a single monthly fish emulsion treatment, (that's
been too recent to know yet...only started a month ago) but with the other two fertilizers my trees haven't looked better. They're mostly tropicals but I was struggling to see what I wanted to see with my single trident maple and I'm finally seeing it. Foliage has changed to a deeper green and new buds are evenly and beautifully growing. Am on good footing with things and don't feel a need to change. I'll continue using the fish emulsion monthly until the end of September and then talk to some people to see if they think I should continue with it in the fall. What exactly do those of you using fish emulsion feel it's adding to your supplementation? What times of the year do you use it?
been too recent to know yet...only started a month ago) but with the other two fertilizers my trees haven't looked better. They're mostly tropicals but I was struggling to see what I wanted to see with my single trident maple and I'm finally seeing it. Foliage has changed to a deeper green and new buds are evenly and beautifully growing. Am on good footing with things and don't feel a need to change. I'll continue using the fish emulsion monthly until the end of September and then talk to some people to see if they think I should continue with it in the fall. What exactly do those of you using fish emulsion feel it's adding to your supplementation? What times of the year do you use it?
leatherback
The Treedeemer
I use it as an add-on. "complete" fertilizers might provide things in an on-average complete diet. Yet needs vary from species to species and time of year. I am a biologist, and thinking biology, a firm believer in mixing things up every now and then.
With respect, this is about as wrong as you can get.If you're trying to develop a tree using only "organic" ferts, you will have very very slow going. If you're using organic ferts with inorganic soil, you're probably a masochist. .... That breakdown depends on soil organisms. With no organic compound in the soil, the process takes longer and is more dilute-since most of the stuff runs out the bottom of your pot with the relative flood of water necessary with inorganic soils...
a1dusty
Yamadori
I totally agree with the above , finding the right npk and position is is one , if you are growing on , put in training pot so she can spread out her feet and feed more , the range of npk needed for a bonsai can always be found in the natural world
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
I've been disproving the "they'll take what they need and leave the rest" thing spoke of nutrients.
The system as operating properly, goes, tree feeds sugars to bacteria, bacteria being requested nutrient.
What happens when this system breaks down?
(That's the unanswerable question.)
Trees are opportunistic AF so....
Every other plant, specifically noted when grown for food, won't produce as much fruit with too much nitrogen.
Myth busted yet?
It has to matter, or it has to not matter, but there is too little difference to worry.
Sorce
The system as operating properly, goes, tree feeds sugars to bacteria, bacteria being requested nutrient.
What happens when this system breaks down?
(That's the unanswerable question.)
Trees are opportunistic AF so....
Every other plant, specifically noted when grown for food, won't produce as much fruit with too much nitrogen.
Myth busted yet?
It has to matter, or it has to not matter, but there is too little difference to worry.
Sorce
leatherback
The Treedeemer
Why not just study some plant science literature. This stuff has been studied to death, has it not?
Leprous Garden
Yamadori
Care to offer anything to support your view?
coh
Imperial Masterpiece
Don't hold your breath! As someone else posted in another thread about sorce (I'm paraphrasing) - "Never has so little been said in so many words."
In a Japanese article, a grower got 6 feet of growth in one season from an Ilex planted in 100% akadama using only organic fertilizer.
Good enough?
Leprous Garden
Yamadori
If you were countering someone saying that organic fertilizer doesn't work maybe. The post your responded to made a number of claims about the difference between organic and synthetic fertilizer. Perhaps that tree would have grown seven feet with synthetics.
AKA no.
BonsaiNaga13
Chumono
I switched from dyna grow last few years to bio gold this spring. With dyna grow id end up with leaf burn regardless of the dilution rate on everything except bald cypress and black pine. No more leaf burn on my plants since going organic so as a result they appear happier with more explosive growth. I'm one of those guys who likes the idea of organics despite "popular opinion".
