When to Start Fertilizing
- Thread starter Adamantium
- Start date
papymandarin
Shohin
i "love" that "it's easier to use incorrect dose with inorganic and burn trees" argument, it's like admitting yourself you are stupid (sorry to be rude), if you are not able to read a package to put the right number of caps into the right volume of water, you are definitely too stupid to make bonsai anyway....
Lazylightningny
Masterpiece
So... who is stupid? You want to take it a step further and name names?
papymandarin
Shohin
i'm not saying anyone is stupid, my point is just that if you don't like chemical fertilizers, use at least relevant arguments and not the indeed stupid argument of doing a mistake dosing it
baron
Shohin
Maybe a couple stupid questions:
- As I currently don't have the need to water my trees on a daily basis due to soil mixture and rain should I water/fertilize even if they don't need water? Or do you wait till the next watering to fertilize?
- when I water my trees I usually water them 2 or 3 times with a 15 min interval. Should I do this with fertilizer aswell? Or is just once sufficient? will most of the nutrients stay in the top layers of the soil this way?
- As I currently don't have the need to water my trees on a daily basis due to soil mixture and rain should I water/fertilize even if they don't need water? Or do you wait till the next watering to fertilize?
- when I water my trees I usually water them 2 or 3 times with a 15 min interval. Should I do this with fertilizer aswell? Or is just once sufficient? will most of the nutrients stay in the top layers of the soil this way?
Steven1969s
Mame
Most flowering trees shouldn't be fertilized until they finish flowering.
Adamantium
Mame
Okay, good to know. None of mine are flowering. Just some maples, larch, and a pine.
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
My trees never lack,that's for sure.
0soyoung
Imperial Masterpiece
So, what are the few (opposite of most) that should be?
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
And do flowering trees in the landscape not take in nutrients?
Maybe they're the few.
0soyoung
Imperial Masterpiece
Yah.
I was thinking of trees/shrubs in my landscape. I've got evergreen rhodies and azaleas. They have leaves that transpire drawing water an minerals up the xylem. So applied fert would be well-utilized (or as well as any other time). Roses aren't evergreen, but they bloom in spurts and since flowers are just apical vegetative buds gone wild, they quit growing when blooming, then continue as axillary buds extend shoots - difficult to shut off minerals in the ground.
On the other hand, stuff like prunus and magnolia stellata bloom with only a little bract of leaves right at the flower base
- otherwise they are leafless when flowering. I suppose most fert would be poorly utilized because there's really nothing to pull water up the tree from the roots.
I really cannot see any good reason to withhold fert during blooming.
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papymandarin
Shohin
and to answer Baron's question, you should not fertilize on a dry substrate anyway, so yes water first, then fertilize on your last turn of watering, if you use a modern draining soil it's not a problem and fertilizer wil imbibe all the pot (you don't water such soils with three droplets, you have to soak it)
Steven1969s
Mame
Feeding during blooming will result in loss of flowers and flower buds at the expense of leaf growth.
Tropical flowering trees like bougainvillea are fed differently.
Tropical flowering trees like bougainvillea are fed differently.
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
I do it. Every week. 5 times the amount of miracle grow. No problems. They're thirsty and suck it right up. Love it.
KiwiPlantGuy
Omono
Hi Mr Frary,
I am happy to agree with you that chemical fertilizers work well. Osmocote (18 month) and liquid feed once a week keeps all my sticks (wanna be trunks) real happy.
Just impatient on the waiting bit to grow Bonsai not just growing trunks for years.
Anyway, never seen a hungry plant grown with chem ferts, but seen plenty of trees in pots screaming out for something NOT pissy and organic.
I choose not hungry trees, others choose what they want.
Charles
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
It depends!
First....sorry it took me so long to find this..
Second, my respect for you has recently quadratipledoubled....it sucks that there are so many shitty humans out there, that make it so reasonable men like ourselves, Rock, Vance, have to "go through it" to get to a place of open minded learning.
The "the meal or the sandwich" phenomenon. (Identifying the shitty human)
(Can I nutshell this to make sense?)
Before McDonald's Started putting the "sandwich only" price under the Meal Price..folks ordered a Number one..or A Big Mac. Simple.
After 50 years? They put the Sandwich only price under the Meal Price....
The other day Sorceress got pissed when I ordered a Number One and the lady asked if I wanted the meal or the sandwich...
(Because Sorceress default is...if you want the sandwich only...SAY the sandwich...like we have for 50 years!)
She couldn't understand why that question was necessary.
It's because of that ONE shitty human that ruins it for everyone.
The one who got pissed off at the lady because when THEY said they wanted a Number one...THEY meant the sandwich alone...Cuz they didn't figure it out!
But this one person could have been brand new to McDonald's ..and had no default.
So that ONE person isn't even Neccesarily shitty! But everything is still ruined...as there are uneccessary questions being asked for 99% of the customers...
Tiny Confusions...tiny bits of upset....FOR NO FREAKING REASON!
But you see how this phenomenon is much less controllable on the internet.
And how it works so perfectly against us figuring out the ever important..."it depends' "
How about this one of our scenarios...
When I said working with copper over years has helped me wire better....
And I don't remember how it went, but YOUR truth WAS ...that won't help you wire...
But that's where I find the "bad" but "not bad" information.
Cuz while my Truth may not help ALL..
It is truth that some like Just wing it can summon powers of to utilize for confidence in wiring...
So we must remember....
Even Part truth is safe...
Because not having it isn't dangerous.
Where The Straight BS..(which really is entirely just different methods, however shitty, that have different timelines, that result in different aesthetic ends...different art...in that. ..EVERY IS ACCEPTABLE!)
The Straight BS can get cut and stomped instantly...
The problem there ...that one moron that will go take an HVAC class to learn wiring!
He's put there you know he is!
Or that other Moron....
Who hears "cut a branch" and does it before reading the "in 15 years" part ..
He exists too!
The difference between here and Facebook is we are better at weeding out those Morons.
The better we get at knowing these people exist, and the grief their ignorance causes us...the easier it willbe to dodge THAT BS and really hash out the "it depends" so we can friggin advance.
So I invite you to my world of circular reasoning....
An image like that of the Olympic Rings...
We are all connected amd together.
Where parralel , straightened thoughts, go on forever and never intertwine...
For me...the liquid fert...
It goes thru the foliage...
Thru the moss,
Into the roots..
Drips into earth...
And that H20 in there eventually ends up back in my rain barrel.
Cycle.
My Son was in Hotlanta at a Baseball game recently...at that point out cycles were closer...our rings spanned that space, as my son is a cycle within mine.
Figuring out "it depends"....
Owning that these cycles are real and properly aligning where the rings connect...
There is great value to me in this "straightening out" though...
It's like an "express bus" to other cycles of you will...
Every Bit of information is useful...
But not for them morons...
Sorry, but we spoke in the other thread about being a "douche"..."hazing"..
I have to say I'm with that.
Your yard your garden.
Your art especially!
I will not Judge anyone who enjoys even a Mallsai...
I will learn from that.
It's absolutely thoughtless empty advice that is DAMAGING.
And we just don't get that here.
Of course...it is Because the archives here aren't deleted.
It is because people can speak as they wish.
Because so much information is put on the table for debate...the best comes out of it.
It is getting better at this...
"Having a factual debate to come to a better place for all" that we must focus on.
Arguing is a waste of time!
Truth and no truth!
Moron and no moron!
Keep doing what is best for the group!
Sorce
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
We have no system in place to check the greedy....the ones who do more for themselves than the group.
In my Fish tank, I had a hog ass fish who ate everything and bullied his whole school.
He died...I knew it was going to happen...he was out of balance.
We lack this balance...this is why We Stagnate. Most of us are "starving".
Sorce
In my Fish tank, I had a hog ass fish who ate everything and bullied his whole school.
He died...I knew it was going to happen...he was out of balance.
We lack this balance...this is why We Stagnate. Most of us are "starving".
Sorce
GrimLore
Bonsai Nut alumnus... we miss you
I never seen that as a problem, I star fertilization as soon as danger of hard extended frost has passed. I just gave all of my potted a heavy dose yesterday and they all in various stages of bud and bud break while the Apricot Flowers just started to open this morning.
You bet! In 2013 I had some deep root fertilization done to our landscape Yoshino Cherry when we moved here. Spring of 2014 it was a spectacular display of blooms and the neighbors were all commenting they had never see it bloom before going back 10 - 14 years...
Grimmy
Stan Kengai
Omono
This is another one of those bonsai myths that needs to be dispelled. Yes, there are some plants that will not put on a full display of flowers in favor of vegetative growth if heavily fertilized prior to or during flowering. Apples will also drop their fruit if given heavy fertilizer.
But it's not a hard and fast "rule". It comes with a number of caveats. As @AdairM likes to say, it depends.
1. What stage of growth is your bonsai in? If it is a pre-bonsai or in training, would you not prefer more vegetative growth over flowering? If your intention is to show the plant, then you obviously want flowers. In this case you should fertilize mildly, but not avoid fertilizing altogether.
2. What kind of fertilizer are you using? With chemical fertilizers, it is possible to over-fertilize in terms of flower production. With organics, it's virtually impossible.
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
Is it up to me to fix it?
I can do thoughtless without even thinking about it.
