Winter Care / Fertilizer

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This will be my first winter with most of my trees in bonsai pots with inorganic mixes.

Curious if anyone had suggestions for winter care, particularly regarding fertilizer. During growing season, I've been using miracle grow (both original and miracid; species dependent) paired with organic pellets.

For the Winter months, I believe Nitrogen needs wound back - but that some folks in northern California have found success with 5-3-1 (link).

I picked up some organic fish/kelp blend (2-3-1) that I wanted to start using in Spring. Would this be beneficial for trees throughout winter months or best saved for growing season?

I'm also doing winter dormancy spraying for the first time - mainly horticultural oil, but also have some antifungal for a few trees later in winter (ume, JMs).
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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My trees don't evaporate much water in winter, so their roots are either frozen and standing still, or working minimally.
This means all fertilizer flushes out or becomes ice. So I fertilize before winter and a couple weeks before spring, so that the fertilizer has time to be broken down.

Instead of dosing low on nitrogen and relatively higher on P and K, I just skip spring fertilizing entirely when I want to limit spring growth. Seems to work well for me.
 

Shibui

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Winter care varies with location and climate.
Winter nights here go just below freezing and we don't seem to get any benefit from changing fertilizer in mild climate.
Dormant trees can't use fertilizer so applying anything to trees without leaves is just a waste and probably causing problems with nutrient run off into waterways.
Evergreen trees in mild climates do not go fully dormant. We get a good response to continued feeding for pines, junipers and other evergreens right through winter.

I don't see much difference between 5-3-1 and 2-3-1. The tiny 3% change in N will be negligible in the scheme of things assuming both are applied at similar dilutions and rates.

I know some growers apply preventative winter sprays but I have reservations about using chemicals to treat nonexistent problems. I prefer to watch and treat when necessary rather than just in case. Preventatives may make some sense in larger collections or where lots of trees move through that may introduce pests or diseases but smaller collections of trees should be relatively more safe from problems.
 

sorce

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I wonder if the people with stocked antifungal cabinets are also the ones with stocked medicine cabinets.

We don't need either!

When you hear the Mirai Stream about trees not even needing fertilizer, it adds a large chunk to your ability to answer this question for yourself.
Not that I don't want to answer, or that you shouldn't listen to other answers, but it is critical that you decide for your garden, and that info is valuable.

Like a cane for a blind dude, a hearing aid for the deaf, or a wheelchair for a paraplegic.

You can go through life without the information.... but why?

Sorce
 
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Hey Sorce - I've read a lot about winter care from a variety of places, including locals.

The answers I find here are another input that I value - did mention above this is my first "winter" with trees in inorganic mix.

But... yes I'll be making the decisions in my garden. :)

Whether or not I need antifungals or 5 pairs of scissors, who knows.
 
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