Miracle Grow

Just wondering, who uses Miracle grow on their trees?

Fertilizer? I use their tomato feed. It makes the water look like Kool-Aid!! At least until I add a fish/seaweed emulsion.....then, not so much!!

for your short answer, scroll down to the feeding section

http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/2010/06/feeding-substrate-and-watering-english.html

but then go back and read the whole thing as the feeding is connected to the substrate and watering.

I do, but at 1/3 strength and into moist soils.
Bonsai don't need much more than 2N 1P 1K when finished and in their respective pots.

Ground growing or branch training is another situation.

So you need to ask --- what stage of training is using what type or strength of fertiliser and perhaps why.
Laters.
Khaimraj

* Kevin, be aware of the hydroponics approach to Bonsai.
The tomatoes, formed by this technique years ago, caused bodily collapse just from standing. Imagine what that might do to your tree's internals or how soft the new shoots might come out.

Yes, the ball bearing effect, but perhaps aged compost and maybe a little peat moss / coco-peat if needed.
One can also use porous bonsai pots [ traditionally buried for winter or other protection ] as a way to control over wet soils.

See if you can find a Bonsai pot from China, before say 1800, that looks like the pots of today, or are they well decorated plant pots ?
Are old Bonsai pots, re-done incense containers [ drilled and then made to look like old holes ] ?
See Japanese Bonsai pot catalogues for what the incense pots looked like.

smalltrees wrote:Just wondering, who uses Miracle grow on their trees?

Almost everybody in North America (and elsewhere that it may be sold, I suppose). It is a perfectly useful, carefully prepared in terms of NPK commercial fertilizer with a balanced amount (if very small) of trace elements. There are any number of almost identical houseplant/tomato/azalea fertilizers (the colors are totally immaterial to their chemical properties). I tend to use whatever is cheapest when I need to replenish. No need to use half (or other) strength if you follow label instructions when mixing.

Jim,

if I used full strength fertiliser on my somewhat finished trees, do you know what growth I would be experiencing - yikes !!!

Not to mention, the bugs that would love me, on that abundant sappy growth.

I have an old fukien tea, supposedly 60 something years, even with 1/3 strength fertiliser I have to prune weekly all over.
I just defoliated the oldest tamarind, bud removal is daily and leaf extensions as well, and I have a second flush to deal with 2 or 3 weeks later and that is from one month of a weak fertiliser, once a week, after a month's rest [ repotting ].

I would running around pulling my hair out with extra chores.
Sent in friendship and humor.
Laters.
Khaimraj

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote:Jim,

if I used full strength fertiliser on my somewhat finished trees, do you know what growth I would be experiencing - yikes !!!

Not to mention, the bugs that would love me, on that abundant sappy growth.

I have an old fukien tea, supposedly 60 something years, even with 1/3 strength fertiliser I have to prune weekly all over.
I just defoliated the oldest tamarind, bud removal is daily and leaf extensions as well, and I have a second flush to deal with 2 or 3 weeks later and that is from one month of a weak fertiliser, once a week, after a month's rest [ repotting ].

I would running around pulling my hair out with extra chores.
Sent in friendship and humor.
Laters.
Khaimraj

Just the opposite here. I use Miracle grow. 5 times the amount prescribed on the box for outdoor plants. We'll close to 5. A bunch of heaping scoops. Right now when everything is really cooking I do it twice weekly. A lot runs out. The lawn loves it. The trees love it.
I only have about 15? finished trees. They get it too. I just carry scissors with me whenever I go near my trees.

if I used full strength fertiliser on my somewhat finished trees, do you know what growth I would be experiencing - yikes !

Well then. Fertilize less often. I fertilize twice a summer these days.

Just the opposite here. I use Miracle grow. 5 times the amount prescribed on the box for outdoor plants. We'll close to 5. A bunch of heaping scoops. Right now when everything is really cooking I do it twice weekly. A lot runs out. The lawn loves it. The trees love it.
I only have about 15? finished trees. They get it too. I just carry scissors with me whenever I go near my trees.

Why? You're doing your plants no favor. You are encouraging long internodes, larger leaves, thinner and longer growth. That makes it twice as difficult to make decent bonsai. It keeps your "finished" bonsai perpetually UNfinished. It wastes money and fertilizer, makes you cut the grass under your table more often and (in theory, at least) leads to overenriched streams and lakes when the excess washes into the storm drain.

100% counterproductive.

You tell Jim

Remember our sun, burns / powders out paint tested for Florida or Arizona in a year or two.
I would end up with yellowed foliage.

Off to test an idea, porous bonsai pot, with more organic components to see if I even need fertiliser.
Laters.
Khaimraj

I don't have a problem with long internodes on any tree in my posession. Long internodes come from lack of sunlight in sun loving plants.
The leaves on my trees stay small. I have American elms with leaves less than 1/2 " in length. I have an Eastern White pine with needles 1" in length only.
My grass has to be cut at least once a week here in the swamp.
No storm drains.
I can afford the cost for the health of my trees.
You've seen pictures of a few of my trees Jim. Do they look scraggly or unhealthy in any way? The limbs aren't long ,weak skinny things. My leaves are small ,internodes short and leaves nice and green.
100 % effective. I water and feed the same Walter Pall does. Do his trees look unhealthy or over grown?
I really hate to disagree.

I really hate to disagree.

Always OK . . . but I still do not understand.

What I put in doesn't really matter so long as the fertilizer is there available to the tree. The tree only uses what it needs. The rest goes out the drain next watering. I have zero organic material in my pots. Just diatomaceous earth and turkey grit some times. It's like manual hydroponics. I've been thinking about half strength every other day. It's easier to do it once or twice per week though. Mixing is time consuming.
I understand that I do things to the extreme sometimes. I try not to upset people too much. I hold a lot of things I do to trees back because I know it may raise some eyebrows. But this works for me.