Miracid....? Organic eqivalent?

For many reasons I've gone all tree huggy and tried to drop Provado and 0-10-10. Miracid however does give one heck of an acidic boost each year to my Satsuki, Pine, Maples etc.

Could perchance anyone in the UK give me an idea to replace Miracid with (organically)?

Thanks

Mike

Chipped and composted pine bark and needles? I use this as a soil mix addition for pines, but it would probably work with Azaleas as well. That said, I still feed with Miracle Grow Acid Plant feed. The amount of runoff from bonsai is pretty negligible.

Thanks Kev. Ditto on a pine mix. On the basis that replies are scarce I suppose MG has no real organic equivalent then?

Mike

Kelp meal has NPK of 1 - 0.5 - 2.5

Peat moss of course, has a PH of 3 to 4.5 - I don't know if it has any nutrient value.

Leached wood ashes have NPK of 0 - 1.2 - 2

Unleached wood ashes have NPK of 0 - 1.5 - 8

Bone meal is 1 - 11 - 0

BUT, if you apply Miracid/azalea food according to label instructions you should have no ambient environmental issues, and if you set you tree in a tray, you should have none

I overwinter most of my trees with a hefty dose of bone meal. That probably has something of an acidifying effect on the soils.

Dear Mike

I looked at this a while ago and this is what I found:

Miracid is a mixture of mineral salts and urea consiting of equal parts of:

Urea - Source of Nitrigen
Diamonium Phosphate - ph lowering agent
Potassium Chloride - source of Potassium
Monopotassium Phosphate - lowers ph and helps prevent rapid breakdown of urea into amonia
Iron EDTA ( Ferric Ethylen Diamine Tetra Acetic acid) soluable Iron source (chelated iron)
Sodium Sulphate - Chelating agent, helps to maintain iron in solution

All of the above are the natural byproduct of the breakdown of evergreen organic material and mineral rich rocks with an added fertiliser kick.

What the other guys say is clearly right but there isn't that much wrong with miracid, there is nothing that manmade and horrible in it. I will help keep water rententive substrates acidic, either kanuma or akadama which don't differ that much in PH anyway after a few waterings.

That was very helpful. Thank you

Mike

I do believe several of the professors on this forum (said with admiration and respect, not sarcasm) have stated the obvious, plants need specific forms of food N-P-K and essential minerals, water, etc. None of these plants stop and read the labels. They don't care if you feed them organic sea weed and bat guano or liquid "chemical" fertilizer.

It has been my experience if you dump fresh chicken poop on your trees, they will "burn" in their pots, or in the ground, as quickly as if you over-dosed them in high nitrogen chemical fertilizers.

Personally, I like Miracle Grow (or Miracid). Several other "balanced" liquid fertilizers are also avaiable. If prepared according to the directions (with wide berth given to allow for errors) you get a universal feeding of your trees without drawing bugs and rodents, or running off the neighbors (although running off a few neighbors isn't always a bad thing, !) Frequent waterings in between doses of fertilizer will rinse excess fertilizers and residual salts, preventing them from causing major damage.

JMHO!

Jay