If anyone still uses compost/manure - some npk percentages

I am going through an old Bonsai Book, and always wondered the why of the rape seed / oil seed.
[Bonsai for Pleasure - K.Murata and T.Takeuchi pg.15 ]

This comment made it all clear - We grow bonsai for Beauty, not size and productivity [ fruit?]

Probably explains my elm problem of too much and too rapid growth. My soil mix is too rich. I make my own compost. Last year I found a bunny on the road, aggressive guy, I figure he busted out and hopped away.
So I have been adding his lot to the compost heap. Oh boy the elms are going to love me -
Khaimraj

Anyhow manure / compost breakdowns seen here -

http://www.allotment.org.uk/fertilizer/npk-manures-compost.php

Hi Khaimraj,

Natural manure/fertilizers are low return nutrient-wise for both bonsai and allotmenteering imo and I am engaged in both activities.

The real advantage in using manure on an allotment is the additional organic material you add to the soil and the physical act of digging it all in - both of which improve soil condition - and not the nutrients you're adding.

Same applies to "the myth" re planting potatos as a 1st allotment crop to "clean the ground up". NO! - its all the blooming digging and incidental weeding you do whilst planting and harvesting that cleans the ground up.

With bonsai, if you want to give the trees a good shot - chemical is the most straightforward way to go imo and I think many (me included) remain to be convinced that any particular chemical fertilizer is better than another providing you use them all an equivalent rate and they supply what the tree needs.

I think we probably all phaffed around with those round rape seed cakes early doors because it looked "cool", Japanese and traditional.

These days I just swipe what the wife's using on the patio pots and she swipes what I buy for my trees.

All that being said, I am currently spending a few hours every weekend driving back and forth between my pal's farm and my allotment with bags of horse manure from his sizeable muck heap coz its the righteous thing to do..

TimR

Wabashene --

Be careful of the horse manure unless it is WELL composted. Horses only have one stomach, so weed seeds tend to pass straight through.

You are so right about compost as "food" for plants -- and for bonsai it makes less sense, since the grain size of good compost is to fine for container growing and tends to "muck" up the soil. It's romantic -- and "Green" -- to use a lot of compost, but not that beneficial on bonsai.

That said, rotted (partially composted) pine bark makes a nice addition to some soils -- maybe 20% or less of the soil because of the organic materials it contributes. Organics in the soil help keep the INorganic fertilizers we oftn use around a while longer.

Guys, thanks for responding.

I have no opinion to offer as I use compost and cocopeat as my organic part, and haven't had anything die on me. In fact I will probably be using less of the organic because it is too rich even at 1/3 organic to inorganic. We don't have stuff like pine bark or lava or pumice down here, so I just adapted to what we do have.

What I have done is shifted the mix to Mrs. Cohen's remarks on the ball bearings and spaces.

My soils do sink down, as the organic material "melts" away, but I can also sprinkle sifted compost back onto the surface and it will work it's way back down again, if I ever needed to.

I also sift and re-use my old soil, add in fresh mix, I lose less inorganic that way.
Apologies no great science here.
Until.
Khaimraj

* No problems seen either with the 3 to 5 year repottings either. Will let you know when I start the piecuts.