AusBonsai

Gday guys,
I've been fertilizing every 2 weeks and today is my fertilizing day. It has been raining all morning and has just stopped and is not likely to rain any more today. My question is...would fertilizing with a water-in fertilizer be a waste of time and fertilizer today? Would it simply just drain through the pot and come out the bottom? Should I wait until tomorrow?

Hope you are all well

As you should fertilise after watering I would think it would be a good time!

Brett has said it it is a good time, if it is not going to rain again for at least 6 hours it will be fine.

No harm though but I think the fertilizer would be further dilluted as there's water in the soil already.

I actually think it depends on the fertiliser you are using Webos. Because I use a lot of dynamic lifter, I pour it on if I know it is about to rain. The rain does the job of breaking it down and washing it into the soil so the roots can gobble it all up. It also helps to dissipate the smell ; works for me!!

On the other hand, I would not use say, Miracle Grow if it was about to rain. So I think we need to be more specific here when looking at whether it is a good time to fertilise after or before rain. That's my 10 cents worth Webos

John

P.S. You owe me 10 cents

I was reading Bonsai today 43 last night....Article on Picea by Michael Persiano. He says that he uses a half strength chemical feed mixed with a full strength fish emulsion along with fertilizer cakes every week during summer. I've decided to give this a go as of today on all of my trees which have grown healthily since spring arrived. I'll let you know the results.

He also says that during September and October (March and April for us), he gives them a mega-blast of phosphorus using a 10-60-10 fertilizer to help the trees harden off their roots in preparation for the onset of winter. Where would you get a fertilizer so specialized as to offer such a huge percentage of P?

You would'nt find that kind of ratio pre-mixed Webos. You would have to mix it yourself. For example, I was at Gardens'R'Us last week and saw a bag of Nitrogen (as Urea)at 48% in powder form. This is basically just rocket fuel for growing and as Anttal said, use more than a pinch of this stuff and you could be in big trouble. I am assuming therefore that Phosporous can also be found as a material on it's own be it in powder or liquid form.(Potassium is also available as a standalone product) . Then it is a case of you mixing the ratios you want. There are sometimes posts here with people mentioning the fact that they create their own "blends". Hope this helps.

There is alot of talk of mixing fertilisers. Have you ever wondered why they don't make the perfect fertiliser that has everything.
This is because some things don't mix you can lock up minerals and all soughts of awful stuff mixing fertilisers together unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Bonsai is meant to be the pinnacle of horticultural knowledge but some times we think we are smarter than we actually are


Kvan it is almost always recommended on liquid feed that the soil should be watered before application hence the application rate is made for the soil to be wet such as after rain.
If you are not drenching the soil before using a liquid feed you should consider it.
As Jester states dynamic lifter would not matter if you watered before application or not but it must be watered after application.

Bretts wrote:There is alot of talk of mixing fertilisers. Have you ever wondered why they don't make the perfect fertiliser that has everything.
This is because some things don't mix you can lock up minerals and all soughts of awful stuff mixing fertilisers together unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Bonsai is meant to be the pinnacle of horticultural knowledge but some times we think we are smarter than we actually are


Kvan it is almost always recommended on liquid feed that the soil should be watered before application hence the application rate is made for the soil to be wet such as after rain.
If you are not drenching the soil before using a liquid feed you should consider it.
As Jester states dynamic lifter would not matter if you watered before application or not but it must be watered after application.

Brett that does make a difference if it is liquid dynamic lifter. If it is solid it will be 4 weeks before the tree gets it then you need to put more on.
All solid fertilisers need time to break down before the plant can use the nutrients.

The other thing as you say not all chemicals mix well. So some are missing. This why I give all of my tree's a supplementary feed of complete trace elements every 6 months. So that those that have been leached out with our watering regimes for Bonsai are replaced.
Always fertilise after watering. If it is a water soluble one.

pup,

do you have a specific brand of complete trace elements that you use? could you possibly divuldge this information to us?

jamie

jamie111 wrote:pup,

do you have a specific brand of complete trace elements that you use? could you possibly divulge this information to us?

jamie

Manutec, Yates, or any of the propriety brands that sell complete trace elements.
Water soluable of course

Pup wrote:

jamie111 wrote:pup,

do you have a specific brand of complete trace elements that you use? could you possibly divulge this information to us?

jamie

Manutec, Yates, or any of the propriety brands that sell complete trace elements.
Water soluable of course

thanks mate, at least i have an idea on what to look for in the infuriarting selection at bngs, i spent over 20 minutes looking for the stuff once and couldnt find it nor a person working there to ask.

jamie

Webos wrote:I was reading Bonsai today 43 last night....Article on Picea by Michael Persiano. He says that he uses a half strength chemical feed mixed with a full strength fish emulsion along with fertilizer cakes every week during summer. I've decided to give this a go as of today on all of my trees which have grown healthily since spring arrived. I'll let you know the results.

He also says that during September and October (March and April for us), he gives them a mega-blast of phosphorus using a 10-60-10 fertilizer to help the trees harden off their roots in preparation for the onset of winter. Where would you get a fertilizer so specialized as to offer such a huge percentage of P?

I heard of the two-part and three-part fertilizers where you could mix your own ratio of PNK. I have personally seen the two-part one where part A contains N and part B contains P & K

Bretts wrote: Kvan it is almost always recommended on liquid feed that the soil should be watered before application hence the application rate is made for the soil to be wet such as after rain.
If you are not drenching the soil before using a liquid feed you should consider it.
As Jester states dynamic lifter would not matter if you watered before application or not but it must be watered after application.

Thanks for the info. Bretts.