AusBonsai

hi people

i want to have a bit of a chat about autumn and winter feeding regimes, if any one out there does it, i beleive there would be as i do, how important do you think it is?

me i beleive it is important, up here we have a long growing season with not much of a dormancy if any, some areas in queensland get cold enough for trees to go into dormancy i believe where i am it doesnt really, so i have to consider my trees fertiliser regime as they are still in growth and need nutrients.

even though my trees get a long growing period i also beleive they do have a rest at some point, which i think is negatable when i feed as it would only be for a few weeks and the trees just wouldnt use it and it would be flushed.

so i feed practically all year round, when i feel the trees do get there rest period i will ease up on the feed.

so what are your thoughts and regimes? i guess this is more so for the southern states aswell as they get the autumn colour and trees go into dormancy so i am very interested in this. also conifers they go into a rest period but are still going but slowly, so how much do we feed them? how often during these time? being a slower period i beleive that less fert would have to be used, maybe more time apart then a weaker solution, or a weaker solution at the same intervals?


cheers

jamie

Hi Jamie,
Do you have a winter up there ? For me now is a major feeding season for exotics as they are all making buds for next spring and I want plenty. In te winter time I give the conifers and natives a bit of a feed but for me late summer autumn is the season to fatten them up. I would guess you guys up there pretty much feed all year round.
Craig

yes mate i pretty much feed all year round, im not sure on the other boys, as for having a winter we do get a cold patch of sorts, well the queenslanders call it a cold patch when it gets down to about 15 degrees or so, but that is at night or early morning, when you get acclimatised though it seems cold, i felt like a bit of a wuss the first time i wore a beanie up here as i was used to the cold winters of adelaide and that used to be cold i would generally rock up to work in 2 T shirts, two jumpers and a jacket, if i could of wore two pairs of pants i would of

this is what i wanted to chat about is that autumn feeding and getting ready for the winter and spring, im not sure how much of it is known about.
generally in books that are written for the northern hemispere i read that they stop or very little during the winter season, that may be due to the differing clime though, here it is definately a different story and i believe there isnt much information on it. i havent seen much anyways.

jamie

Our winters are a long way from northern hemisphere but is does get a little chilly. I think the conifers still put on a bit of growth so should require some food. The native trees may not show much evidence of growth but their roots are moving so I believe they should also be fed. I think the closest we get to complete dormancy is in the early spring when it gets seriously cold and wet.
Craig

i completly agree with ya on that mate

could i ask what your fertiliser regime is? i find mine to seem rather excessive to some but i also belive that we underfeed trees alot (we have been here before yes) but my regime is as follows-

a regular fert of whatever i find on special as a reasonable fert of NPK around 12.12.12 or there abouts every five days at recommended dilution.
seasol and superthrive at recommended dilution every 7 days.
dynamic lifter replaced as needed.
slow release put in the mix at repot time.
trace elements top up every six months.


i have found this regime to be quite good for my trees, a lot of my trees are in a growing on stage, but the ones that are in pots at a more complete stage get slightly less, recommended dilutions but for the fert it is usually every 7-9 days, and the seasol + superthrive every 10-12 days. i have been experiment with ferts and timing alot and found that at the standard rates at a closer interval my trees have never been better, where i was trying ferts at higher than recommended dilutions with a longer interval which they were doing good but i figured that with my medium and a high cation rate that the closer interval at standard dilutions to be much better.

i dont know other peoples opinions on this but would love to hear some thoughts


jamie

Hi Jamie,
My fertilizing techniques are very unscientific. I use b&b, cambells organic life and seamungus alternately they usually last about 2 weeks then get scraped off and replaced I also use lots of seasol half strength. Now someone is going to jump on and say seasol is not a fert. To me it makes things grow so thats the label I give it. During the winter and early spring I would not use the hard ferts and just liqiud feed. I think if you are prepared to put in the time pinching and pruning your regime sounds fine. When I first started growing bonsai I was taught not to feed much at all. It was a complete revelation to me when I started feeding regularly and my trees actually grew.
ps the only variation to that regime is the banksia which get only b&b and liquid
Craig

thanks craig

i wouldnt say my techniques with fertilising are exactly scientific either. it seems you and me are the only ones in this discussion. maybe i have brought up a topic that has been brought up before. i know there is topics on fertilising regimes etc, i didnt realise that any went into this side of things regarding fertilising during autumn and winter months.


jamie

Hi Jamie,
I put up a post on autumn feeding some weeks ago maybe it was while you were away, its a bit of a hobby horse for me I suspect the local clubs get sick of hearing me banging on about it.
Craig