I’ve been experimenting with fertilizers lately. For years, my primary fertilizers have been cottonseed meal and fish emulsion. Both are easy to find and easy to use. Cottonseed meal Fish emulsion I’ve been happy with the results too, but have been curious about newer products that have components beyond the standard NPK. Today it’s easy […]
Fertilizer
Feed me!
What’s wrong with this picture? Cork bark black pine The tree is growing, but there is no sign of fertilizer. With tea bags filled with cottonseed meal That’s better. The sooner I can start fertilizing, the stronger I can make the tree by decandling time. I enjoy seeing the male flowers on pine, despite the mess. […]
Fall is for fertilizer
A few weeks ago I was struck by yellow foliage on a number of my young pines. After thinking about it for a moment, I came to the conclusion that I hadn’t been fertilizing enough. Black pines in development require a lot of fertilizer. If they don’t receive enough food they can quickly turn yellow. […]
New bonsai fertilizer
Every year I experiment a bit with fertilizer and every year I seem to keep returning to my standard duo – cottonseed meal and fish emulsion. Although they’ve worked well for my trees, I’d like to try a more balanced mix this year. The fish emulsion I use is rated 4-1-1, the cottonseed meal, 6-2-1 […]
Bonsai fertilizer – follow-up
Last month I began using tea bags filled with fertilizer to feed my bonsai. Unfortunately, it only took a few days for me to realize that this technique didn’t work well as implemented. The bags started disappearing immediately. Critters tore through some of the bags and carried others away completely, leaving behind the toothpicks that […]