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Jim,

The soil mix I use is made up of commercial topsoil mixed with washed sand and patio/paving stone (similar to haydite). I live in zone 7 so I have to deal with a lot of heat and humidity. I found that using commercial bonsai mixes lead to watering 2 or three times a day. The sand and stone parts give me fairly good drainage while the topsoil gives just enough clay and organic matter for nutrient and water retention. I have to watch the watering schedule now since I have moved my tropicals indoors. The soil stays damp much longer and the watering habit is hard to break. My other trees still get watered about once a day but I’ll have to cut back on that soon as well.

Your theory on organic fertilizing is pretty much correct. You’ll get a “slow release” of nutrients as the soil micros break down the organic matter. This is great if you don’t have a long dormancy period.

I’ve thought about the defoliation idea as a rest period but haven’t tried it yet. I am afraid the defoliation would cause a burst of hormone activity and wind up counteracting the benefits of the rest period. I need to ask the plant phys guys about that.

As far as (excess) nutrients promoting growth, you are correct. In my first response, I assumed you were talking about the nutrients being present in “limiting” quantities. When excess nutrients are present, luxury consumption occurs. The nutrients are taken up, but stored away for later use. In this case some other growth factor becomes limiting. If your soil doesn’t have any nutrient retention capacity (clay or organic matter) then your nutrients literally go down the drain.
There are a lot of studies related to uptake kinetics (I did some of this as a graduate student) in plants and trees but I don’t know if there is anything related to bonsaied trees.

I checked out the Greater New Orleans Bonsai Society page. The P and K forms that I saw in the fertilization article are the inorganic forms I use also. I hadn’t really thought about the mycorrhiza link. Let me mull that one over for a while.

8-Oct-2001	#9
Soildoc bonsaiTALK Expert Join Date: Sep-2001 Posts: 169	Re: Fall feeding Jim, The soil mix I use is made up of commercial topsoil mixed with washed sand and patio/paving stone (similar to haydite). I live in zone 7 so I have to deal with a lot of heat and humidity. I found that using commercial bonsai mixes lead to watering 2 or three times a day. The sand and stone parts give me fairly good drainage while the topsoil gives just enough clay and organic matter for nutrient and water retention. I have to watch the watering schedule now since I have moved my tropicals indoors. The soil stays damp much longer and the watering habit is hard to break. My other trees still get watered about once a day but I’ll have to cut back on that soon as well. Your theory on organic fertilizing is pretty much correct. You’ll get a “slow release” of nutrients as the soil micros break down the organic matter. This is great if you don’t have a long dormancy period. I’ve thought about the defoliation idea as a rest period but haven’t tried it yet. I am afraid the defoliation would cause a burst of hormone activity and wind up counteracting the benefits of the rest period. I need to ask the plant phys guys about that. As far as (excess) nutrients promoting growth, you are correct. In my first response, I assumed you were talking about the nutrients being present in “limiting” quantities. When excess nutrients are present, luxury consumption occurs. The nutrients are taken up, but stored away for later use. In this case some other growth factor becomes limiting. If your soil doesn’t have any nutrient retention capacity (clay or organic matter) then your nutrients literally go down the drain. There are a lot of studies related to uptake kinetics (I did some of this as a graduate student) in plants and trees but I don’t know if there is anything related to bonsaied trees. I checked out the Greater New Orleans Bonsai Society page. The P and K forms that I saw in the fertilization article are the inorganic forms I use also. I hadn’t really thought about the mycorrhiza link. Let me mull that one over for a while.