Poisoned but alive

I recently bought an inorganic fertilizer from a local greenhouse, at the managers recomendation for my Juniper Cypress. *I will give the name of this product so that no one else ever buys it for their tree. *Ferti-lome Blooming and Rooting Soluble Plant Food. *I diluted the recommended solution by half, and fed the tree twice according to specifications and instructions. *After a few days, I noticed that some of my brances and foilage were turning brown. *I touched one of these branches and they broke off. *After sifting out the dead leaves and branches off my tree, I am left with only about half coverage. *(this is where my mistake comes in) *I looked at the ratio of the fertizer, and it was a 9-59-8 *far from a normal 8-16-8. *SO PLEASE, NO ONE EVER USE THIS PRODUCT. *
* *Now for my question. *Off of some of the affected branches and trunk I do have some new growth, so I know that the tree is not completely dead. *Any advise that some one out there can give me? *I feel that this has put me about 2-3 years behind in my growth plans and design. *I dont want to have to chop my tree down to near nothing but any advise and also good fertilizers to use, I would like brand name and ratios, and what kind of stores I can buy it at. *Please email me your responces because I do not check the postings often. *Thank you very much.

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Soildoc

Kris,

I'm somewhat surprised that the phosphorus fertilizer had such an impact on your tree. I routinely use 0-20-20 without any trouble. I am curious as to what else is in the jug. The word rooting in the name makes me wonder if there is rooting hormone floating around in there as well.

TreeBay

Some inexpensive fertilizers contain urea as a nitrogen source that can lead to problems with the salt levels in the soil. * I take it you have a water-soluble fertilizer there. *I would try to flush as much out of the soil as I could by running a hose on low flow for an hour or two. * *Be sure the water in the hose doesn't get too hot in the sunshine if you leave it alone.

Give the tree a few weeks to recover and send out what new growth it can. *It certainly won't be wanting fertilizer any time soon. *At that time you can look at trimming back as needed.

I should point out that I a committed organic fertilizer fiend. *It is more expensive, but virtually impossible to burn tree roots or foliage. *Plus, you get the added benefit of encouraging soil micro-organisms and beneficial fungi. *With inorganic fertilizer the nitrogen is right there (as you've found) and has an immediate impact. *With the organic fertilizer, the nitrogen needs to be released by the action of decomposition and only after it has been ingested by soil borne microbes and or fungi is the nitrogen released in a digestible form.

It's a good idea to rotate your fertilizers occasionally to ensure that the trace minerals the tree needs are available.

You can find organic fertilizer in the Supplies tab at TreeBay Bonsai Tools & Supplies

Dyna-Gro 7-9-5, which is a nicely balanced water soluble fertilizer that you can find at ***CHARLEY*** *Click on SEARCH and enter 7031 or 7032 (pint and quart) to read more.

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