Fagus Sylvatica Flowering

Ravenna

Dear all,

I am a bit concerned because my fagus sylvatica pendula is flowering for the first time ever and I am not sure whether I should be happy about it or worry... I have had it for about four/five years now and before it was a container plant in a nursery about 90cm high. Last year I transplanted it for the first time into akadama and used the japanese biological bonsai fertilizer which comes in little blocks for the first time. I had been told that it was impossible to overfertilize with it so I gave what I thought was a fairly generous amount. I only gave it fertilizer at the beginning of the year as I understood it these are slow release fertilizers yet I wonder whether I was wrong because in a different nursery they now say that you should exchange them after six weeks... I don't know whether they use exactly the same brand though as I just have the japanese labelling on the package. Last year it had a wintercut with the bonsai teacher and I did a bit of root pruning with the repotting which it seemed to tolerate well.

My tree now seems to develop flowers on about 50% of it's buds and I wonder whether it is "desperate" because it is undernurished and therefor is flowering like mad or whether I fed it too much and it is "exuberant". As I have heard that trees try to produce a lot of fruit when they are dying I worry that the first might be correct. I had given it some of the blocks again beginning of this year though just a couple.

I can't see any pests otherwise. Before transplanting it last year it was in bonsai soil though not akadama and had a soluble fertilizer... It has been in the same bonsai pot for the last 4 years as it always had plenty of space in there.

I feel very tempted to remove all blocks and go back to the soluble fertilizer as I have the feeling that I can judge better what I am doing there but if my tree was doing very well that would be silly so: suggestions would be very welcome.

Regards, Ravenna

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TreeBay

Ravenna, I think you need to relax and enjoy the flowers.

Concerning the six week thing - Organic fertilizer loses much of its effectiveness after a couple of months and starts to break down into a (usually messy) compost, that's the primary reason it's recommended that you remove it. I think six weeks is early, but it doesn't rain here much during summer through fall, so it would not tend to stay wet.

I wouldn't be surprised if those flower buds were formed before you began your fertilization program at the beginning of the year.

Regards,

Matt

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Ravenna

Dear Matt...

I must say: I am really impressed how quickly you answer. Thanks!!! I am relieved to hear that it you think it is doing fine. I wasn't sure whether I should be happy or sad. I just wanted to clarify/ask a couple of things:
1. I only fed the tree beginning of LAST year and then only ONCE MORE just recently with a couple of those blocks so the buds/flowers would be the result of last years feeding regime...

2. If the blocks "don't work" after a couple of months should I usually replace them or rather add them as in the course where I was taught about them they insert them into the soil and I couldn't find the remnants i.e. did I underfeed the tree last year?

Thank you very much in advance. Regards, Ravenna

Ravenna

Hi,

just thought that may be my question wasn't clear enough and that might be why I don't hear from you. So basically what I want to know is:

1. Did I feed my bonsai too little last year?

2. Do you have any recommendations for a feeding regime for the tree?

3. And may be still... though Matt seems to think it is fine... is it normal that fagus flowers that much?

Regards, Ravenna

P.S.: Hope you don't mind Matt if I am still curious about other opinions... esp. as I haven't been on the forum for a long time yet so I don't really know you all that well...

Attila

Ravenna,

you are one lucky fella. I wish any of my beeches (I have japanese, american, european) would flower in my lifetime. I would throw a block party to show all my neighbours.

Attila

TreeBay

Well, you are not "feeding" your tree. It's an autotroph and it photosynthesizes and makes its own food from sunlight water and CO2. At night it burns that ATP just like we do by taking in oxygen in the roots and releasing oxygen and water.

So there is no fuel in the fertilizer. Just some building blocks that the tree needs to help with cell division and growth. If you had overfertilized it, you probably would have burned leaves and or roots and you might see damage in the form of discoloration or even death of parts of the roots causing it not to produce leaves or to produce leaves with crispy margins and dead branches.

I don't dig holes for my organic fertilizer. I typically start using it in late spring after the growth flush and will continue to add fertilizer cake until mid summer when I remove it all as the temperatures here go up near 100 degrees.

If you did overfertilize it last year there is practically nothing you could do now. It's really unlikely you used too much grain-based organic fertilizer cake unless you covered the soil surface with it about two layers deep. What did you use? What's the NPK on the bag? It probably is low, single digits like 3-6-3 or something.

I don't know if you were using a grain-based fertilizer cake (cottonseed or rapeseed, usually) or something like BioGold, which I think is a more concentrated sledge cake. That stuff could disappear in the soil I suppose because it's about the size of alfalfa pellets. Organic fertilizer cake is usually larger. It will break down in a season, but something is usually left behind unless it gets carted away by rodents, racoons or marsupials.

We could opine all day, I suppose, but the bottom line is there isn't really anything you can do other than wait for the leaves to appear, and beech is really the LAST tree to bud out. Beech is a tree that demands patience. It's well into spring here and the beech buds are just swelling.

Regards,

Matt

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Ravenna

Dear Matt,

thank you for your advice... just come back from a trip and from what I can see in the dark the first leaves are unfurling. I wasn't worried about overfeeding the tree but the opposite. From what I understand on the package I don't think I used too many cakes for the size of the pot. I do realize that plants photosynthesize most of the things but as some substances out of the soil are essential for that I called it feeding. I'll try to be more precise next time.

I certainly didn't put the fertilizer in layers... I don't know what it says on the package as it is all in Japanese the only thing I can read is 5.3, 4.0, 1.0 which I assume may refer to NPK but I don't know for sure. And I fear at the time I bought it I didn't ask what exactly it is based on.

Well, you guys all seem to completely unworried about my tree flowering that much so I think I will just sit back and enjoy...

Ravenna

Thanks for your advice Matt and Attila...

I just thought that you might want to see my "bonsai" flowering. I just hope you guys are not going to get a heart attack when you see it. It has plenty of faults (no taper, poor root system, branches thicker at the top than at the bottom... I guess the list is endless.) But it was my first "guinea pig" ever in bonsai. But then it has the tremendous advantage that I am not getting paranoid about touching anything and feel I can try things out AND enjoy the fact that so far the tree has remained healthy despite my meddling.

If you have any ideas they are obviously welcome. Just be lenient with a greenhorn...

Attached Images

fagus front2.jpg (23.4 KB, 163 views)

rowan57

Hey Ravenna, its nice to see a photo of the tree i think its actually a really nice tree, but i think a brilliant style for it would be a weeping style (branches hanging down from the top) like the top right branch (apex?) hangs down, overalll a really nice tree though.

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