Pine Fertiliser... - bonsaiTALK Community

4-Jan-2006	#1
guffmeister 小品盆栽を始めよう。。。 Join Date: Jul-2005 Location: South West Country: United Kingdom (England) USDA Zone: 9 AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 48	Pine Fertiliser... Hey!!! Has anyone here ever used tomato feed as a low-nitrogen fertiliser for pines? I have to get some back-budding on a Scots Pine, and instead of buying some special low-nitrogen fertiliser for early on in the year, I was wondering whether I could just use fertilisers I have kicking around the house. I have a number of high-nitrogen for later in the year, but only tomato feed for low-nitrogen...anyone ever experimented?

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4-Jan-2006	#2
Aaron_K bonsaiTALK Master Chief Join Date: Mar-2004 Country: England USDA Zone: 8 AHS Heat Zone: 2-3 Posts: 1,477	Hi Guff, I use tomato fertilizer on all my trees from late summer/early autumn onwards until leaf fall, to help the new growth harden off (although evergreens get it till spring, albeit less frequently and at a weaker dose). Page 22 of Peter Chan's book "Bonsai Masterclass" suggests a year round program for pines of high nitrogen from Spring till Summer, with a low nitrogen feed from Autumn till Spring. NPK's of 4:7:10 and 4:10:10 are some typical values given. Hope that's of some help. All the best, Aaron __________________ Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Muriel Strode Vulpes pilum mutat, non mores! "A fox may change its skin but never its character"

5-Jan-2006

bwaynef

bonsaiTALK Master Chief

Join Date: Sep-2004

Location: Upstate South Carolina

Country: USA

USDA Zone: 7

AHS Heat Zone: 8

Posts: 1,226

Does nitrogen in some way hamper the growth/development/formation of buds? I'd have thought the opposite. (Above ground, below ground, all around---NPK)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sylvester McMonkey McBean

They never will learn; no, you can't teach a Sneetch!

5-Jan-2006	#4
weeijk bonsaiTALK Master Craftsman Join Date: Nov-2004 Location: Apeldoorn Country: Netherlands USDA Zone: 7-8 AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 802	When you want a lot of backbudding, I would suggest a fertilizer with a high amount of Phosfor. In this case I would use 10-52-10, watersolvable Fuchsia fertilizer. Further more I think that if you want backbudding you'll have to prepair the tree for this, in other words you need to cut last years growth completely, leaving the needles of 2 years ago. The best time of year to do this is offcourse tempzone dependent. In this way, I would go in backbudding on a pine, but I'm not an experianced bonsaiist, so there could easily be better thoughts. But I hope this will help, in either way. Cheers Wessel __________________ Every tree can be a bonsai, but only some will be.

5-Jan-2006	#5
guffmeister 小品盆栽を始めよう。。。 Join Date: Jul-2005 Location: South West Country: United Kingdom (England) USDA Zone: 9 AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 48	Well, my Scots Pine is a very vigorous grower, and has lost all of its last years needles because last years growth was so strong it had to lose all the needles in order to organise the root-system/foliage balance. My plan therefore is to feed with low-nitrogen fertiliser, which hampers the growth of leaves/needles. This will make next years growth smaller. Combined with bud selection and needle pinching the energy should hopefully be redirected around the tree. When the growth has hardened off I plan to start using high-nitrogen fertiliser. With nowhere for the new nutrients to grow, it will hopefully use it to back-bud quite far down the tree...which it definately needs!!! Its been growing untrained for some time!!! I'm following the Colin Lewis approach in his Art of Bonsai Design book...is this a good option? Are there better ideas to get some serious back-budding?

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