HELP! My Ponderosa is dieing or is it just being ornery

Vonsgardens

We are three years into using Walter's recommendation for Ponderosas. I am more than excited about the results.

When Walter told me about fertilizer, he said "Use tomato food".

It works.
John

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rlist

Huh. Thanks for that little tidbit. That said, anytime fertilizer is mentioned it sparks a good debate! So, I'll get it going. Which brand and application method do you prefer (i.e. Miracle Grow in liquid application), and what ratio/ingredient/micronutrient in that particular food do you think makes the difference? Further, as Walter treats his Pondy like JBP (and I will assume like Scotch and similar in feeding & watering to Mugo), does he (and you) use the tomato food on all of your pines? When you say "it works", is that in reference to the tomato food or in reference to treating Pondys like JBP as per Walter's recommendation? Finally, where are "we" located, because in the other thread I think you mentioned your lack of long term success in AR.

Thanks in advance for the reply - I am truly interested in hearing about your results!

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JGamby713

Hi Graydon,

I look forward to seeing if the cold storage works for you, and I hope it does!! I wouldn't worry too much about lighting if the trees are dormant. Good luck to you and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

Walter, I think the Fuss is about ponderosa in Florida. As you know that is a more tropical enviroment then where the trees are collected from and this won't allow a dormant period for the pines. Your ponderosa looks awesome! How long have you been working on getting the needles short? The amount of back budding on this is amazing..... we will have to go over this while you are here.....


Jason

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Vonsgardens

rlist,
The long term lack of success we were talking about was with Mountain Hemlock. I personally have not had any luck with hemlocks other than the Eastern and Carolina hemlocks (T canadensis and T caroliniana) we have had Ponderosas in pots for about 10 years. Once we got the organic matter out of the pots and got the duff/mountain gorp off of them survival has gone from 90 to 100%.

We fertilize our growout pines- trees that are in development with: 1) organic cakes (fish eal/cottonseed meal/fishemulsion/micromax micro elements), as we have no organic in soil, this may just be superstition); 2) osmocote (15-15-15 with micros 12 month type); 3: water soluble balanced fertilizer ( aka tomato fertilizer like Miracle gro) injected at about 1/4 to 1/2 the normal rate weekly or biweekly. All at the same time.

Trees farther in development do not get the osmocote. We water robustly and protect our ponderosas from winter winds (I know, but it makes me feel better).

John

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"Wiring is simple; However, it is not easy to do it right" Boon