In a message dated 5/21/2004 5:16:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time, writes:

In my experience, it is very easy to overfertilise Azaleas. If fed
regularly with chemical feeds such as Miracid, they soon develop a
darker than normal leaf colour. If feeding is stopped, normal growth is
rapidly established. Carried on for just a little longer the leaf tips
turn brown and the plant will often die. An interesting side effect is
that also become more brittle and consequently harder to style.

Kevin:

This may, indeed, be the case with Miracid (do not know why). However, I Superfed a 300-year old azalea for nearly a decade and never experienced leaf burn. As for flexibility, the azalea was extremely cooperative with respect to branch positionings. Of
course, Azalea branches are generally difficult to bend--especially on older wood.

I can't say if this happens in a free draining soil as I have yet to
transfer any of my Satsuki over to expensive Japanese proprietary brands
such as Kanuma. Mine are grown in peat and bark based mixtures which
can't really be described as free draining.

The Japanese soils are poor vehicles for the transfer of fertilizer, and for this reason frequent flushing of fertilizer and the addition of organic content (from cakes) is an excellent practice. However, the 300 year old azalea was planted in a standard
mix of turface, haydite, orchid bark, and coarse sand.

As for leaf color, I am accustomed to seeing reasonably dark leaves on Kurume, and Superfeeding in no way interferred with the common color and appearance of the leaves.

Cordially,

Michael Persiano
members.aol.com/iasnob

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