Jim and Michael
Thank you for your observations. It is a rather complex issue as to which,
when and how much fertilizer should be given to a plant. Here in India the
slandered practice is not to fertilize a freshly potted plant for 6 to 8
weeks. The compost which we use is one part coarse sand of inert grit, one
part well rotted dung manure or leaf mold and one part fertile soil in which
everything can grow. This kind of compost has sufficient nutrition to last
for about two months. Thereafter depending upon the plant whether it is a
conifer or a deciduous one, slow growing or fast, the recommended dose of
fertilizer is started. It can be daily (parts per million), weekly or
fortnightly but only as long the plant is in active growth. As a rule of
thumb, fertilize and water a plant when it is hungry and thirsty. The plant
should not be forced to grow. Otherwise the size of leaves will become big
and color and texture will become unnatural. To stimulate the roots in a
freshly root-pruned plant, we pot it in a weak medium. Once new roots
develop which is reflected on the foliage, fertilizers applied in small
dozes. In a week and porous medium, the roots develop very well. They
spread in all direction in search of nutrition. But if they get every thing
right at the door, what is need to spread to other areas. The more the roots
develop, the more will be the root hairs and better will be the absorbing
capacity of the roots, and the better will be the plant health. Full fat
milk taken in large quantity, may not be good for health but fully toned
milk or buttermilk, will cause no harm.
The type of fertilizer you apply must be very week. And I think even if you
overdose the plant, it will remain unaffected.
I wander how genuine these commercial fertilizers are! Once I got a popular
fertilizer analyzed in a lab. the results were shocking! It had an analysis
of 1.2 - .75 - .62 N P K. Since then we have started making our own
fertilizer based on the recipe of Prof. Amy Lang, using 7 parts oil dregs, 3
parts bone-meal and 1 part wood ash and once it is fermented and cured it is
an excellent stuff.
Coming back again on the fertilizing a freshly root-pruned plant, I will
request Nina to throw some light on this point. Please Nina!
Anil Kaushik
Bonsai Club (India)
Chandigarh : "The City Beautiful"
Hi Everybody
In a reply to Andrew's query on the above subject, Jim wrote,"
Fertilizing
won't hurt at this time. Once every 2 weeks. Follow instructions on
label."
I doubt if it is advisable to fertilize so soon after a major surgery.
A
week medium certainly helps in stimulating the roots as they grow in all
directions in search of nutrition. Once new foliage begins to grow, one
can
apply small doses of fertilizers and can gradually increase as the
growth
picks up.
Well, he said it has been 2 months since the surgery, so even if
it IS damaging to fertilize after root work -- and I do not
think it is -- enough time would have passed.
No fertilization after root work, use of dilute fertilizer (then
or any other time) are all (IMHO) bonsai myths. NO ONE has
managed to provide me with the science behind any of them.
I routinely fertilize after repotting, and I always mix the
fertilizer according to the label, and have never had any
problems therefrom.
Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nature
encourages no looseness, pardons no errors. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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