GardenBanter.co.uk - Fertilizing Question

GardenBanter.co.uk (https://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/)

- Gardening (https://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/gardening/)

- - Fertilizing Question (https://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/gardening/52176-fertilizing-question.html)

Fertilizing Question

I planted a 12 foot red sunset maple last August and am considering
fertilizing it this Spring. I've read that one should wait at least a
year before fertilizing newly planted trees. I've also heard that one
should indeed fertilize newly planted trees and that its growth will
suffer if it's not fertilized. Can anyone give me the pros and cons
of fertilizing this spring as opposed to waiting until next spring?

Thanks in advance!

Brian

Fertilizing Question

On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 19:27:27 -0800, Brian wrote:

I planted a 12 foot red sunset maple last August and am considering
fertilizing it this Spring. I've read that one should wait at least a
year before fertilizing newly planted trees. I've also heard that one
should indeed fertilize newly planted trees and that its growth will
suffer if it's not fertilized. Can anyone give me the pros and cons of
fertilizing this spring as opposed to waiting until next spring?

Thanks in advance!

Brian

If you are living within the US, check with your county extension agent
for specific info. It's free and these agents are desperate for someone
to talk with.

Fertilizing Question

"Brian" wrote in message
m...
I planted a 12 foot red sunset maple last August and am considering
fertilizing it this Spring. I've read that one should wait at least a
year before fertilizing newly planted trees. I've also heard that one
should indeed fertilize newly planted trees and that its growth will
suffer if it's not fertilized. Can anyone give me the pros and cons
of fertilizing this spring as opposed to waiting until next spring?

Thanks in advance!

Brian

Most horticulturists, including myself, will recommend you wait until after
one full growing season. If you planted in August, that would mean this
coming fall or even next spring. Newly planted trees and other plants need
to establish a sound root system before they attempt lots of new top growth
that fertilizing will encourage.

FWIW, unless your soil is deficient, most plants do not NEED to be
fertilized. That is a concept we humans have applied, assisted by fertilizer
manufacturer's marketing hype, thinking that growing things require 'food'.
Trees and shrubs planted outdoors in decent soil will obtain all the 'food'
they need by pulling necessary nutrients and water from the soil and
manufacturing their own food through a process of photosynthesis. Excessive
fertilizing or fertilizing when not necessary will create more problems than
it will eleviate - the plants become dependent on chemical supplements and
rapid leafy growth encourages insects and diseases. A light application of a
balanced, preferrably organic fertilizer once a year is more than sufficient
but a regular mulching of all your plants with a good compost will achieve
as much, plus improve the soil and encourage its occupants.

I have never applied a fertilizer to any of my trees (other then those grown
in containers) and all are thriving - but I do have really exceptional soil.
There is a long standing horticultural saying - feed the soil and you will
feed the plants. Fertilizing is overly hyped.

pam - gardengal

Fertilizing Question

"Pam - gardengal" wrote in message
news:Bl5Wb.140001$U%5.644904@attbi_s03...

"Brian" wrote in message
m...
I planted a 12 foot red sunset maple last August and am
considering
fertilizing it this Spring. I've read that one should wait
at least a
year before fertilizing newly planted trees. I've also heard
that one
should indeed fertilize newly planted trees and that its
growth will
suffer if it's not fertilized. Can anyone give me the pros
and cons
of fertilizing this spring as opposed to waiting until next
spring?

Thanks in advance!

Brian

Most horticulturists, including myself, will recommend you wait
until after
one full growing season. If you planted in August, that would
mean this
coming fall or even next spring. Newly planted trees and other
plants need
to establish a sound root system before they attempt lots of
new top growth
that fertilizing will encourage.

Of course, the energy produced by the top growth will encourage
root growth. ;-) We growers of bonsai learned that years ago.

There is a LOT of hooie written about fertilizer and
transplanting, and fertilizing shrubs and trees in general --
much of it, as Pam said, promoted by the fertilizer manufacturers
who -- understandably -- want to sell more fertilizer. It won't
_hurt_ anything to fertilize now, if you want. But your tree
probably doesn't need it, especially if you have kept a wide bed
of oak-leaf, or pinestraw mulch around the base of the newly
planted tree. _I_ usually mix a small handful of timed-release
fertilizer into the soil around the tree as I plant it, then
leave it at that.

The exception might be a brand-new yard, where the developers
have scrapped away all of the good topsoil, then laid turf on top
of bare clay (my son in Durham, N.C. had one of these yards -- it
was terrible, and almost hopeless). In that case, mulch AND a
time-release fertilizer scattered over the mulch in the spring
and covered with a thin layer of more mulch probably will help.
The mulch is key, however.

The only shrubs that I fertilize regularly are azalea because of
their compact, dense root system that does not use much of the
nutrient stored in surrounding soil.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only where
people have learned to appreciate and cherish the landscape and
its living cover will they treat it with the care and respect it
should have - Paul Bigelow Sears.

Fertilizing Question