Heavy feeding of trees

[treeman]

Well this spring I have made an effort to feed my trees at a higher rate than usual. Along with the home made blood and bone and soyabean meal cakes. I have also sprinkled raw b&b and rapeseed (calona meal) on them. Along with that I have been drenching full strength 2 part hydroponic fertilizer every Monday morning without fail. And a kelp extract about every 14 days. AND a chelated trace element foliar spray monthly at half strength.

I can honestly say that they have never been greener and the growth rate is amazing as well. I always thought my trees were healthy enough but this year the results prove that things could have been better. The growth is not soft and sappy either as I have seen with heavy use of the pelletized chicken manure types. I think this is probably due to the all nitrate nitrogen in the hydro fert rather than the all ammonium N in the chicken. In other words they are getting N as ammonium from the slow release organic and nitrate from the hydro. (along with organic N in the form of amino acids as well of course) Many plant trials have found combinations of NH4 and NO3 give the best response. Shimpaku loves it. Pines too.

I can now highly recommend this kind of feeding for trees in development. (and lets face it, most of our trees are in the development stage)
If we want to achieve our goals as fast as possible, we need to keep the trees growing as fast as possible. There would be a huge difference in how far advanced they are in 10 years of this type of growth compared with 10 years of maintainece feeding!
I am NOT saying this is the best or only way to feed! Only that it works well for me!!
I would advise caution with azaleas and perhaps some natives?

[shibui]

I think most of us are not getting maximum growth from developing trees because of under feeding. There must be a spot where it gets too much but I have not reached it yet.
I use osmocote to provide ongoing background fert but additional liquid feed and occasional slow release solid fert certainly boosts growth on mine too if I remember to do it That reminds me it is probably time to give mine another liquid feed........

[peterb]

Hi Mike
What hydroponic fert are you using ,or am I not allowed to ask that . Would like to try what you're doing or would it be similar to my fert schedule . I use osmocote slow release, powerfeed one week , charliecarp next week and seasol sort of in between and i've started to use go go juice once a month. would that be giving the 2 different nitrogens ( I didn't even know there was a difference in the various ferts ). Thanks for sharing , i'm sure there are other newbies that had no idea either
peterb

[hugh grant]

Along with the home made blood and bone and soyabean meal cakes

Hi Mike
do you have a rough idea of the NPK of these cakes? ive wanted to make some myself for a while now.

cheers

[treeman]

Along with the home made blood and bone and soyabean meal cakes

Hi Mike
do you have a rough idea of the NPK of these cakes? ive wanted to make some myself for a while now.

cheers

Not real high. I guess you could round it out at around 8/3/5 or something like that. I use them at about 8 to 10 cakes for your average 20cm pot. They have all kinds of micros besides the npk of course.

[treeman]

Hi Mike
What hydroponic fert are you using ,or am I not allowed to ask that . Would like to try what you're doing or would it be similar to my fert schedule . I use osmocote slow release, powerfeed one week , charliecarp next week and seasol sort of in between and i've started to use go go juice once a month. would that be giving the 2 different nitrogens ( I didn't even know there was a difference in the various ferts ). Thanks for sharing , i'm sure there are other newbies that had no idea either
peterb

Whatever you do don't throw your money away on water! The kind of stuff in the bottles they sell to the dope heads. Get the powderd product. A good hydroponic shop should stock it. I get mine at Gardenworld in Vic. Manutec also has it in small packets at Bunnings and Masters.
You can over do it! Maybe replace powerfeed or the charlie carp with the hydro and see how that goes?

I just realized I didn't answer your whole question. It is unlikely that nitrate is added to any of the ferts you are using. It is the most expesive form of N (ammonium sulphate is the cheapect I think) Osmo has a very small percentage if you look at the analysis. Nutricote has 50/50. However...Some ammonium is converted to nitrate in the soil if conditions are right. (pH around neutral and temps warm) That's why you (the plant) can get ammonium toxicity in winter if you're not careful. Ther's usually no problem in the summer.

[hugh grant]

Along with the home made blood and bone and soyabean meal cakes

Hi Mike
do you have a rough idea of the NPK of these cakes? ive wanted to make some myself for a while now.

cheers

Not real high. I guess you could round it out at around 8/3/5 or something like that. I use them at about 8 to 10 cakes for your average 20cm pot. They have all kinds of micros besides the npk of course.

cool thanks mate!
I mainly ask as i wonder if they would be detrimental to Phosphorus sensitive natives

[treeman]

Along with the home made blood and bone and soyabean meal cakes

Hi Mike
do you have a rough idea of the NPK of these cakes? ive wanted to make some myself for a while now.

cheers

Not real high. I guess you could round it out at around 8/3/5 or something like that. I use them at about 8 to 10 cakes for your average 20cm pot. They have all kinds of micros besides the npk of course.

cool thanks mate!
I mainly ask as i wonder if they would be detrimental to Phosphorus sensitive natives

Natives like them. As long as you don't over do it. I would be really careful with some banksia or grevillea if you grow those sort of things. Anything sensitive to blood and bone. Please check! (the P in the bone is only very slowly available)

[treeman]

I think most of us are not getting maximum growth from developing trees because of under feeding.

I think that is often very true shib!

[NAHamilton]

Along with the home made blood and bone and soyabean meal cakes

Hi Mike
do you have a rough idea of the NPK of these cakes? ive wanted to make some myself for a while now.

cheers

Not real high. I guess you could round it out at around 8/3/5 or something like that. I use them at about 8 to 10 cakes for your average 20cm pot. They have all kinds of micros besides the npk of course.

Hi Mike,

Are soyabean meal and cottonseed meal comparable? The cotton seed meal is all I could find when doing similar.

Thanks,
Nigel

[peterb]

Thanks mike I, I'll go find some at a hydro shop
Peterb

[cre8ivbonsai]

Hi Mike, I'm interested to know, do you apply the liquid ferts as a foiliar spray or directly and only to the roots? ~ I know the kelp extract can be applied as both ~

[Andrew Legg]

Interesting. I was not aware of different forms of nitrates. A quic Google search raised this paper which seems to address nitrogen toxicity as well.

http://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu/crops ... n_form.pdf

It's obvious I have reading to do!

[treeman]

Nigel, Any seed dregs from which oil has been extracted is pretty similar. Soya, Canola, Sesame, Cotton etc.

Ryan, I just pour it over the p/mix but either way is fine. If the tree has a big and full crown I find it acts as a bit of an umbrella.

[NAHamilton]

Nigel, Any seed dregs from which oil has been extracted is pretty similar. Soya, Canola, Sesame, Cotton etc.

Thank you