Hi everyone

So I received my bonsai liquid Fertilizer today. I have had the tree a couple of weeks and haven’t fed it as of yet.
I have followed the instructions of adding 5ml to 1 litre of water however I am confused by this.
My bonsai obviously won’t need the whole 1 litre all at once so I have added a little until the soil is wet but I hardly used any of the 1litre made up. Is that classed as one feed or should I add some everyday and when all of it is gone that’s one feed?
I am assuming adding any is 1feed so I shouldn’t add anymore until next week, as I read you feed once a week. I don’t want to risk over watering as my bonsai isn’t needing water every day.
Thanks for your time

Welcome to the forum!
- 5ml --> 1lt water.
- Dilute it as per instructions.
- Wait for your plant to be getting dry.
- Water it with the mix (the full litre is not too much for watering a bonsai, IF the soil is fast draining and the excess water drips through the holes of the pot).
- Wait for the soil to become dryish again.
- Water it with no fertilizer, only water. Keep watering as needed.
- Water with the fertiliser mix again after 1 week.
- Repeat.

Thank you for the useful information.

So just to clarify I should pour the whole bottle in the soil when it starts to get dry? My bonsai pot does have drainage holes however with being in the uk it’s not overly hot at the moment so last time I watered it, it was 3 or 4 days between as the soil still felt damp.

I thought putting to much in would lose a lot of the feed out the bottom?

we cannot tell which soil your plant is in, or how large it is.

Water your plant once a week with the mixture. If you need less then a litre, make less micture. Ideally, when you water bonsai you water excessively. That way you keep a downward movement of salts and flush ut excess salts. But this mainly works when you use well draining substrates.

Clicio and LB gives you good advices (LB is right about the soil.. That jumped in my mind also..).
1l : 5ml
0,75l : 3,75ml
0,5l : 2,5ml
0,25l : 1,25ml
If you cannot eyeballing in the cap, or you worrying, use a syringe for measuring.

Just a suggestion, but it may easier to measure a ratio of 1ml: 200ml. Measuring 0.25ml might pose an issue.

You could also weigh the fertiliser if you have a good set of scales, like jewellers scales. Then 1ml = 1mg.

The point in the Math. I just.. suggested, it needs to calculate I keep use syringe for delicate substances

Yes, the small 1ml syringes are really helpful.

I’ve recently started using a soluble fertiliser that I weigh out on digital scales, that’s what made me think of it. The box says 2 scoops for 5litres, so it was easier to get the scales for better accuracy, plus I don’t always make up 2.5 or 5 litres unless I’m feeding the houseplants and garden pots etc.

The regular house-and-garden fertiliser is nothing delicate nor sensitive. It does not matter if it is a little less diluted or a little weaker. Just make the mixture as good as possible with whatever you have there. Using scales really is an overkill, unless you are making your own foliar fertilizer mixture from the dry grains.

Guys.. No... I just wanted to point it out in a kindly manner for the op, he need to use his logic. He clearly asked this question also, but get unanswered, while he’s got good advices about the tree.
Here, I didn’t speak about bonsai, but speak about human logic, which field I have a bit more experience than with trees.

The most standard size watering cans wear numbers like 10l, 8l(7,5), 5l, 2,5l, etc... That’s why measuring caps on liquid fertilizers came with the manner to dosing easier for those cans. It’s just how easy to eyeballing half, quarter or thirds of those cups... When you eyeballing a less concentrated substance (e.g your standard, not too strong garden or potted plant fertilizer) doesn’t matter if you’re a bit over or under the perfect, cause won’t change too much on your concentration. At the point, where you get a fertilizer with 3ml to 8 liters, and you want to make 1 liter solution, the syringe come in handy. You can mess up very well and you could ending with a higher concentration what your plants cannot support without burning away the roots.. Syringe comes handy when you’re insecure or beginner with plants also.. just in case if we’re not the same. It’s like dosing ingredients for a cooking recipe. Different when you’re experienced and different when you try to learn.

Doesn’t matter what you use and how concentrated, YOU NEED to do the MATH accordingly..

Now, I hope we can roll over for the good...