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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 9 months ago #60681

  • paulyc252@yahoo.com
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I just put Miracle Grow Plant Food on my Juniper. I took the" Caring for your Juniper course" and the instructor suggested a 4, 4, 4 ratio. I could not find this ratio. Does anyone have a suggestion for a fertilizer brand and ratio. Also, I noticed in the video that most of the trees were planted in dirt mixture. The mixture, I used was TInyroots all purpose mixture which has almost a rock like texture; it drains very well, so I'm wondering if I should water more often. I don't have any brown, but it looks dry.

Thanks for the help,
Paul

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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 9 months ago #60682

  • m5eaygeoff
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If the soil feels dry then water. I would not use Miracle Grow, but if you are fine. I use Boigld only and seaweed extract, only every two weeks The ratio does not matter as long as it is balanced NPK with the fertiliser and make sure that you dilute to the instructions on the bottle.
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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 9 months ago #60694

  • Tropfrog
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How do you know a fertilizer is balanced?

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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 9 months ago #60695

  • FrankC
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A normal ratio in your fertilizer can be N7 / P5/ K6 for a tree in development fase in summer, but , there's always a but, depending on the species, age, soil etc. this can be vary.
For example, an older larch need less to none N in his fertilizer.

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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 9 months ago #60697

  • Tropfrog
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Thats what I thought to. Ratio is important then?

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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 9 months ago #60701

  • Ivan Mann
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The main fertilizer ingredients, NPK, all do different things. If you read a lot posts here and talk with a lot of people who grow trees and other plants they all have their own habits, and all the trees grow. The trees probably need more N in the spring and less in the fall, but most of us just fertilize and don't worry too much. Make sure that none of the numbers are zero.

I would fertilize every week if it isn't raining. By the third or fourth day of watering most of the fertilizer will have washed out the drainage holes. I like biogold because the pellets release slowly and it doesn't all wash out with watering.

Some swear by the label "organic". N is nitrogen and it is just as inorganic as can be. In the USA it is primarily an advertising term and has no real meaning.
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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 8 months ago #61255

  • Caryboy
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I use Dyna-Grow bonsai pro liquid fertilizer. I use a 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water, and the label says to use every watering, and often i do, but at least 2 times a week I will use plain water, especially if I am watering every day because of heat. I use it on all my trees as well, including my junipers.

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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 8 months ago #61257

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Organic means that the source is something that lived not long ago. It could be fex algae, manure or bones.

Inorganic means that the sorce is not from something that lived resently. Most often the source is mining.

Nitrogen can exist in 4 basic forms for fertilizing. amonium, ammoniak, nitrite and nitrate. But those can Only be present in water. As dry Product they need to be bound to something Else. Most common in inorganic fertilizer is amonium nitrate. In organic fertilizer it is bound to organic material, often coal is involved.

The cycling of nitrogen in our Environment is pretty much a natural process and can pretty much be called natural or organic.

Pure nitrogen is a gas in normal temperatures. Not usable as fertilizer. But even the pure nitrogen gas is considered organic, as it is a waste Product from heterotrophic anaerobic bacterias activity. A fully natural process.
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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 8 months ago #61273

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wow, that was interesting. i never knew that about nitrogen

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Soil type and fertilizer for Juniper? 3 years 7 months ago #61460

  • Aivar1988
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...The trees probably need more N in the spring and less in the fall, but most of us just fertilize and don't worry too much. Make sure that none of the numbers are zero.


Depending on what you want to achieve. High N in the spring will give you large foliage size and long internodes. This is good for trees that are in early stages of training and you want to grow the tree bigger and thicker. On more mature or developed trees you want to keep the N as low as possible to keep the ramification and foliage size as compact as possible. Also from late summer to spring you could use fertilizer with 0 nitrogen.
Here is a great article from bonsai4me:
"A fertiliser low in Nitrogen is very useful when applied to bonsai from late-summer through to dormancy. The relatively high Phosphorous and Potassium content helps to strengthen the years growth and the root system before the cold of winter. It also increases bud production for the following year. Top growth that would otherwise succumb to the first frosts in autumn is slowed. Ultimately a fertiliser that is rated as 0:10:10 and contains no nitrogen is preferred but can be hard to obtain and is relatively expensive."
www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basics_Feed.html
"If the nitrogen content of the bonsai soil becomes too high it will burn the roots."
www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basics_Feed%20page2.html
Happy reading!

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