I've had the ficus for 2 weeks. Had it under my porch for 1 week and lost some leaves that turned yellow then put it in the sun all day and watered. I also gave it Espoma organic chicken fertilizer pellets, 5-3-2.

In the 1st picture you will see a brown spot on the leaves. Been trying to avoid this by misting 2-3 times per day. I'm in NE Ohio and it's humid during the day and sometimes at night. I only use rain water to mist and water. I've kept the soil moist and purchased from a professional bonsai reseller.

What is the correct fertilizer ratio for this ficus at this stage? I've read 6-6-6 ratio from a japanese fertilizer from this website. Dont like that number, bad omen for the tree.

Any advice is welcomed and thanks in advance.

On another note, I couldnt complete this post om my iphone because the captcha security wasnt coming up. Any help on that would be nice.

Harry

Do not use NPK not being osmocote on it without having experience, granulated NPK is a genuine tree killer on begginers' hands... And even experienced guys avoid that... Use organics or osmocote...

However if you want it to grow bigger you have to let the ceramic small pot go for a while, the point on the small pots is to control the tree growth, we use large pots to thicken and build the tree's structure, and when it's finished or close to, we take it to smaller pots, because we don't want it to grow much more... Then, fertilization will be softer.

It's normal for a just purchased tree to yellow some leaves in the process of adaptation, some gardens keep those trees on partial shade or greenhouses, so don't worry about that.

Obviously trees needs NPK. "Organic chicken manure" is not mineral fertilzer and should be perfect in right dose and in right time.

For now, I would just water and get it to grow. No need for more fertilizer until it responds.

All trees needs Nitrogen/Phosphorus/Potassium which stands for NPK, but do NOT use granular or powder Chemical/Mineral NPK Fertilizers, only if those are slow releasing such as osmocote, chemical quick-releases are tree killers if misused, and it's really easy to get the dose wrong, that's due the salts...

I wasan't talking about chicken manure, I was talking for other ones you could buy mistakenly, since you're researching for a better ratio, and your ratio is fine.

Keep using the chicken manure you have, just make sure to get the timing right, with organics I usually fertilize once every 2 months when it's growing, but read the recomendation on yours.

Ah... Semantics.

Albas wrote:

Use organics or osmocote...

I stand my point, and don't mind much about the ratio Harry.