Spring time Fertilizer!!!

tactile2

Hello!!

I planted 2 Balsam Firs (about 10-12 feet each), 2 Crimson King Maples (9 feet each) and 1 Pyramidal English oak (10 feet) last May....They all seemed to survive one of the harshest winters we’ve had in a very long time…now the question:

what would be the BEST fertilizer to give each of my friends a real boost this spring? And when should I apply it?

Thanks so much in advance for your help!!

** I am just outside of Toronto by the way!

Kevin


PS: My red maples are about 25 feet from each other and I want to plant a mid sized tree in between them....something either green or with flowers....I want some contrast...I was thinking along the lines of a Florida Dogwood.....any suggestions? (I'd love it to griow FAST!)

Ekka

Well, I can help with the fertilizer thing.

You mentioned a "real boost".

My advice, boost not!

These are trees not some pumkin for the fair. Slow steady fat growth is way better than long whippy insect smorgasboard growth.

Here's some info on my site. We are all about trees - fertilizing

Also, I'd suggest that soil conditioning has far better long term effects. Mulch, organic material, worms, right fungi etc makes for a long term happy tree.

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TreeSpecialist

In your area, mid to late May would be best.

Use organic forms of fertilizer and you'll be better off. If you take care of the soil, the tree will take care of itself.

If possible, remove all of the grass beneath the tree out to the drip line or edge of the canopy. Spread a finished compost 2 inches deep followed by a cover of 2 inches of mulch. You can stop there as you will have recreated what nature has been doing for the last 250+ million years.

Organic forms of fertilizer can be spread on top of the mulch/ compost layer and watered in.

The application of man made forms of nitrogen should be avoided. Fertilization standards for trees come from agronomy - crop science: the act of planting annual plants in the spring and harvesting (killing) in the fall. Trees have an advantage food crops don't have - the ability to store fertilizer and use it for several years as needed.

Many tree companies make small fortunes each year over fertilizing trees and then get to treat all of the problems caused by over fertilization.

You might want to also consider using seaweed extracts (from kelp) and horticultural molasses as well. The kelp will stimulate additional root growth and the molasses will feed the beneficial soil microbes.

Do "Florida dogwoods" grow well in your immediate neighborhood? If so, go for it. If you don't see your neighbors having ridiculous success with it, figure out what they are having good luck with and duplicate that.

Fast growth is necessarily good growth. Fast growing trees expend very little of their resources in the production of defensive chemicals resulting in a short life.

Good luck.

tactile2

thanks so much!! I have been keeping the grass away to the dripline, and I have been applying mulch regularily.....I will take your advice...Thanks!!





Kev

crucificio

I agree with that just mulch them and nature will do the rest, in my opinion if you put a chemical fertilizer down it can scorch the roots and if it does increase top growth the roots wont be growing so healthily and then you got a problem. Always always natures mulch.

tactile2

so can you just throw a bunch of earth worms under the tree....?? Or will the robins just eat them all??

Ekka

Under the mulch, but get ones same as you have around the place.

If you dont have any ask your local nursery who sells worm farms or search out local worm farms, they'll know.

When I used to fish the River Murray we had a worm farm, tiger worms, fish loved them.

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Treelore

Worms eat protozoa so if you don't have any of those the worms will starve.Innoculate your soil with a comprehensive soil biology so that you can kickstart the cycle that goes on underneath. Loads of carbon ie mulch will benefit greatly as a fungal food. Fulvic acid and Humates also will give your plants and edge. Steer clear of molasses around trees it is better used as a food in an innoculant to balance bacterial and fungal ratios.

TreeSpecialist

"Steer clear of molasses...."

What do you base that on? I've been successfully using molasses in my organic fertilizer blend for more than 20 years and have never had a problem. In fact, when I use our proprietary blend and leave the molasses out, I can tell the difference.

Here in Texas, there is some work being done at Texas A&M where they are actually "feeding" trees with sugar compounds applied to the soil. The results aren't in, but if they apply it correctly, I suspect they will have good results.

tactile2

So what your saying is, if I have a good layer of mulch going on already...I can push the mulch aside and intruce some worms? Then layer the mulch back over top?

Assuming that is correct, How many worms should I introduce? Say under a 13 foot Fir?

Ekka

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crucificio

Molasses should be ok in moderation, should speed up bacterial breakdown and therefore increase worm activity and ground should become more fertile. as the trees grow and shed leaves then a natural mulch will form and as I said earlier let nature do the rest. trust in the natural balance of the natural world, only man messes everything up!

Treelore

TS the tree creates sugars and carbohydrates as food and nearly 50% of this is poured into the ground in different compounds and different concentrations at different times of the year to awaken different microbiology, in order to serve a specific purpose for the tree, and the tree is in control of it's defense system as it should be. Mollasses used a s a food in a biological innoculum is fantastic because this will select when aerated correctly beneficial disease suppressing bacteria which can then be placed into the ground and utilized by the tree as it needs.
The problem with carbohydrate drenching and sugar water is you are feeding and activating biomass without an understanding of what you are causing to proliferate. It is food across the board and does not select for disease supressing organisms but allows all to flourish. This can get you in trouble if there already exists low oxygen concentrations and anaerobic bacteria are already outcompeting beneficials.
Not saying these things aren't going to have a result as you are clearly seeing just saying it is better to place a biodiversity of beneficial organsms within the rhizosphere and then let the tree use them as it sees fit.

TreeSpecialist

On one hand you suggest that the use of molasses is great and then slam the idea in the next sentence.

As with all things, moderation and use in the right circumstances allows for molasses (mixed with additional "soil activators") to bring back to life microflora and fauna in the soil otherwise absent from long held beliefs in the use of salty petrochemical fertilizers, developers who drag off the top 12 inches of decent soil when building, etc.

I don't use it routinely and I would encourage anyone who "fertilizes" trees to first get an understanding of soil biology and soil chemistry.


"The problem with carbohydrate drenching and sugar water is you are feeding and activating biomass without an understanding of what you are causing to proliferate. It is food across the board and does not select for disease supressing organisms but allows all to flourish."



And no, I don't drench soils with "sugar water."

As a biologist with a chemistry minor and 34 years of doing this kind of work, I have a better grasp of fertilizing trees than 99% of the folks in my part of world will ever have.

We always inject the fertilizer combinations under high pressure on closely spaced holes to aerate and fracture the soil. Very heavy soils or compacted soils are treated differently than sandy or loose soils.

TreeSpecialist

As a biologist with a chemistry minor, 34 years of experience as an arborist, and a well rounded education in soil chemistry, I think I know what I'm doing. (Check out www.soilfood web. com )

I would encourage anyone who fertilizes trees to first get an education in soil chemistry. Most who do won't use petrochemical fertilizers.

On one hand you seem to applaud the use of molasses and then slam it in the next paragraph. Like all things, when used in moderation, for the right reason, and applied correctly, molasses is a great tool for the arborist. Used inappropriately, yes it could lead to problems.

Treelore

TS I am very familiar with the soil food web and have been practising with compost teas and organic phc for years. Read carefully and I am saying that mollases which is our most varied form of sugars applied as a food source in a controlled environment where we are specifically targeting beneficial and disease supressing organisms is good. Feeding those organsims and others with kelp as you mentioned, molasses fulvic acid, humic acid etc.etc this gives us a biodiversity that we can then innoculate the soil with confident that we have excluded all disease causing organisms. They have been fed outside the tree system and cultured and targeted specifically...then delivered to the rhizosphere for the tree to activate them or deactivate them as the tree unit sees fit.This is not organism food uncontrolled but organisms for the tree to control. By applying mollasses directly to the soil which is in effect no different to sugar water excepting that it is a conjunction of sugars...feeds microbes wantonly and not at the trees discretion and not only aerobic beneficial microbes.

Treelore

Not much point in having a thread die without your wax seal TS. comments upon the above would be appreciated.