KimchiMonger

Any thoughts on using a 0-10-10 down from a currentt 20-20-10 fertilizer during colder winter moths? I recently received a newsletter (Dallas Bonsai) reminding readers to consider a 0-10-10:

Six (6) weeks before the first frost, you should start giving your bonsai 0-10-10 fertilizer. The low nitrogen helps the plant focus on strengthening the roots during the winter and prepares it for nice quality growth in the spring. This is an absolute must for winterizing regardless of the variety. I do it with tropical’s too because during the winter, the tropical’s aren’t going to be growing much, there isn’t enough light. So all you are essentially trying to do is keep them happy enough so all the leaves don’t fall off. Again, you need humidity to make sure of that. So remember, start fertilizing your bonsai now with 0-10-10 and prepare a place to move them, or identify what exactly you are going to do with them over the winter. They don’t need much over the winter, just your protection. If you take care of them, they will pay you back in the spring with lush foliage and fantastic growth – for a bonsai".


I hadn't thought about reduced Nitrogen helping my trees during the cold winter months. Are any of you reading this following such a suggestion as I thought it was best to just lay off the fertilizer while occasionally watering during those colder days.

treebeard55

Yes, KM, I took the 6-6-6 fert cakes off my hardy trees several weeks ago, and replaced it with 0-10-10. I'll leave it on until the trees are fully dormant, then remove it and leave only a bit of rapeseed cake on the evergreens over the winter.

Nitrogen promotes vegetative growth. Withholding it in autumn helps move your trees into dormancy.

And to judge from the appearance of my pines and yews, the stuff I'm using (from North Star Bonsai) is working. Almost everything has hardened off nicely.

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Treebeard 55
Steve Moore
http://hoosierbonsai.blogspot.com

The most important bonsai tool is your brain.

Salvelinus

Some recommend 0-10-10 in the fall to prepare trees for dormancy. Others say it isn't necessary. Each camp has beautiful trees, go figure.

I used to use it faithfully but in the past few years I haven't, partially because I just didn't have it and forgot to order it, but didn't really notice much difference. One thing that 0-10-10 does for you is avoid urea-based nitrogen in the fertilizer, which apparently encourages root rot over the winter. I just use non-urea based ferts (organics and Dyna-Gro) and so avoid that issue. The other thing 0-10-10 is supposed to do is to not encourage the new growth that nitrogen supposedly does. I'm not sure that claim is evidence-based, however, and I don't think we need to help a plant "focus on strengthening the roots." At least, I don't think the available nutrients are nearly as much of a factor as the decreasing daylight and temperatures that signal a plant to prepare for dormancy.

YMMV, hope this helped.

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Namaste,

--Scott ><>

"There seems to be no survivors to interview, but I suspect [kamikaze pilots] did not shout 'traytree' the moment before their personal sacrifice." --Herb Gustafson

treebeard55

Scott, I agree that changes in temperature and day length play crucial roles as well. I suspect that it is the proportions of the elements in fertilizer that induce one reaction or another in a plant -- similar to the way in which the proportions of certain hormones in our bloodstreams determines whether our bodies develop as male or female.

An interesting side note on day length. At the equator, days and nites are the same length, but the angle at which the sun's rays come in shifts from north to south and back, in annual cycle.

I remember a school field trip in 6th or 7th grade, to a retired professor's lab just outside Quito, Ecuador. The lab building was smack-dab on the equatorial line, and the man had planted identical collections of perennials against the north and south walls, within the zone of shadow cast by the walls at the solstices. (Is this all as clear as mud?)

The result of his careful siting of the perennials was that each bed experienced an annual lengthening and shortening of its effective day length, but the two beds' cycles were six months apart. The plants on the north lived a northern-hemispehere schedule, and their south wall neighbors -- less than 40 feet away -- were on a southern-hemisphere schedule.

__________________
Treebeard 55
Steve Moore
http://hoosierbonsai.blogspot.com

The most important bonsai tool is your brain.

Salvelinus

That's a really cool experiment! Can't just do that one on your own at home...

__________________
Namaste,

--Scott ><>

"There seems to be no survivors to interview, but I suspect [kamikaze pilots] did not shout 'traytree' the moment before their personal sacrifice." --Herb Gustafson

treebeard55

Not at this latitude, we can't!

__________________
Treebeard 55
Steve Moore
http://hoosierbonsai.blogspot.com

The most important bonsai tool is your brain.