Plant fertilizing

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So I’ve seen a question come up often , should I feed my plant or plant is not healthy should I feed it with some fertilizer .

I learnt somethings from an old man by the name of Mr Ravens (horticulturist ) . I helped him in his garden and with his bonsai once he got too old too be able to bend and lift heavy potts, at one point he even grew marijuana for his own research on the plant and at that time , it was still very much illegal in South Africa .

Anyway , one day he had a bonsai , which was an evergreen (locust tree ) and it was losing its leaves one by one. I went over to him and asked if I should give it some fertilizer . His response was , “do you think we should fertilize it ?”

I said yes and his follow up question was , why do I want to give it fertilizer? I said , " it doesn’t look too healthy so thought to give it some food "

He corrected me after that statement . His words to me was , "fertilizer is not food " and went on too explain.

Fertilizer is not food for plants , although many call it that , it is minerals being introduced to soil for a plant to utilize but it is not food . So … What is food for a tree and it is a answer we probably all know … photosynthesis, that is the plants food . (Carbohydrates)and to accomplish this , a plant needs two main things to grow succesfully , oxygen and water . One thing we never do , is fertilize plants when they are sick .

All we doing when we fertilize a sick tree , is give extra nutrients to a tree which is already struggling to absorb nutrients as it is and end up damaging the tree due to stressing and burning them with the use of fertilizer . We need to get to the base of the problem . So what does a plant need and what do we do when we see that it is not thriving … we get it’s oxygen and water levels correct.

How do we achieve this? This is when a repott is in order , we want to get oxygen and water levels correct and the soil is what provides the correct conditions . Good drainage and soil quality , one suited for the plant , is crucial .

So when do we fertilize ? We only use fertilizer as a tool … it is not there to use as a medication for a sick tree. When a plant is healthy, that is when we dose .

There are 3 types of dosing , light , medium and heavy dosing…. each used for a different purpose.

Light dosing – a plant is growing again in spring and pushing out new buds, at this time , light dosing is fine, we giving it just a little extra to help it push out that new growth . But we only want to dose every second week to make sure that the soil gets flushed out properly between dosing . This only applies to liquid dosing and not pellet dosing.

Medium dosing – When a tree is growing and has hard growth , hard growth meaning that the plant has fully matures leaves … we can give it a medium dose because we know the tree is strong and pushing out new foliage and using nutrients .But we feeding because we want extra growth and thickening of the branches and or base if it is a tree being used for bonsai .

Hard dosing – we hard only only when a tree is healthy but has damage which needs repairing. E.g., broken branches, damaged trunk or root system which was damaged during repot , these are the reason we hard dose . It will also cause new growth which in return , strengthen the tree .

But it is all the same thing , we don’t fertilize sick plants, if they are sick we look at the soil .. oxygen and water is the root issue and we only fertilize again after root system has been flushed from previous dosing.

Hope this helps with dosing questions . Got to love plants … let’s make more people plant conscious instead of people just stomping and breaking them , we need them just as much as they need us !!

• 7 Oct, 2018
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