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| I use the Miracle Gro (Miracid) Azalea, Camellia, Rhododendron food for my evergreens, but the instructions are not geared towards trees. It only states to mix 1 teaspoon per gallon of water, which would be okay for a small/medium shrub. If I have a 6ft evergreen tree, how would I figure out how much to apply?
Would one gallon/one teaspoon be enough? It states to feed every 7-14 days but that seems excessive. Thoughts? When is the right time to feed them for the first time this year? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Do not feed your trees unless you have a proven soil problem. Let them try by themselves. My God, every 7-14 days? Pay up, dude. Miracle-gro sells fertilizer, NEEDED OR NOT. Makes them bucks for the stockholders! If your tree is SUFFERING, DECLINING, maybe... hortster |
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| Improper fertilization is one of the big contributors to failing and unhealthy trees and shrubs. Fertilizing without a soil test, or at least an indication of the need for nutrient supplementation, is like giving your child prescription medication when they aren't sick! Fertilization should be used only to supply MISSING nutrients, not to make you feel like you are babying your plants or to make the snake-oil salespeople more money! |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Feb 28, 12 at 8:58
| hey johnny be good ... i agree.. trees .. shrubs.. conifers.. need no food EVER ... heck.. i am on pure mineral sand.. and i dont feed my 5 acres of such ... if per chance.. your plants start showing some deficiency [like yellowing or lack of vigor]... then you would start with a soil test.. to find out what is lacking in the soil ... and then act accordingly ... if something is lacking in the soil.. spraying the leaves is not really going to fix your problem ... [no amount of makeup is going to make an ugly girl pretty .. nor an ugly man, for that matter .. lol] also .. if you feed your grass ... and the plants are anywhere near the lawn .. they will get what they need ... as for the acid loving plants.. its not a food issue.. but a soil amendment.. should your soil need some slight change to make those happy ... as noted.. you are falling for marketing hype from people who make their living.. selling such .. be leery ... finally ... the label should tell you .. what the effective rate of application is for said amt.. in other words.. one tblspn .. properly diluted equals.. whatever. ... 6-9-4 ... but the stuff is so weak.. it really doesnt matter .. as the suggestion of application is basically.. dilute at this ratio and spew it all over the yard.. its idiot proof and fail safe .. but since the plants dont really need it.. who cares ... the one thing you are leaving out of your thought process.. is that .. e.g. .. a 6 foot plant.. would have twice the leaf surface of say a 3 foot plant.. so the dilution stays the same.. and the plant gets twice as much ... it is NOT a function of each plant needed differing ratios ... but again.. IMHO.. they dont need it .. i like to sum it up this way .. and i usually yell when i say it ... THEY ARE NOT CHILDREN .. THEY DO NOT NEED TO BE FED.. NOR DIAPERED.. NOR SENT TO COLLEGE ... ma nature takes good enough care of 99.9% of her plants.. you really need not interfere ... good luck ps being a collector and a cheapskate.. i would rather spend the money on more plants.. rather than waste money feeding them ... and for me.. that is the bottom line .. |
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| My experience with conifers (is that what you meant by 'evergreen'?) is that those exhibiting determinate or uninodal growth show little change in growth rate on a good site after applying fertilizer. On poor sites, there may be an increased benefit assuming the site is nutrient poor. More often than not though, it is soil pH, structure, compaction, drainage, etc. that have the greatest effect. Conifers exhibiting indeterminate or multinodal growth seem to exhibit a greater benefit from fertilizer but there is always a risk that the growth will not mature before winter. If you still are keen to spend that kind of time and money on fertilizer, stakes or granular applied to the root zone (via 8-12" deep spike holes) in mid-September seemed to result in the most noticeable improvements in spring growth. |
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| Another downside in fertilizing trees is that you will get a lot of rank, weak growth, subject to insects and winter breakage. The only time I use fertilizer is in containers,...and then very little and very seldom. My homemade potting soil has a lot of resiliency. Mike  |
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| Lookin' good, botann! hortster |
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| Actual food for any plant is photosynthesis. Fertilizing a plant is giving them a vitamin. Ph is more important, if the Ph is wrong you can fertilize and it will not make it available to the plant untill the PH is Wright. |
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| A couple of thoughts come to mind. 1.) Whereas potted plants often have drainage so water goes out the bottom, over time carrying some nutrients with it, plants in the ground don't have such a problem. 2.) Excess phosphate binds to the soil, isn't practically removable and can be bad for plants. So buildup from excessive fertilizer can be bad news. I mention that since some people may figure it might help and at least won't harm anything to add fertilizer. Not always the case. Your local county extension office can likely run a soil test for you fairly cheap. Richard. |
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| There are also other problems with over-fertilization, including things like lanky growth, increase susceptibility to wind and snow-load damage, increased stress levels, increase susceptibility to pests and disease problems, etc. |
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- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Tue, Mar 6, 12 at 22:58
| There was a study done in European Norway spruce plantations that indicated those stands having been fertilized in the past were more susceptible to wind damage later in life. I know I read this but I surely don't have a link-just going by memory, always a risky proposition! At any rate, a big blow did come through, maybe back in the 1970s, and there was enough widespread damage to provide material for this study. +oM |
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