If you'll search the forum for information on fertilization, you'll find that most trees and shrubs in most situations do not need fertilizer. Unless the soil is deficient of some nutrient, your plants are better off without it. Improper fertilization can be harmful to your trees. You should never fertilize without a reason for doing so and without some idea of what nutrients need to be added. Fertilizer spikes are often thought of as the snake oil of the horticulture business. For the most part, they are a waste of money.

More like "better never than ever"

Please understand that even IF your trees needed fertilization, spikes are the absolute worst method of delivering it.

I would first throw them away and second get a soil sample to your cooperative extension office for your free annual soil test. Find them in your white pages listed by county.
The information from that will tell you what, if anything, needs to be added to your soil. Your county agents will assist you in understanding the test results and be familiar with amendments available locally and how much to apply when.

Absent that information you are literally flying blind, so doing nothing would be FAR better than doing a wrong thing.
And fertilizer spikes are definitely a wrong thing.

i like to sum it up this way ...

two ways ...

first.. for what they are worth.. send me the money.. and i will pray for them... and it will do as much good as a spike ..

in the alternative..

they are trees/shrubs.. they are not children.. they do NOT need to be fed.. changed.. educated.. etc ...

water them properly.. and otherwise.. ignore them ... and 99% of the time mother nature will take care of that for you.. but for drought and transplant ....

ken

Grind them up and put the fert on the lawn....if it needs it.

Spikes for trees are almost worthless. A good mulch will serve you better.

Mike

How do I relate in text the look of a man with his hand covering his face, his head slowly shaking to and fro, giving the universal sign for "for fux sakes"?

Spikes...loling.

+oM

Bet 'cha got the message. The right one!
hortster

Wisconsitom, I've heard that referred to as "facepalm" before ;)

{{gwi:365035}}

Thanks Fam! Now to the OP, sorry if I came across a little harshly. For me and some others that have been here for a while, fertilizer spikes are something we thought we'd dispatched to the junkheap of history long ago.

Even if fertilizer is warranted, that's just an extremely poor delivery method. They sure do keep selling them though!

+oM