Text Box: Southern Bonsaist Text Box: If you fertilized during the prime growing season you do not need to fertilize at all during November, December or January. With no active growth your bonsai and accent plants can easily stay healthy with the fertilizer already in the soil. When do you fertilize in the spring of 05? If you like to use organic solid fertilizer it takes at least 6 weeks to break down and be available to the plant. If you are repotting, place the solid organic in the soil when you repot. If your bonsai leaf out during the cool months your fertilizer will not be available Text Box: to the plant. If it is a developed tree you might not want it to grow very strong. Let it leaf out. The fertilizer will be available later when it is needed for the health of the tree. It will not be available early to create large leaves or long internodes. If you have trees that need to feed strong as soon as they leaf out (Elms,Zelkova and tropicals you will need to use a liquid fertilizer. Use it as a weak solution and use it twice a week. Osmocote is probably the best all around fertilizer for most people. If can be mixed in with repotting soil. Text Box: Osmocote can be placed on top of the soil. It is a moisture and temperature release fertilizer. It will not release too early or too much. When it warms up it will start to release. With our fast draining soil it’s difficult to fertilize to much with osmocote. Liquid organic fertilizer work best when the wather is staying warm day and night and when used on trees that were repotted last year or two years ago. The soil/root mass will hold the fertilizer in the soil when it can break down and be used. Joe. Text Box: by those attending. We had the class at a training room in a local fire station, just perfect. The coffee was excellent, the lunch was subway sandwiches while we talked more bonsai. We were up a 4 A.M. to start the day and home by 9 P.M. to end it but it was all enjoyable. This one day bonsai school is the first one I know of but the attention given all day by those in attendance and the Text Box: Joe, Xuan and Leo Fortner had the pleasure of spending the day with a group of Louisiana bonsai artist at a one day bonsai school taught by Joe Day. This was an intensive study of bonsai covering bonsai management, color , design and use of bonsai pots, soil mixtures , fertilizer, and elements of style plus any added questions on any aspect of bonsai brought up Text Box: many positive comments make me hope that it will become something that we can do often at bonsai clubs all over the south. Two people who were going to leave early said they stayed until the end because it was fun and very informative. One said it was the best educational thing he had attended in 25 years and another said he learned more than he could put to use in 10 years. Thanks to them all. It Text Box: Page # Text Box: Feeding your bonsai part-2 Text Box: Feeding your bonsai fall, winter & Spring Text Box: The one day bonsai School Text Box: must the available as soon as the roots and leaves are active. Liquid fertilizers are available instantly, organics take at least 6 weeks, osmocote depends on moisture and temperature before it will release and be available to the tree. The development stage of your trees must be considered Text Box: when you decide when and how to fertilize. Developing trees need to feed heavy as long as they are actively growing. Developed trees need just enough food to be healthy. Newly repotted trees are pushing lots of new roots so they need a weak fertilizer that will not burn the roots. Fertilizing correctly is a skill developed over time with Text Box: You get 90 percent of your growth, back budding and new growth that can be used during the first 60 days after your trees leaf out. You can put it this way 90 percent of your 2005 development during the first 60 days after your trees leaf out. To produce this growth your trees need food. The food Text Box: “ Osmocote is a good fertilizer for most bonsai bonsai artist”