What Your Trees And Shrubs Need

Just like all plants, trees and shrubs primarily need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The soil in your area may be sufficient or insufficient in these other or nutrients, and you can find this out definitively with a soil test. Otherwise, using a complete fertilizer is a good bet at first. Before you apply fertilizer, you should consider several things to establish a need for fertilizer. Check plants for signs of poor growth, including smaller or yellowing leaves, twig or branch dieback, less than average growth. Keep in mind that although these are good indications of a nutrition deficiency, they can also be signs of poor growing conditions, like lack of sunlight, poor drainage, etc., and fertilizer cannot remedy these problems.

Choosing A Tree or Shrub Fertilizer

You have several options when choosing fertilizer for trees and shrubs, much like any other plant fertilizer. Your options include:

• Organic: from natural sources, like compost, manure, or bone meal
• Inorganic: usually from salts, and you will know a product is synthetic by the percentages listed on front, usually something like 10-10-10, indicating the percentage of each nutrient in the fertilizer mix by weight.
• Fast release: makes nutrients available to plants immediately
• Slow release: makes nutrients available over an extended period of time, usually coated with a substance that slows the breakdown of the fertilizer.
• Most types are available in granular, pellet, spike, pulverized, or liquid forms.

Before you fertilize shrubs and trees, there are a few things to consider that can affect your fertilization process and your plants, including:

• Type of plant
• Time of year
• Desired growth
• Preferred method of application
• Cost of materials and equipment
• Water availability
• Soil type

How To Fertilize Trees And Shrubs

Fertilizing trees and shrubs, like all plants, require planning and knowledge to be done correctly. Here are a few tips to consider when fertilizing your trees and shrubs:

• It is important to apply tree and shrub fertilizer when plants are ready to take the nutrients up. Most trees and shrubs experience growth “spurts” in the spring, which requires larger amounts of nutrients during this period than the rest of the year.
• Early spring is the pest time to apply fertilizer, before hot weather stresses affect plants. As soon as the ground can be worked in the springtime, apply the fertilizer. That way, it will be available to plants exactly when they need it.
• Feeder roots of trees and shrubs are close to the surface of the ground. While some experts suggest drilling holes around the perimeter of a tree to adequately fertilize, it has been found that surface applications are sufficient to reach the feeder roots.
• Do not concentrate fertilizer around the stems or trunks, or anywhere around the plant. Too much fertilizer will burn the grass and roots of the trees and shrubs.
• Too much fertilizer can cause undesirable effects on your trees and shrubs. It can cause overgrowth or rapid growth causing you to prune more frequently, it can make some plants more susceptible to certain diseases, can cause excess chemical runoff into waterways, and can cause damage to the plants.