Conifer fertilizing?

[Derek Reese 29]

I have ~20 1.5 year in the ground white pine/BHS/Norway spruce in a tree screen. I fertilized it in early June and have seen good growth. My question is, as conifers don’t drop leaves, is it ok to fertilize again or will this mess the trees up from going dormant or something? I have some leftover 10-10-10 from my plots.

 

[Telemark]

Personally I wouldn't risk it. There is a lot of time, and presumably precipitation, between now and Spring. I would wait until April at the earliest.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I also wouldn't fertilize trees this time of year when they are getting ready to go dormant. Use the fertilizer next spring once the trees are growing.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I've hit our NS and WS in early April, just that once - FWIW. Always got good growth. The early years are slow to get going, but year 3 onward is when the gears shift into "GO" !!! Years 4 through 8 can be shocking once the root systems are established. I use 10-10-10 as well.

 

[FarmerDan]

I have ~20 1.5 year in the ground white pine/BHS/Norway spruce in a tree screen. I fertilized it in early June and have seen good growth. My question is, as conifers don’t drop leaves, is it ok to fertilize again or will this mess the trees up from going dormant or something? I have some leftover 10-10-10 from my plots.

Don't do it. Fertilizing now will/might push new growth. New growth is tender, succulent. You are at a cold place where frost and freeze will soon be on you. If it's a hard freeze there's a real risk that new growth will die back. Die back triggers a whole host of plant responses as it attempts to save itself. This response is appropriate with much growing season ahead. It could be deadly with the freeze season ahead. I'm not a big fan of fertilizing trees. It's much different than fertilizing crops.

 

[H20fwler]

Agree, just in spring. 10-10-10 here too.

 

[Brian662]

The nursery I bought my Norway spruce from told me I can fertilize in April and August, fwiw. He said a handful of 10-10-10 twice a year is perfect.

 

[Angus 1895]

I fertilized last month, then gave them about 3 inches of water. If I can’t get water to them I don’t fertilize late season.

 

[tlzkaasen]

I've been thinking about this post more and more. I have hundreds of Norway Spruce I plant each year all over my property. Surprising they've done very well given two years worth of droughts. However, the Norway Spruce I've planted around my food plots are 3-4x the size of the same Trees planted elsewhere. I contribute one of the factors to the extra growth to the fertalizer they are receiving (not intentional) when I hit the food plots several times a year. maybe bites me in the ass later, but thought I would share.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I've been thinking about this post more and more. I have hundreds of Norway Spruce I plant each year all over my property. Surprising they've done very well given two years worth of droughts. However, the Norway Spruce I've planted around my food plots are 3-4x the size of the same Trees planted elsewhere. I contribute one of the factors to the extra growth to the fertalizer they are receiving (not intentional) when I hit the food plots several times a year. maybe bites me in the ass later, but thought I would share.

Just wondering what kind of fertilizer you are using on your plots? I have some GRO liquid/foliar stuff that’s like 4-12-16 or something like that(used for clover plots) and some solid/pelletized 10/10/10 guess i could hit them with both next year when I am fertilizing in the late spring

 

[tlzkaasen]

Just wondering what kind of fertilizer you are using on your plots? I have some GRO liquid/foliar stuff that’s like 4-12-16 or something like that(used for clover plots) and some solid/pelletized 10/10/10 guess i could hit them with both next year when I am fertilizing in the late spring

Hi Derek, I use a triple 19 at planting and follow up with a 10-10-10 when I do any type of over seeding 6 weeks later. I also hit my clover/chicory plots with the 10-10-10 2x-3x per year which also hits my white spruce which have really exploded with growth since planting 2 years ago. I know folks will chastise (I'll probably agree), that soil tests, etc should dictate the type of fertilizer, but getting some of those fertalizers is really tough for me....Maybe its a SE WI/North Central WI thing. Yes, I run soil tests more for PH. I hit all plots with pellatized lime just to keep it up. Yep, many of those same spruce get the lime treatment too.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Hi Derek, I use a triple 19 at planting and follow up with a 10-10-10 when I do any type of over seeding 6 weeks later. I also hit my clover/chicory plots with the 10-10-10 2x-3x per year which also hits my white spruce which have really exploded with growth since planting 2 years ago. I know folks will chastise (I'll probably agree), that soil tests, etc should dictate the type of fertilizer, but getting some of those fertalizers is really tough for me....Maybe its a SE WI/North Central WI thing. Yes, I run soil tests more for PH. I hit all plots with pellatized lime just to keep it up. Yep, many of those same spruce get the lime treatment too.

Thanks for the info! My Norways are in a screen about 100 yds from my plot, so it’s not a big deal to get some fertilizer over to them. I just need to do it more than once, as I only did it once this year and still saw good growth (some added 1.5’ of growth, which I consider good)…

 

[Tree Spud]

I fertilize the conifers in late spring when trees are dormant and ground is froze. Don't use anything higher than 10-10-10 as you will end up killing the tree.

 

[SD51555]

I’ve got 80 pounds of broken gypsum bags in my garage. I need to get that out and on my spruces this weekend.


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