Some notes, Aftermath of Experiment One and Two and results of Experiment Three
Some notes
The west side house painting is complete! Time to finish this job….
I feel the need to preface my final results with a couple notes.
These are solely my results with thoughts and conclusions based upon my research, experience and present knowledge. Others may disagree. That’s ok, but I ask you to provide factual evidence to support your disagreement. That’s a lot more fun then seeing folks merely throwing out unsupported opinions… because they can in a modern world.
A very small piece about my azalea journey, for those interested.
I’ve grown azaleas in landscapes for over 50 years. About four years ago while on my bonsai journey I realized the only way for me to gather azalea bonsai experience quickly was to grow lots of azaleas (also pines and maples) from the ground up. I followed two bits of advice.
One from Jonas Dupuich, “Grow lots of one type of tree and you’ll learn a lot”
The other from Naka, Ota and Rokkaku‘s book, Bonsai Techniques for Satsuki where the authors mentioned ‘Azaleas can make and decent bonsai in five years and a good one in ten’. So azaleas were one of my first choices.
Over a year I gathered many middling, and some older, aged cultivars of all kinds of azaleas and am learning how to work on these plants as bonsai. These are azaleas of all kinds, not only satsuki (over 100 cultivars at last count), then I struck cuttings of these to grow whips and also learn more about the horticultural ins and outs of azaleas.
Thus my azalea experience to date is growing azalea into bonsai. This is one of the things which motivated me to do these experiments. It’s never fun for me to hurt a living thing, or even to prune radically. There’s always a sense of loss of what could of been. That’s why I pulled the plug soon and tried hard to get each plant to recover.
Experiment One and Two - Aftermath.
As you may recall
, one of the goals of these experiments was to try to restore each azalea back to health after each trial. Regretfully, both Buccaneer azaleas in Experiment One and Two died. However there is good news on the Beni Kirishima front. Both have recovered and are ready for future work!
Exp 1 Beni K. Exp 2 Beni K
Experiment Three - Over fertilizing trials results and conclusions
In last post things weren’t looking good for either azalea
. Two weeks later their condition has changed…. for the worse!
September 17, 2022
Buccaneer Beni Kirishima
Both azaleas
Each study subject was damaged beyond recovery. Their condition is eerily similar to Buccaneer’s condition (root rot) in Experiment Two. Let’s take a look at their roots.
Root balls
Buccaneer (L) Beni Kirishima (R)
Summary:
It’s obvious both azaleas are goners, each showing classic root symptoms. Its no wonder, as both azaleas were massively overfertilized. This seems to be the basic mechanism that occurred.
The fertilizer salts around the roots created an area of lower osmotic pressure in the media outside the roots, causing the water from inside the root cells to be drawn outside to restore equilibrium. This cause the roots to dehydrate. As this occurs, the first signs show leaves furthest from the roots being deprived of water. This is a result of losses from transpiration, coupled with the losses of water and nutrients due to the roots malfunctioning were too much for the plant to handle.
The Buccaneer trial showed this when entire leaf clusters at the end of each branch showed signs of distress. An uncommon experience for me. So now I need to be aware of this sign in other cultivars. However earlier experiments showed Buccaneer to be very reactive to shortages of water. So this conclusion seems logical.
Beni Kirishima‘s trial show Ed water/nutrient deprivation on the leaf tips first. A more common situation in my experience.
Likely there is more happening then described above, but this seems to be root cause.
Some Closing thoughts:
1. There were many ways each of these experiments can be improved.
a. The azaleas could of been in a bonsai media. This would of allowed better flushing, quicker drying, lower concentrations of fertilizer to be used and perhaps a higher chance of recovery from the excesses the plants were subjected to in these experiments.
b. The experiments could of contained more trials, more cultivars and perhaps different ages of plants
c. Finally the experiments should of started earlier in the growing season, allowing more time, especially the over fertilization experiment. This would of allowed a finer control over dosages and observation of changes over time.
2. Is the data sound? As a gross indicator of these three issues perhaps. Gaining validity would certainly need more trials.
3. Somethings to ponder.
a. The results do show the first type of fertilizer used, Osmocote Plus, didn’t seem to negatively affect the azaleas in the near term. In other words damage from over fertilizing with Osmocote Plus will likely slowly accumulate over time, rather then suddenly. I do use Osmocote Plus on all the azaleas, but have leaned to be careful with just tossing the product on, especially younger plants.
For Example:
When fertilizing azaleas in 2 1/4” pots (1st and 2nd year cuttings/layers) only 3 prills are used in early spring, followed by 3 more in early summer. These are not allowed to bloom as these azaleas always are grown out as whips.
For 2nd - 4th year azaleas in 3” only 6 -8 prills are used early spring and early summer. If blooming one must be cautious to dump the prills out at least 4 weeks prior to the beginning of the bloom, otherwise the colors will be muted for solid color flowers and the color pattern “blasted” (my term) for multi patterned flowering azaleas. Then resume application after flowering.
b. The results also show over-application of Miracid (Miracle Gro for azaleas etc) can have a dramatic and possibly catastrophic effect on the health of the azalea. I use Miracid/Humic acid/kelp as a regular supplemental fertilizer regularly at 14 day intervals, alternating with fish emulsion/Humic acid/kelp.
There are distinct growth advantages to using Miracid for younger azaleas, giving robust growth. Yet when using Miracid, it’s best to be conservative. After all, it’s very easy to give a half dose. Also please remember to water prior to application.
Finally, if one does a radical cut back, especially afterwards, I’d not use any fertilizer. Better to put the tree in bright shade for a couple weeks. If things look good and new growth occurs, one might use a very small dose, perhaps an 1/8 dose
c. IMHO it is better to lay off the Miracid blend and perhaps very sparingly use the Fish Emulsion blend in hotter (not extreme) weather…. Or not at all.
d. It’s risky to try to get in a fertilizer application in just before a heat wave strikes. Better to just wait.
Aftermath: For those of you that stuck it about to read the entire thread, thank you very much!
cheers
DSD sends
