Hawthorn slowly fading

[DeepSouth]

It didn't make it. I did learn a valuable lesson, though. If what you have is working...........DON'T CHANGE! I've had nine years of success with my soil mixture and fertilizer routine. I will slink back into my corner and resume the tried and true.

Ah that's a shame. It looks like it was an awesome tree. Did you conclude that the vinegar solution was the likely culprit?

 

[Joe Dupre']

Ah that's a shame. It looks like it was an awesome tree. Did you conclude that the vinegar solution was the likely culprit?

That was my conclusion. I repotted it this spring and it absolutely burst with growth. I even displayed it at our spring show. No more vinegar solution for me.

 

[shohin_branches]

The deceased azalea has been treated to the same soil, watering and fertilization for all of the six years I've had it. No problems in that time. Things started going south with the vinegar ph balancing regime. Further research gives me the impression that the heavy Miracle Gro treatment I use tends the acidify the soil on an ongoing basis, so there in no need for MORE acidity. Can I prove beyond a doubt any of this? Nope. Just a hunch from collecting 200 trees of 30 different species for 9 years.

Did you measure TDS when you rinsed it? Regularly using mineral based fertilizers with organic soil can lead to salt and urea buildup which is not great for fragile roots or water mobility in general. Hard tap water can also build up and exacerbate TDS issues in the rootzone. It's something I have to pay a lot of attention to with my carnivorous plants and flush them occasionally to get the rootzone right or repot if it's really bad. It's not always something I think about with bonsai.

 

[Joe Dupre']

I did not measure TDS. I highly doubt that had anything to do with the problem. 9 years of the same regime with 50 plants and two casualties in a month seems the likely culprit is the only thing I changed. I did a postmortem on both and found extremely high acidity. Yep, too clever by half.