tea bag fertilizing

[dick benbow]

At first I laughed when I saw someone else doing this, till I tried it and found it worked for me.
I find a nice organic crumble, put 4 Tsp scoops in a loose bulk tea bag and lay on the outer edge of the pot away from the trunk. During busy watering season (june-july-august) they last about a month before being replaced. I've tried lots of different fertilizers and methods but kinda settled on a little that leaches every day.

 

[lordy]

Never saw empty bags anywhere. Where do you get them, and are they at all tricky to fill and close?

 

[Evilman626]

This is exactly what I do it works wonders. I use a chem fert once a week on top of it as well. I buy my empty tea bags off eBay whoever has them at the time. About 6 bucks for 100 of them. I buy the ones that close with the string, ironing them closed is a pain.

 

[dick benbow]

I buy my bags from an asian grocery store, they fold like a plastic sandwich bag.
easy to remove when spent. Occassionally I find where a bird has moved it to look for bugs underneath Glad to see others are doing something similar

 

[Beng]

This is what I do, it's great as you can put one tsp of one and one of another to create a custom mix for certain types of trees that have more sensitive requirements. Only problem i've found is the maggets that can sometimes be found in the bags.

 

[FrankP999]

Never saw empty bags anywhere. Where do you get them, and are they at all tricky to fill and close?

EBay has them from various sellers in China. As was said, get the ones with the drawstring. I was leery of sellers in China but they arrived in the US mail in 10 days. They are a pain to fill, not hard but tedious.

 

[Poink88]

EBay has them from various sellers in China. As was said, get the ones with the drawstring. I was leery of sellers in China but they arrived in the US mail in 10 days. They are a pain to fill, not hard but tedious.

Use a funnel. Even a chopped soda bottle should work wonderfully. That or use the bigger 3"x4" bags.

 

[Nybonsai12]

EBay has them from various sellers in China. As was said, get the ones with the drawstring..

x2. I got mine for a couple bucks off ebay as well. Drawstring is helpful.

 

[sikadelic]

I haven't tried this but know it is a well used technique for fertilizing. What is the difference between this and using the pellet fertilizers? Is it just so you can tailor what you want and make a custom mix?

 

[dick benbow]

Pellets i used to get from Japan worked fine but didn't like the clean up off the surface. The tea bag is so easily removed

 

[Nybonsai12]

I haven't tried this but know it is a well used technique for fertilizing. What is the difference between this and using the pellet fertilizers? Is it just so you can tailor what you want and make a custom mix?

As dick stated using the pellets directly on the surface requires clean up. As the pellets break down they can form a crust on the surface. I used pellets directly on surface last year and every time i watered i had to take a chopstick to break it up to make sure water gets through.

 

[pwk5017]

I also use teabags. If you use pooballs, it might not be necessary, but the organics I use are fine powders. I obviously do not want fine powders clogging up my soil mix, so the tea bag is the perfect solution. Like someone else mentioned, I do like to mix my acidic organic with my regular organic to tailor the acidity of the fertilizer. I buy mine off amazon. They fill easy, fold over on themselves, and I peg them shut and to the soil surface with a toothpick. Easy to remove when you don't want to fertilize anymore(black pines during decandling).

 

[Poink88]

Anyone tried how long before the bags deteriorate?

Reason I asked is because I am planning on doing this but leave them on even when I add new ones to act as sun barrier (like mulch) during summer (it get really hot here). Thoughts?

For now, I am using large (2" or so) lava rocks as my soil "heat shield". Ugly but works really well.

 

[berobinson82]

I'm glad to see this thread. Last year I found a fertilizer that my trees seemed to love until it blocked up the surface of the soil and cost my a hornbeam at the back of the bench. Perhaps it was called sta-green... Got it from Lowe's and it actually looked like bonsai soil. I just ordered bags 100 on ebay, US seller:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100Pcs-Whit...487?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3389d740af

Tried everything else, might as well give this a go too.

 

[chansen]

Anyone tried how long before the bags deteriorate?

Reason I asked is because I am planning on doing this but leave them on even when I add new ones to act as sun barrier (like mulch) during summer (it get really hot here). Thoughts?

For now, I am using large (2" or so) lava rocks as my soil "heat shield". Ugly but works really well.

Dario -

I put mine under a layer of long fiber sphagnum moss. I find that the moss helps a lot with water retention and slows evaporation from the soil, thus keeping the pot cooler throughout the day. When days get really hot we also throw wet towels or old tee-shirts on the pots. They also help retain some moisture (not sure how quickly your soil dries our, I use a Boon-like mix and with our low rainfall and high elevation, water evaporates very fast) and keep things cooler. I still change out my fertilizer filled team bags with regularity through the growing season. I like the 'active' fertilizer as close to the soil as possible.

 

[ghues]

I use a teabag product but instead of putting them on top of the soil I introduce the fertilizer prills from the teabag into my lower soil mix. The fertilizer is supposedly good for two growing seasons which is temperature and moisture dependent so it varies. It’s worked really well for the last couple of years.
Cheers G.

 

[Evilman626]

I'm glad to see this thread. Last year I found a fertilizer that my trees seemed to love until it blocked up the surface of the soil and cost my a hornbeam at the back of the bench. Perhaps it was called sta-green... Got it from Lowe's and it actually looked like bonsai soil. I just ordered bags 100 on ebay, US seller:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100Pcs-Whit...487?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3389d740af

Tried everything else, might as well give this a go too.

Same bags and same seller I purchase from. They'll do the trick and shipped in the US.

 

[thumblessprimate1]

It seems like the Lipton tea bags I use could just be reused after drying them out or is it a bad idea? All it requires is removing the little staple, fill with fertilizer then reattach staple. I have to save money where ever I can.

 

[sikadelic]

I'm glad to see this thread. Last year I found a fertilizer that my trees seemed to love until it blocked up the surface of the soil and cost my a hornbeam at the back of the bench. Perhaps it was called sta-green... Got it from Lowe's

Is this it? http://www.lowes.com/pd_297072-15634-651510393001_0__?productId=3962417&cm_mmc=SCE_PLA-_-FertilizerWeedControl-_-FertilizerWeedControl-_-3962417&CAWELAID=1624629733&kpid=3962417&%22cagpspn=pla%22

 

[barrosinc]

just bought some off ebay