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  • From: Jay Cutts <orders@cuttsreviews.com>
  • To: mailing list at ibiblio - Northamerican Allied Fruit Experimenters <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [nafex] fertilzing
  • Date: Fri, 15 May 2015 11:13:12 -0600

Hi, All.

I read on a list somewhere (don't know if it was this one) a debate about whether to fertilize trees in the spring or fall. I think the argument for fall was something about making the fertilizer available for spring growth. The argument against fall was that it can cause late growth that is too tender.

I'm not quite sure how fertilizing works. I have a suspicion and wonder if anyone can confirm or contribute. We're in a location with very poor soil, in fact mostly sand with few nutrients. It's been common for some to plants to put on less than an inch of growth during a season. Last spring I added both manure and organic corn gluten fertilizer to trees, scratching the fertilizer into the top of the soil. By the end of the season, most of the trees had still put on very little growth, maybe 1-3". Frustrated, I upped the fertilization this spring by putting cottonseed meal fertilizer into holes punched in the ground to get more to the tree roots.

However, as things leaf out this year, I see lots of the trees already putting on 6-8" of new growth right away! It's as though the fertilizer that they got last spring didn't add to last year's growth but prepped the plants for strong growth this spring. Is this how it works, at least with the slow release, organic fertilizer I'm using?

These are all fairly young trees, from a couple feet high to 5 or 6 feet.

Regards,

Jay

Jay Cutts
Director, Cutts Graduate Reviews
Lead Author, Barron's MCAT Prep Book
Lead Author, Barron's LSAT Prep Book (2013)
(505) 281-0684
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