Bonsai Fertilizer

Bonsai Fertilizer is built for the small soil volume a bonsai lives in. Mix 1 teaspoon per quart of water and feed every 2 weeks in spring and summer while your tree is actively growing, then every 4 weeks in fall and winter. A shallow pot holds very little soil and is watered often, so nutrients wash out quickly; steady feeding replaces what leaves with each watering without the surge of soft growth that a heavy dose would force.

Two ways, both at 1 teaspoon per quart. You can water the soil with the diluted Bonsai Fertilizer as part of normal watering, or submerge the whole pot in the solution until the soil is saturated, then lift it out and let the excess drain away. Soaking gives even coverage across a shallow pot and is a common bonsai watering method in its own right. Either way, keep to the regular schedule rather than heavy occasional doses. You can also mist the foliage at half a teaspoon per pint every 1 to 2 weeks.

Not at this strength. Long internodes and oversized leaves that blur a bonsai’s form come from heavy, high-nitrogen feeding. Bonsai Fertilizer is a 2-2-3 blend with potassium leading, so it supports steady, controlled growth, fine branching and good leaf color without pushing the soft surge that undoes refinement. The calcium, magnesium and iron in the formula keep foliage deep green and internodes tight, which is what a tree in a small pot loses first once its soil is spent.

Yes. Bonsai Fertilizer is formulated for bonsai as a group, so tropical and subtropical trees kept indoors, such as ficus and jade, and temperate outdoor trees, such as maple, elm, juniper and pine, all take the same balanced 2-2-3 feed at 1 teaspoon per quart. The difference is timing: outdoor deciduous and conifer bonsai slow or go dormant in winter, so ease to the every 4 week fall and winter schedule and return to every 2 weeks as growth resumes in spring.

Bonsai Fertilizer is a dilute liquid feed, and dilution is what matters here. Fertilizer burn happens when concentrated salts sit against the roots, a real concern in a shallow pot where roots sit close to whatever you add. Our formula is 2-2-3, with most of the nitrogen in nitrate form and a low salt concentration; at 1 teaspoon per quart the nutrients arrive in solution as part of a normal watering. After root pruning or repotting, wait two to four weeks, then start at half strength for the first two feedings.

Deeper leaf color and healthier growth usually show within a few weeks of regular feeding during the growing season, since most of the nitrogen in Bonsai Fertilizer is nitrate and available to the roots right away. With bonsai the aim is controlled vigor rather than speed, so the improvement to look for is steady, even growth, tight internodes and good color rather than a spurt. Trees that have sat in old, spent soil tend to show the clearest change.