Foliar fertiliser

[Gone tropo]

Im using a product called powerfeed its a liquid fertliser im not sure if this is available in the US but im sure you have much the same thing.  Im using this on a weekly basis not sure of this is too much but my plants are thriving on it.  My mangosteens which were planted in ground in september last year have more than doubled in size.  Rambutans and other trees are also responding well to it.  I have also been using blood and bone fertilizer.  I cut out the chemical fertlizer on these trees as they seem to be sensitive to it.  Im pushing these trees especially the mangosteens hard i want to see if i can get them to fruit in 6 years.

[Mike T]

There should be instructions on there that will say things like 5ml/l  and 2ml/l for potted plants,3x fortnightly before flowering and once a month generally etc. It will say ok with insecticide and stuff like 10:4:6 with trace elements.
Plants can suffer if you go overboard with it and you might be wasting it.When trees are in the ground and getting some size about them foliar feeding cant provide most of the nutrients but can help temporarily with some nutrient deficiencies and can be a good stimulant. Vegies are different of course but nutrients from the ground supply the bulk.

[Gone tropo]

There should be instructions on there that will say things like 5ml/l  and 2ml/l for potted plants,3x fortnightly before flowering and once a month generally etc. It will say ok with insecticide and stuff like 10:4:6 with trace elements.
Plants can suffer if you go overboard with it and you might be wasting it.When trees are in the ground and getting some size about them foliar feeding cant provide most of the nutrients but can help temporarily with some nutrient deficiencies and can be a good stimulant. Vegies are different of course but nutrients from the ground supply the bulk.

Hi mike yeh it says 10ml per 1 litre and you can do it fortnightly according to the label, I have been doing it weekly for a while now certainly doesnt seem to be hurting the plants.  Maybe Iam wasting some though.  My mangosteens are growing quite fast suprisngly its the pulasan that are not growing so fast.  Im also doing blood and bone on the ground.

[Tropicdude]

Mangosteens can really benefit from foliar feeding, they naturally have a terrible root system in young trees, and is one of the reasons they grow so slow and take so long to mature.

[Gone tropo]

Mangosteens can really benefit from foliar feeding, they naturally have a terrible root system in young trees, and is one of the reasons they grow so slow and take so long to mature.

Yeh mate i think your right, everyone says the mangosteens are so extremely slow but my observations of them have been the opposite mine have more than doubled in size since september 2020 when i planted them.  Yet my pulasan and rambutans are growing but slower than i expected relative to the mangosteens!!!!  Im going to continue my fertilzer program and watch them closely.  I think it also might have to do with the location i planted them, they are planted about 3m from a creek on my property where the soil was so soft and loam that you barely need a shovel to even dig it.

[Mike T]

Once they are in the ground with the right shade and water mangosteens are not that slow. It takes a while to get to 25cm then things speed up. I had over 800mm rain in January and you would be similar with 25c to 33c every day and it is good for mangosteen growth. Pulasans need a while also before they take off and thicken up and branch out. It might happen all of a sudden.

[Gone tropo]

Once they are in the ground with the right shade and water mangosteens are not that slow. It takes a while to get to 25cm then things speed up. I had over 800mm rain in January and you would be similar with 25c to 33c every day and it is good for mangosteen growth. Pulasans need a while also before they take off and thicken up and branch out. It might happen all of a sudden.

Yeh mike i reckon mine were about 25-30cm when i planted them and my bigger one would be 60cm i reckon, might actually go measure it this arvo.  Mike do you think pruning pulasan would be a good idea to get the to thicken up?  Im extremely nervous about damaging my pulasan trees because they are the only 2 trees that i have been able to source they are extremely rare and no one sells them so i dont want them to die.  The guy i brought them off had more available and im kicking myself that i didnt buy a whole bunch of them, i called him back less than a week later after thinking about it and he had sold all of them.