Opinions on fertilizing trees?

[Swamp Pygmy]

Thanks guys, we got a mixed bag and I think this thread probably helped everyone with their questions. Thanks to all who posted.

I think I fall into the "couldn't hurt" category. After my experiences with regular fruits (though I understand they are not trees) I have always found it to help the quality of the finished product. I think I may try to fert a few select trees.

I doubt me putting fertilizers down will ruin the property. The midwest doesn't exactly look like the sahara desert. Blood and bone meal isn't really unnatural in the forest either. I think some of you may be over-blowing the effect on the habitat.

[Rick Perry]

read up on whats happening in the gulf of mexico due to nitrates that are coming down the mississippi from midwest cornfields ...... everything we introduce to our environment affects something !!!

should we start feeding our deer herds antibiotics and steroids like they do cattle ,pigs and chickens so they grow faster and bigger as well ???? Its my belief those things that the big corporate meat growers say are harmless are causing a multitude of health problems in this country . ........  not screaming the sky is falling  ..... BUT ..... like I said  ..... Acorns and deer have been doing just fine for centuries without 12-12-12 . .... JMHO

[rappstar]

deathmaster!  I love the analogy!

[ChuckC]

Deathmaster... what three elements are you speaking of ?    
ChuckC

[Eric Krewson]

The problem I found with fertilizing oak trees is every squirrel in the country zeros in on them and have them cleaned up way too soon into bow season.

[Swamp Pygmy]

I think you need to distinguish between mainstream agricultural practices with its effects on pollution in rivers and streams and a few cups of blood and bone meal around trees.  

Who is to say the soil is ideal where it lay with depleted nutrients? We have a lot of problems with chemicals in waters from various industries, some agricultral and some not. Very few people would attribute small amounts of organic ferts on specific trees to be damaging the environment. No offense, but I don't really think you know what you're talking about.

@chuck C. The elements are Nitrogen, (veg growth), phosphorous (flowering), and Potassium (roots and stems). They are what the three numbers on fertilizer packages stand for. When you buffer the ph with lime or another substance it changes the nutrient uptake. The different elements are best absorbed under specific ph ratings, so when it changes the uptake changes.

[nd chickenman]

swamp pygmy, I don't think that a few cups of organic fertilizers will hurt your woods at all. Best plan if you feel that your soil is lacking is a soil test. I worked in the fertilizer industry for number of years in the midwest, and if they didn't use fertilizer and pesticides it would look worst than the sahara desert.It would be nothing but firebush. Keep it organic and don't use more than you have to. There is a natural order to the soil in the woods that has been developed over centuries and most tree and plants are growing in areas that provide the nutrients that they require. Chickenman

[Dartwick]

Even using chemical fertilizers in modest amounts on select trees in a forest is unlikely to have negative consequences for 2 main reasons - unlike a farmers field.

1 you will have have a better uptake in the forest because what isnt taken up directly by the target trees will probably be taken up by the surrounding unfertilized foliage.
Of course if you just apply to the surface near a stream in significant amounts you could still get down stream eutrophication.

2 Spot applications arent going to have a significant impact on bacteria because the majority of the local area will still have bacteria which will recolonize any spot as soon as concentrations return to more normal levels.

That said organic fertilizer are probably the best choice, but I dont see any moral baggage in this case if you use chemicals.

[Pat B]

A soil test is the only way to tell the condition of the soil and it's available neutrients. If you specify on the soil test that you want to feed oak trees or mast in general, the soil test report will indicate the lime and neuitrients needed and in what amounts. You can fertilize all day long and if the ph isn't right for the selected plants, they won't be able to take up the neutrients.
  Some of the most fertile soil around is that in a deciduous forest. Each year the fallen leaves take the neutrients that the tree has absorbed and dropped them to the ground where they decompose and the neutrient cycle starts over again.

[ChuckC]

Please correct me if I am stupid here,  but I was taught that pH is a measure of alkalinity and acidity, typically based in part on the amount of hydrogen (cations) available in the solution.  

It itself has nothing to do with the presence of Nitrogen (N), potash (K2CO3 and others), or potassium (K).   Although the pH will affect the uptake of these three, it is not necessarily directly related to these three.

I am gonna go on a limb here and state that if you have a healthy mature oak stand (or any other mature stand)  it will have created or thrived in an environment that is suitable for its growth or it wouldn't have reached the maturity state that it was in.

Removal of important nutrients by raking away the leaves, cutting and hauling away plant life from around the area or otherwise dramatically altering the immediate environment can probably change the nutrient content of the soil, depending upon the soil and the area itself(see what happened in clearing the Amazon).  

This is probably why farmers need to either change up on what they plant, alternating with legumes, or fertilizing and manicuring the soil chemistry, since they are routinely removing the crop, along with all those nutrients (that are not inexhaustable) that were already in the soil but had been taken up into the plants.

Some addition of nutrients to depleted or borderline depleted soils is probably a good thing, but not allowing the changes that cause this depletion might be an even better move.

And I was also taught that neutral is pH 7.  pH 6 is slightly acidic.
ChuckC