Autumn and Winter Soil Care

I have been asked on many occasions why I add fertilizer bags to my deciduous bonsai through Autumn and Winter when the trees are not growing.

The simple, and logical, answer is to feed the soil.!!  

Walk through a deciduous forest in Winter, kick the fallen leaves back and you will see a living network of fungi and other biota enjoying a winter snack on the fallen leaves.

It follows that if we can somehow mimic this part of the natural world then our bonsai soil will be richer and that our bonsai will be healthier as a result.

Over the many decades of growing bonsai at The Australian Bonsai Gallery we have noticed that the soil biota is attracted to the fertilizer bags. Those bonsai with an external mycorrhiza literally grow up into the bags.!!!