What, if, an when to feed a magnolia tree

Afternoon all

Was wondering if to feed a magnolia tree and if so what type of feed to use and when.

I did read that all you should do is mulch around it.

Cheers.

 

Hi Chris,

Any well-rotted organic matter will do as a feed for your magnolia; horse manure, compost, leaf litter etc. As long as you have decent soil the tree shouldn't really encounter any nutrient deficiency problems. Organic mulches such as wood bark or wood chips are good as acting as a weed-barrier and keeping frost off, and has the benefit of adding nutrition into the soil as it degrades.

 

Will that help to encourage flowering I planted it towards the end of last year an it seems to have come through the cold and frosts ok.

 

It'll flower if it has adequate energy to do so - if it has been well looked after and is in good health then it'll flower normally without any further help needed. If you are wanting to go down the lines of applying chemical fertiliser in order to promote flowering then you need a mix that is bias toward potassium. Be careful when applying a biased mix like this that you don't over fertilise the tree as a potassium rich soil can be as damaging as a potassium deficient one.

Quick question: Is this a recently planted tree or an established one? If it's relatively newly planted tree then you may need to wait a number of years anyway for it to reach sexual maturity in order for it to flower anyway. Feeding it before it reaches flowering stage will be useless.

 

I put it in the ground before winter last year it's dropped a few leaves but seems otherwise in good health

 

I do not feed it. And I have tons of blooms each year.

 

I have never heard of feeding them if they are in the ground.