This rugged, robust and well-fed Rocky Mountain juniper belongs to Michael Hagedorn

Quiz: If we were to fertilize everything the same, strongly, starting early in the year, what would happen?
The young trees would stay forever young
The old, developed trees would become young again.”
Quoted from Michael Hagedorn (the whole quote is below)

This is not the first time we’ve encouraged you to tend to your bonsai’s nutrient needs, and it won’t be the last. To make this point we've got trees and a quote (below) by Michael Hagedorn, a expert on all things bonsai (though I think Michael's modesty would keep him from thinking, let alone saying such a thing). 

Bonsai do not survive on water, light, and love alone. Because most bonsai soil has very low nutritive value (if any), your bonsai depend on you for timely feeding.
Continued below...

 Another rugged, robust and well-fed tree by Michael Hagedorn. It's a Ponderosa pine with Japanese black pine foliage that Michael grafted

Feed generously if you want your bonsai to thrive (this is especially true of younger trees where rapid growth is desirable – see the quote from Michael just below). The best way to do this is frequent moderate doses during the growing season. This is especially true if you use liquid fertilizer. With pellets and cakes, how often you apply them depends on how they break down (more on this in part two of this series).

Note: What follows (in italics) is a part of a post by Michael Hagedorn that we originally posted years ago. It’s from Michael’s famous Crataegus Bonsai blog
“For fertilizing bonsai, we can make this one basic distinction: Begin fertilizing a young, unrefined tree when it begins growing early in the spring. Wait a bit with an older, refined tree—usually begin fertilizing when it’s just hardening off it’s spring growth…
Quiz: If we were to fertilize everything the same, strongly, starting early in the year, what would happen?
The young trees would stay forever young
The old, developed trees would become young again.”

Michael Hagedorn's hand showing off healthy well-fed juniper foliage

Just in case you need to fortify your fertilizer supply (we recommend using more than one type) all of our fertilizers are currently marked down

Stay tuned for part 2 on feeding your bonsai