Fertiliser Cakes for Bonsai

Fertilizer cakes

It has been a strange summer weatherwise on the Central Coast of NSW. Humid, lots of storms and rain with wide fluctuations of temperature. Not a great growing season for bonsai but my trees have grown nicely, assisted by these soybean fertilizer cakes. Joe Morgan-Payler gave me his recipe while here demonstrating in September so I have used them all season.

Joe Morgan-Payler is a great bonsai demonstrator. He has the ability to impart knowledge to the beginner and the advanced bonsai artist in the same session and he is very generous in sharing his knowledge. Thanks for the recipe Joe.

Fertilizer cakes for Bonsai from Joe Morgan-Payler

10 cups blood and bone

10 cups soy bean meal ( or any high protein meal)

½ cup molasses to help bacteria breakdown

Mixed up with Charlie carp or seaweed extract to make to a paste – approx. 3 litre

4  teaspoons trace elements

Mix up and leave sit for 24 hours or longer to soak up the moisture and start to ferment.

Scoop out with ½ size ice cream scoop and dry in the sun on a large boards. You can also put the dry ingredients in  fabric tea bags that you can buy from Dyso (Presoak in the wet ingredients prior to application..

May need to compact down a bit more so holds together well.Put a little thumb indent in the top of each cake to hold and allow water to penetrate.

Dry on a board in the sun for a few days, turning over to dry thoroughly.Store in airtight container.

Place two on each bonsai, in opposing corners of the pot. 2 weeks later add another  two fertiliser cakes to different corners/sides and so on. On a developing tree you may end up with the soil surface completely covered after a few months where as you may want to reduce the amount used on more developed trees to maintain the finer ramification.

PS          1. This can get very smelly if you leave the wet mixture sit too  long.

2. Dogs and bush rats adore these cakes and will eat them off your pots.
3. Blowflies also love them when they are drying in the sun