Both my shohin Japanese and Trident maples appear to have an iron deficiency this spring. They’ve been fertilized well, but never treated with iron. A local bonsai artist mentioned to me recently that he generally gets burn when using chelated iron. He has since switched to the current method used by the Japanese—rusty old nails. Just space the nails evenly around the pot and their rusting provides a slow, even amount of iron to the root system. I tend to learn the hard way, so I decided to treat my trees with the chelated iron. We’ll see how they’re affected. If I see positive results, I will likely treat the rest of the crew.
