Acer feed

Hi i have 4 maple acers in pots, not done well this year, but a friend of mine gave me a bottle of liquid acer feed, but i am confused, the dose is 20ml feed to 6litres water, so do i give the full 6 liters to one plant only, my acers are rather sparse and crispy leaves for some reason this year, think it prob the weather, so thought i would give a good feed but confused with dosing, my acers are well established
Any advice appreciated
Thanks

 

Feed is not necessarily the answer.
If a plant is poorly you should let it recover before feeding.
If the leaves are crispy as it's either getting too much sun or is in a frequent draught, so it's best to sort that out if you can, even if it's just during mid-summer.

You don't need to give the full 6L to each plant unless it's in a big pot.
It may be best to water with plain water first to moisten the compost, then use the feed and give enough so that you can see it coming from the bottom of the pot.
Liquid seaweed extract about once a month during the growing season will suit them very well as a complete feed and always use rainwater if you can unless your tap water is soft.

Hope they recover

 

Thankyou, good advice, i hope they recover too, had them about 12 years now grown from babies, lol

 

Sorry being newbie, hope i replied correctly.

 

Sorry being newbie, hope i replied correctly.

 

You did
Welcome to the forum

 

The only feeding my acers get is either a top up of soil (or some soil exchanged) or a nice mulch. Your acers look nicer than most and the only real observation I would make is to take a look at the pots. Acers in pots can quickly fill them with root and that means there isn't much soil to hold on to moisture. They may need potting on to larger pots (a couple of inches larger in diameter) or you may want to look up root pruning.

The dosage of feeds is confusing but it's basically the amount you are better off diluting it in. The old way of little and often works best but they don't really need it unless the compost is exhausted, which is why a spring mulch/soil addition helps.

 

Thankyou for that, i did wonder about repotting, although done this 2 years ago, not sure about the roots, but on one acer they are quite solid on top of soil, when i water take a while to soak in, so yes i think i got some thinking to do, as i said they have suffered a bit this year, very sparse in middle too. Thankyou for your advice.

 

Thankyou for that, i did wonder about repotting, although done this 2 years ago, not sure about the roots, but on one acer they are quite solid on top of soil, when i water take a while to soak in, so yes i think i got some thinking to do, as i said they have suffered a bit this year, very sparse in middle too. Thankyou for your advice.

 

I've never fed Acers either, and I have some in pots just now. The most they might get is a liquid seaweed feed if they're staying in the pots. They're very easy in the ground and need nothing other than water. The amount you would use to feed simply depends on how much the plant needs to hydrate it, so you would just dilute at the recommended rate and use as many cans as it takes to ensure the container is well dampened. It's often a good idea to water them a few hours earlier, or the previous evening, just to ensure the soil mix is damp, and then do the watering with the feed. If the soil is dry, your feed will just pass through and be wasted. The dense foliage at this time of year can mean the plants can be very dry unless you have regular, decent rainfall that gets through it.
As already said by @Pete8 , if you get any crispy foliage, that's usually down to a bit too much sun, and/or drying winds, which can happen easily in summer.
I think they look pretty good though!

 

thankyou