Fertilizing Japanese Maples

A low dose of a time-release fertilizer may be beneficial to your Japanese Maple particularly if your tree is being kept in a pot. Avoid using liquid fertilizer. Liquid fertilizers like MiracleGro may shock the tree with too much Nitrogen. Since Japanese maples are slow-growing they can not process large amounts of Nitrogen. Japanese Maples prefer more of a continuous low dose of fertilizer during spring and summer. An example of this would be Osmocote 3-4 Month Slow Release 14-14-14. Only fertilize your trees in the spring or early summer. Fertilizing in late summer or fall is never a good idea.  It is always tempting to give your new tree lots of fertilizer but with Japanese Maples, less is more. If your tree is planted in the ground in good soil it is better not to fertilize at all than to over-fertilize. In fact, most trees planted in the ground do just fine without added fertilizer.