Fertilizer spikes vs granular fertilizer - crape myrtles and little gem magnolia trees

I scatter whatever general fertilizer I have on hand around the drip line of the foliage. Only downside is that it dis-colors mulch.

If you want to try the spikes without spending the money, drive something large into the ground (railroad spike, etc) and pour fertilizer into the hole.

I used to fertilize our Pecans when they were younger. Used 13-13-13. Bought it in 20 pound bag. Took a sharpshooter shovel, shoved it down into the dirt, pushed it forward without removing it to make a deep pocket, then put about a cup or so of fertilizer granules behind shovel and then pulled shovel out. Used to do about 10-12 around the tree about 3 feet apart at the edge of the canopy.. When the trees got bigger I just kept moving out toward the edge of the canopy and ended up with 20 to 30 spots before I finally stopped fertilizing them.

Sooooo much cheaper and it seemed to be more effective than those stakes.

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Why would you want to fertilize either?

Crepe Myrtles grow like weeds and magnolias, pretty much the same.

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I would like to speed up the growth rate as well as make the flowers on the crape myrtles more abundant and deeper in color.