WHICH FERTILIZER TO USE FOR ROSES?
A recurring question and an important answer to know. Roses are greedy, they need a lot of nutrients to bloom and grow. Especially when you grow them in pots they need extra food and attention.
I can't repeat it enough: USE ORGANIC ROSE FERTILIZER. It stimulates the soil with good bacteria and it slowly releases nutrients. There's almost no chance of burning your plants when giving them organic fertilizer.
Every package of rose fertilizer that hasn't explicitly got the ORGANIC word on the label is chemical and must be discarded. But even if it says ORGANIC ROSE FERTILIZER you need to check its NPK (Nitrogen /Phosphorus /Kalium)
Organic fertilizer will always have less than 10. So if you see NPK 4/8/7 for example it's safe and good to use. Often they add extra magnesium for better blooms. If you see an NPK of let's say 16/12/13 it's chemical and dangerous to use. Latest research has shown that the Mycorhizza fungi die when artificial fertilizer is used and the Mycorhizza fungi is our biggest asset in growing beautiful roses.
So how many organic fertilizer do we give to our roses and when do we start with this? Always buy granulated organic rose fertilizer, it's easier to give and to measure. In March we start fertilizing ALL our roses
A big handful of granulated organic fertilizer per rose. Don't throw it all in one pile but spread it around the base of the rose but not further than one foot or 30 cm. We repeat this each month and we keep doing this till August so once a month from March till August. If it doesn't rain your fertilizer won't get absorbed by the roots so when it's dry water your roses each week so the granules get dissolved. Give plenty of water to each rose and don't wet the leaves, give directly around the base of the rose where the fertilizer is.
So now you know what kind of fertilizer you need to buy for roses in plain soil and you know how much and when you need to feed them. Roses in pots however need extra food. A lot of the nutrients drain away with every gift of water so we need to keep the levels high. Like their sisters and brothers in plain soil we feed our pot roses end of March and end of June. A good handful of organic granulated fertilizer. But we're gonna give them extra. Every week you give them a gift of water with liquid organic fertilizer. Which one? An organic tomato feed is excellent but also liquid organic kelp fertilizer is very good. Always read the label to know how much you can give per week.
We give this extra weekly liquid feed for our pots till the end of August.
After August we don't feed anymore. Why? Because if we keep feeding our roses they keep growing and the new wood hasn't got the time to ripen before winter so this wood is very susceptible for frost and will die easily.
Also I want to stress out that Organic mulch like dried cow manure or garden compost isn't a fertilizer! It makes your soil much healthier but it can't replace fertilizer. So give your roses a mulch with organic material in October.
I hope now it's clear which fertilizer you have to buy and how to use it.
A good organic tomato feed with good NPK
Poison in a bottle. Don't use fertilizer combined with chemicals
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