Veronica Read recommends 14:10:27 in her book 'Hippeastrum: The Gardners Amaryllis".

Sorry,

The ratio of that is 1.4-1-2.7, it also needs micro nutrients! I haven't been able to find a fertilizer with that exact same ratio but I assume that getting as close as you can will be benefitial! You don't want too much nitrogen in Hippeastrum (the first number), you want the last number to be the highest(potassium) as this promotes bulb and root growth.

Josh

hb2-

Vigoro makes a Palm & Ixora slow release food that is 6-5-12.

I'm planning on trying alfalfa tea on hipps this year to see how the growth hormones that are supposed to be in the alfalfa works. Never tried molasses; I thought it was used primarily to condition soil.

How does the alfalfa work on you other plants?

Mike

I use 1/4 dosage per instructions of my orchid fertilizer and water this with every session. Of course, I grow things hydroponically. Its also a urea-free composition-- phals build up urea and it becomes toxic. No idea if that helps the hippies, but I've had great success with this. I don't know the ratios off hand-- will post later if you're interest.

DR

I use a standart balanced fertilizer in a very small concentration all year round. It's called Compo complete and has a ratio of 6+4+6(+2), does any of you know if the high amount of magnesium (2% MgO) is a problem?

We are going to the coast this morning, I hope I can find the fertilizer that josh recommended down there. I am taking 1/3 of the bulbs, to plant outside. I will take the ones that are blooming true to the label, per previous post.
Alfa meal and dried molasses is what Bob Webster recommended that we add to our flowerbeds. I listen to his radio show every Sunday, and call and ask questions. He said that it provides food for micro organisms, and helps build healthy living soil. It has done wonders for our yard. My husband uses it on the grass, and I use in my sugar sand flowerbeds. My daylilies and hibiscus are still in full bloom, it has really made a diffrence in my plants. I bought a small papillio bulb on line last year, and planted it. Last week when I was adding mulch to the plumeria tree next to it, I noticed all these little shoots coming out the side. I posted on the brugmansia forum, asking about it. Karyn, posted they were called off sets, I will have 8 new bulbs, I believe that the alfa meal is what helped that little bulb produce all these new shoots. Barbra

Nitrogen from ammonia is also bad for Hippeastrum as well, nitrogen from urea and ammonia are only used by plants after bacteria can break them down, in pot culture with bulbs especially this bacteria is bad! I've heard a few call it "Feeding The Bacteria That Feed On Our Bulbs".

Sadly it's really hard to find a fertlizer with the majority of nitrogen from nitrate sources, especially with the correct ratio! ;)

GrowMore for Phaleanopsis...eesssss....or would it be Phaleanopsi? LOL Anyway, the balance is 20-10-20 and it has copper, iron, mag and zinc as well. Orchids are sensitive to the micro nutrients but are essential. Anyway, like I said... 1/4th the recommended dosage and it works great.

DR

Josh, why is nitrogen from ammonia bad? I know plants can take up nitrogen as NO3- AND NH4+, but they have to release H+ to take up ammonia and thus acidify the soil.

I just saw that my fertilizer is made up from 4,5% nitrate and 1,5% ammonia. I guess that's not so bad.

Nitrogen from ammonia is very largely influenced by temperature on how it's taken in by the plant, it also feeds the fungi and pathogens that harm your bulb as well.. Nitrogen from nitrate is better absorbed by the plant, here is a quote taken from PBS lists

"In Narcissus poeticus (Vickery et al, 1946, cited in Rees) they found that
the plant tissue analyzed as follows:

Bulbs grown on nitrate as source of nitrogen, 15.9 g N per 50 bulbs
Bulbs grown on ammonium as source of nitrogen, 14.0 g per 50 bulbs."

A quick look at my fertilizers made clear to me why i've been having such average to poor results with my hippies, Eucharis, Hymenocallis and lillies lately....
I used Miracle Grow that is NPK 20 20 20... oh, dear.... and it gets even worse... the one i've been using the last months (also Miracle Grow) is NPK 18-9-11....

I gotta have a fertilizer with more pottasium. In fact, i have just ordered Canna's PK 10 10 (has no nitrogen) I think i will alternate both a normal (no miracle grow) fertilizer for indoor plants (half dosis or less) when it's important that they get leaves after blooming and the other the rest of the time (also half dosis or so) to encorage flowering, and bulb/root grow. I hope it works....
They have here also DMC's fertlizer for bulbs it has NPK 7-4-9 + 3 MgO, is organic too (so they say) I want to try this one some day, but this one is not available in liquid form. I would hav to mix some with the container soil.
Could magnesium in DMC's fertilizer be a problem for hippeastrum plants?

I use orchid food half strengthor 20-20-20 half strength.

666 was used in the field trials of hippeastrum for new hybrids in south Florida by the Univ. of Florida in the 1980s & 1990s. It is a low nitrate SLOW RELEASE fertilizer with micronutrients. I noticed that the most growth is after bloom stage when the new leaves come out and new roots grow old roots grow longer and bulbs get their larger size. This occurs in the first 1.5 to 2months after bloom. I only recommend putting a half tsp on top of the soil immediately around each bulb under the loose leaf mulch (not composted). If you use more than this it will go into your soil eventually to the aquifer very fast if you have sandy soils like we have in Florida. I do not dig it in. The bulbs do not need much fertilizer. This is for out door plants.

For potted indoor hippeastrum use 10 inch pots(for root depth) and half sand in your mix. Use rocks or styrofoam peanuts in the bottom with a few stiff leaves to keep the sand from sinking around the rocks for good drainage and more air under the roots. Use 1/8 teaspoon 666 on top of your pot 4 times a year a water from the top nit the saucer once every three weeks. Bill
f you plant in pots,

i started using alfalfa meal tea on my plants this yr
and they love it..everything..vegys,tropicals..and of course my amaryllis..
i use a water soluable 6:4:12 fertilizer.. 1/2 dose..i add my alfalfa meal tea,and a little pinch of kelp powder..
my papillo didnt bloom this summer..but sure are putting
out nice leaves..and bulbs have plumped up nicely..:)
so..hoping this fall i'll get the blooms..

So Bill talks about a 6-6-6 fertilizer. I was able to find 4-4-4 today. Jobe's organic all purpose I believe is the name. It also has calcium, magnesium, sulfur, and bacteria colony forming units of numerous kinds of bacteria.

Sounds pretty good to me. In the spring my pots get hit with the fertilizer from the Bayer 3 in 1 to last them through the summer. I don't fertilize with each watering as they are on their own sprikler zone on a timer and watered 3 times a week for 10 minutes. Seems to have only gotten better since this year I increased the coverage with a second head.

OH...back to the fertilizer question. So, since this is 4-4-4 would I use 50% more to deliver the same as what's in a 6-6-6?

Thanks!
K

since this is 4-4-4 would I use 50% more to deliver the same as what's in a 6-6-6?

Curiously asking,wouldn't the 4 4 4 NPK also need to have 75 % less micros available to use 50% more in comparison ratios to the micros of 6 6 6 ?

Oh... Good point. Don't want to overdose on micronutrients. Hmmm well, will apply 444 as directed. 666 sounds ominous!
K

The companies I bought my new amaryllis bulbs from (actually I bought them from 3 different companies as an experiment) all said to use tomato plant fertilizer on the amaryllis.

I read somewhere you can use Rose Fertilizer. I grow in the ground in Florida and have rose bushes and sprinkle some rose food around the bulbs.

Jane

I have been looking around for fertilizers that match the recommendations on this thread, and found one: Better-Gro Controlled Release Orchid and Houseplant Plant Food, 11-11-18. It is also said to include essential "minor elements". I've already potted up all my amaryllises for the year and there's fertilizer (ordinary Osmocote plus either bone meal or "super phosphate" with its additional trace elements) in the pots, or I'd have gotten this, I think.

I have some Jack's Palm fertilizer around. It's 16-5-25. I'll probably start using that in about 3 months (weakly), since the slow-release Osmocote will be depleted by then. The bone meal will persist and bump the middle number, and the big K number might help. This is very unscientific and I can't possibly keep records, but it will be interesting to see how bulb development goes over the summer, with a higher K number. I always thought it was all about P.

It's not a great idea to do as I did, and act like fertilizing is like making soup: put in what you think will taste good. I don't recommend it at all! It's just kind of what I'm stuck with this year.

Joan

I just want to add a comment for the poor souls like me who live up here (upstate NY) where it's cold and gray and the sun rarely makes an appearance. We generally only grow them for the holidays and then discard the bulb. If this is your world, it is best to never feed the amaryllis.

coir products contain K, so that is one way to up K without fertilizers. I add coir dust (coir peat) and coir chips to my mix and also i line the pot with a thin layer of coir matting. roots love it: i always see them nice and fat when i unpot.

Thanks for the scoop Petrushka. It seems like coconut is good for everything.

i just picked up Better-Gro Controlled Release Orchid and Houseplant Plant Food, 11-11-18.

it is also recommended for broms. I am going to try it! it's slow release granules.

this is the guy from the far north with no sun and no warmth. i bought 3 amaryllis "kits" for about 7 bucks each in the beginning of November. and another one early december. I used no fertilizer, just water. One was blooming in very early December and I have had amaryllis blooms ever since. I just had a new stem begin blooming a couple days ago and I have a surprise third stem coming up on an Apple Blossom that I thought was done. It's only an inch or two tall so far and is almost hidden by foliage but it's growing. Anyway I thought some may want to know that it is possible to get these amaryllis guys going with just water. Maybe the coir does it since each kit had the coir disks. Incidentally they all received good light. 3 were in a big bank of north facing windows and one was in a south facing window that has a 4 1/2 foot overhang in front of it. Good luck and, Petrushka, please let us know how you do with the Better-Go.

@Alan Baumann

you just bought a new bulb, so of course it can bloom even in water. sometimes they bloom even dry, not planted. it uses bulb resourses and exhausts it.

we are talking here re-bloom for many seasons, so for that you need to feed them.

and, oh by the way...i am in NJ and been reblooming my bulbs for like 8 years ...but! i do put them outside on the balcony in part sun. your season is shorter, but still it is possible.

I am sure we have posters here from all places north.

there are only a few varieties that you can buy cheaply to discard after flowering. most sought after bulbs are shipped by order and are quite expensive. nobody would dream of discarding them...

are they worth paying more for? As I said, I get probably a month of blooms from each amaryllis but I have not tried to keep them for the following year. So I end up paying about 7 bucks a year for each amaryllis. Should I keep them?

Stunning.

Thank you, Alan.

But back to the "best fertilizer" question. I also grow African violets and orchids, fairly seriously. Both are rather picky (why else would I bother). Some of the best advice I've gotten from the related communities is that what the best fertilizer is depends very much upon what you're starting with. And I've also experienced the results of not taking that into account: the decline of a very sensitive AV that is my canary in the coal mine, that's been fed on spring-fed lake water (very neutral but likely lacking in micronutrients) plus a formula that claimed to be "African Violet Fertilizer." My spring-fed lake water is probably not far from reverse-osmosis water. In any case, it likely lacks the micronutrients that are present in well water or perhaps "city" water, depending on the city. Some get it from wells. Others get it from rivers. In other words, there are many possible variables.

In short, to determine your best fertilizer, you need to know what's already in your plant's environment, or at least make a darned good guess based on effects on your plants, and adjust appropriately, hopefully in time.

This might sound discouraging. The up side is that after years of not knowing anything about most of this, most of my amaryllis bulbs at least are still going great guns, and rewarding me hugely, year after year. The challenge is how to help them do even better. I'm up for it.

If AV care is an issue for you, then I have a suggestion. There is a place in Naples, New York (just across the state from me) called Violet Barn. It is where I buy all my AVs and fertilizer and the results are really really good. I was skeptical about the fertillizer they sell because it says nothing about AVs but I bought some as an experiment. The results proved my skepticism to be unfounded. My AVs have done better than ever and I live in Rochester, NY which is where Kodak, which used to be a company, is located, some say because it is the world"s largest natural darkroom (we get no sunshine). Anyway my AVs seem to be almost constantly in bloom.

Take care of those amaryllis; I'm jealous.

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the tip. I'm aware of Violet Barn, and some of my plants actually come from there.

There are lots of articles about AV fertilizers. Again, it depends on what's in your soil/water already.

I sort of know Rochester: my college roommate was from there, and I went and stayed with her family over a couple of holidays. I must've gotten lucky, as I remember some milky-bright days, and having high tea (they were old-fashioned British background on holidays anyway) in the back garden the day after Thanksgiving, one year in the 1970s. Good times.

Small and interesting world, isn't it? Did you ever check to see what they were putting in your "high" tea? That may have been why the sky was bright.

My hippes do well on Miracle Gro shake n feed. I use the one for tomatoes. the ratio is 10-5-15. Cheaper than Osmocote and works as well I think. Just a bit on the top of the soil twice or 3 times a year does wonders. My pink surprise bloomed twice last year on it (late summer and then in the spring).