North Facing impatiens under porch

18 years ago

I'm a newbie to this forum and just joined. After reading many great posts on impatiens, I thought I would ask this question.

We have 16 hanging pots of impatiens under our north facing front porch. I planted the small Home Depot variety plants in 10" pots myself, and initially watered with Miracle Grow. After about 1-1/2 weeks some of the plants are doing pretty very well. Others are growing with some flowers and buds but not great.

The ones that aren't growing well are the ones that receive no direct or filtered sunlight. The best ones are the plants that receive a few hours of morning or late afternoon sun (corners of porch).

Is there anything I can do to help the plants that don't receive any sun? I thought about rotating the plants between locations, but I don't know if that would be more harmful than just letting them stay where they're at. I'm also going to switch to a balanced fertilizer such as 10-10-10 next time I fertilize (about once a month is my plan).

Thanks for any suggestions.

Dave

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Comments (5)

MrImpatiens
18 years ago
Imps do like some light. Moving them around would help. Maybe a fertilizer that is stronger in the bloom area, for those not blooming so well.
davidpj
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks. What type of fertilizer would be stronger in the bloom area?
MrImpatiens
18 years ago
I weuld use Osmacote its a pellete type, gives a slow release for several months.
davidpj
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks again. Since there are several types of Osmacote, which do you think would be best for my application? I'm thinking a 13-13-13 or 14-14-14.
davidpj
Original Author
18 years ago
Just following up on my original post. Thanks to all you here my impatiens are doing quite well under the porch. Here are my lessons learned (and still learning):

Osmocote (14-14-14) helped immensely
Don't overwater.
All 16 pots cannot be on the same watering schedule.
Some pots receive full sun, partial sun, no sun.
The pots facing east (morning sun) and the west (afternoon sun) are doing the best.
The pots that receive next to no direct sun are the least full and are the smallest, but they are flowering.
The pots on the west side are getting leggy and will require pinching soon.
The west side pots tend to wither a little from the direct last afternoon sun, but they bounce back in the evening.
Only water when needed!

My only question at the moment is when should I apply more Osmocote? It claims to last 4 months, but is this realistic? Thanks.
Dave