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'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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Posted by idahobiker (My Page) on Sat, Jun 7, 08 at 16:32
Lost My Rose Food "Recipe"...HELP!
My "Recipe" Used: Osmokote, Alphafa Meal, Bone Meal, Blood Meal, Epson Salts, But Can't Remember The Prescribed Amounts to Use for the "Mix"?? Can Anyone Help Me??
My Roses Love this Stuff, and I use to Mix up enough for Doing ALL My Roses. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: 'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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i use a small hand full of alfala tea and a small handfull of Rose-tone around each bush, all of them. they are both organic and seem to work well . I do this once in the spring and then around June/July. i use about half of what the boxes say to use. Then I put about a small spoon of epsom salt on the feed. i do not make my own anymore. i found I used way too much stuff and bags and throw away things. I now have three bags and I use them gingerly and they last a year. I have found through the years that if you start with great soil that is 80% of the trip.
Here is an article about an elderly woman in San Fransisco. she fertilizes with fish. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2000/05/03/green.DTL Happy growing,
rosa |
RE: 'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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| Check the label on that Rose=Tone. Yes, it incudes some organic ingredients but also has a variety of chemical fertilizers. I thnk the labelling is a little deceptive. You can use their Plant-Tone instead; last I looked it was completely organic. If you compare Rose-Tone with Mills Magic Mix you will be struck by how different the two products look and smell! If you search on the forum for "Amy'd recipe" you'll find she has a good mix; rather than (chemical) Osmocote she uses Milorganite, which is dried sewage sludge. |
RE: 'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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The "recipe" for growing roses is the same as that for growing any other plant, a soil well endowed with organic matter that is evenly moist and well drained. A good reliable soil test from a lab recommended by your state universtities USDA Cooperative Extension Service can be of great help in getting the soil nutrients in balance and using these simple soil tests to get to know your soil,
1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. |
RE: 'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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| idahobiker, is this what you're looking for? |
Here is a link that might be useful: Roser Fertilizer Recipie
RE: 'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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As with any other "fertilizer" this on pretty much depends on the soil Food Web to make the nutrients available to the plants and if there is not enough organic matter in the soil to have an active Soil Food Web none of those nutrients will reach the plant. If you have sufficient levels of organic matter in the soil, and therefore, and active Soil Food Web then adding this, or any other "fertilizer" will really do nothing except cause a gardener to spend money not needed.
Get your soil into a good healthy condition and "fertilizers" will not be needed. |
RE: 'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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| rose tone is completely organic, they changed the product recently. |
RE: 'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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| kimmsr, you must have to add something to feed the microorganisms or when they deplete what's there, they'll starve. Your soil has been building to its current level of fertility for 35 years. The rest of us have to start from scratch to get to where you are. To say feeding the soil is a waste of money is not effective or helpful. We are wanting to have healthy soil but snapping our fingers won't make it happen. *** Get your soil into a good healthy condition and... That's exactly what we're interested in. My sand has been improving my adding these organic ingredients for 2 years. I'm sure if I stopped, they would be used up, and my garden would quickly revert to Florida sand because all organic activity will have ceased when the organic matter runs out. What gets used up has to be replenished. Maybe down the road that depletion process will slow, but I can't imagine it stopping altogether. Living expends energy which without replenishment won't be life for very long. Where am I wrong? Sherry |
RE: 'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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| What the Soil Food Web lives on is the organic matter you add. No organic matter no Soil Food Web and plants that do not grow strong and healthy better able to withstand plant diseases and insect pests. If you do not have sufficient levels of organic matter in your soil depending on synthetic, or even "organic", fertilizers would be very much like you depending on drugs to keep you alive. |
RE: 'RECIPE' for Rose Food
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Here is a recipe for rose food from the Rosarian magazine, probably 40 years ago.
1 TBS epsom salts
2 cups perlite
1 handful milorganite(wear gloves)
1/2 cup bone meal
1/2 cup alfalfa pellets
1/2 cup fish meal(leave out if you have cats or dogs)
1 TBS greensand
use 1 recipe per rose in early spring |
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