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gardenbear1

organic rose fertilizer

gardenbear1
9 years ago

My gardens are organic and want to keep it that way, I've add some new roses to the gardens after 10 yrs, I want would like to feed them but not sure what to use that is really organic,once they start to grow I want to grow them like I do all my other roses in a rich organic soil.

Thanks for any and all help you can give me.

Bear

Comments (20)

  • strawchicago z5
    9 years ago

    Hi Bear: I love your username, short & easy. My should had chosen "Straw" as my user-name.

    Safest organic is a bag of Hummus & manure at the store, sold for $1.49 per bag, just spread it around roses, but make a "well" around the trunk, so water can be collected in the middle.

    Chickitity doo-doo is cheap, but high in nitrogen & salt, best used in the spring or winter right before the ground freeze. I won't use that during hot summer.

    Since your zone is 6 MA ... most soil there is acidic. If you have blue hydrangea, that means your soil is acidic. Bag of Hummus & manure for $1.49 is the safest way.

    Good luck on your roses .. I would love to see your pics. too. Thanks in advance.

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    9 years ago

    I had a professional soil test done that revealed everything was ok with our soil. (PH/Nutrients/etc.)
    Our soil has some clay and holds nutrients decent and retains water decently.

    So I have stopped using any type of store bought fertilizer but I still spread cold homemade compost around our roses in the Spring and Fall.
    They say roses are heavy feeders but I found with our soil and just using compost they still bloom well without using store bought fertilizers.

    I do not fertilize first year roses.

    (If you need or want to use fertilizer on first year roses)
    Personally I would only use a organic liquid fertilizer on first year roses after they have bloomed. Like maybe a organic fish/kelp fertilizer or something.

    Sometimes we must experiment to see what works best for us in our own gardens...

    So please consider all opinions and see what works best for you...

    Best of luck!

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    9 years ago

    I have also used the Humus & Manure bags Strawberryhill speaks about some years with good results.
    I've also used dehydrated Manure in bags which costs around $6.99 around here at times.

  • strawchicago z5
    9 years ago

    Hi Bear: I found a useful link today which shows pictures of nutritional deficiency in plants, using tomato's leaves. The site is quite accurate. My soil is heavy alkaline clay, pH 7.7, with a layer of yellowish limestone at the bottom.

    A few of my tomatoes have brownish spots around the stems .. I always cut off the upper part of tomato, before serving. Now I realize it's boron deficiency. Will have to put more chicken manure after it's done raining. Chicken manure is high in boron, zinc, and copper.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Nutritional deficiency symptoms

  • strawchicago z5
    9 years ago

    Hi Bear: You have acidic sandy soil, right? Magnesium is often deficient in sandy soil, along with calcium. If you look at the below nutritional chart by Cornell University, at pH 6, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, and manganese are less available. Animal manures have plenty of such nutrients.

    My soil is heavy clay, dolomitic limestone, very sticky, at pH 7.7. EarthCo. tested my soil to be exceedingly HIGH in magnesium. Magnesium is what makes clay sticky & heavy, and mud-like. I got some clay stuck at the back of my plastic slippers, can't get it off unless I pry with a knife.

    Here is a link that might be useful: What's less availabe at what pH level.

  • strawchicago z5
    9 years ago

    This site by the University of Arizona has an excellent picture that shows the difference between magnesium deficiency vs. manganese & iron and zinc, see below:

    It's the most organized and useful site, since it outlines how to treat nutrient-deficiencies in plants:

    Here is a link that might be useful: Symptoms of plant deficiencies & how to treat

  • seaweed0212
    9 years ago

    I have a few tomato plants, ate 2 of yellow Taxi, Heirloom tomatoes already. They are healthy, grow nicely, and taste sweet too. I use Kellogg's natural & organic for tomato, vegetable and herb. In case some of us want to grow tomato, Heirloom is my favorite choice. The fertilizer info, N:P:K 4:6:3, in percentage, plus mycorrhizae and beneficial bacteria.

    Below is a bouquet from my garden, picked this Sunday, a group of four each Janet (an Austin rose) and Blue Girl rose:

    This post was edited by seaweed0212 on Sun, Jun 22, 14 at 18:37

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    9 years ago

    What source do you use to obtain Heirloom tomatoes Seaweed?
    Our area has serious blight problems (leaves and tomatoes turn black) whether tomatoes are in the ground or in a large container using a potting mix they get it. So I usually buy certain hybrids which grow real well here without getting any fungus diseases.

    But I'm willing to try a Heirloom tomato plant next year.
    I do not spray though...

    PS Your roses look great Seaweed! :-)

    This post was edited by jim1961 on Sun, Jun 22, 14 at 19:19

  • seaweed0212
    9 years ago

    Thank you Strawberryhill for uploading this photo from my email, Janet has the pink blend hue and lavender BG. All fresh cut early morning today!

  • strawchicago z5
    9 years ago

    Hi Jim: I got curious about "tomato blight" so I googled for pictures. We don't have that problem in my limestone clay. I had tomato-blossom-end-rot last year in the rock-hard-alkaline clay, but I fixed it this year with plenty of gypsum.

    I checked for "blight-resistant" varieties, but those have to be ordered as seeds. Meijers has the largest selection of Bonnie's Heirloom tomatoes.

    Calcium, see below, helps with blossom-end-rot. I don't mulch my tomatoes either, just bare dirt. I wonder if sprinkle a bit of lime-powder would help with blight? Today I cut a spray of Annie L. McDowell, grown right next to the patio (based with white limestone). It was dark in the evening, so I accidentally snipped a bud ... amazingly the stem was so tough, that my scissor didn't harm it.

    Below is my back yard tomato bed. I also have larger bed in front ... originally I intended for roses, but the deer kept eating, so I planted tomatoes. Picture taken June 19, they were planted as babies 1st week of June.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Bonnie's tip to conquer blossom end rot

    This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sun, Jun 22, 14 at 22:48

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    9 years ago

    Hi Straw, I also have bare dirt under our tomato plants.
    A few years ago our state started having our tomato plants wiped out by late blight...

    Here is a link that might be useful: Info on our blight

  • seaweed0212
    9 years ago

    Hi, Jim1961
    Mother's Kitchen, Costa Mesa, CA has been carrying variety of Heirloom tomato, one foot plant for $1.99, last year, I had plenty (at least 30), enough to share with friends, it was Cherokee purple, grew them in the big pot with organic soil, using same Kellogg's organic fertilizer for tomato, vegetable and herb, few times, good from early spring till summer, this year yellow Taxi & Black Krim, Home Depot also sell Heirloom tomato, my favorite kind, juicy & sweeter. Enjoying growing your tomato!

  • seaweed0212
    9 years ago

    Dear Straw, may I call you this nickname? Sounds cute!
    Your group of tomatoes are so healthy and green, I eat few tomato, practical for growing in the pot last year as well as this year, I add 2 fresh tomato, home grown bay leaves, garlic, sweet onion and spinach for my own black bean pasta, it is my own gluten free dish. I do not add salt, pepper or sugar, tomato is sweet enough. It is good that we talk about tomato besides roses, I do not buy chemicals to spray my garden. Heirloom tomato is easy to grow, have sticks to support the vines, no bug, organic tomato, tasty and healthy. You have also Black Krim, it will be fun to see the comparison with photos taken when it is ready.

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    9 years ago

    Thanks for info Seaweed! I'll try to locate a Heirloom tomato plant next year to try.

  • strawchicago z5
    9 years ago

    Hi Seaweed: With the exception of Early Girl and Super-sweet cherry tomatoes ... all my tomato are Heirloom varieties: 3 Black Krim, 1 Black Prince, 1 Cherokee Purple, 2 Sunsugar, 1 Pineapple, 1 Champion, 1 Seedless, 1 Celebrity (yellow), 1 Chocolate cherry ... plus others that I forget the names.

    When I first grew Annie L. McDowell, it gave me lavender-blooms with acidic potting soil, plus horse manure (black & composted). Now it's pink near my limestone patio. I tried dunking in a blue-dyed solution, it was BAD-looking, so I threw the entire cluster away. But I kept Radio Times rose to show the effect of blue dye on the bloom: only the fringe changed color, very ugly:

  • strawchicago z5
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    I brought this thread up since Seaweed's Austin Rose Janet is fantastic looking ... I want to buy that rose in the future. Also to re-post this info. for Jim: " If you look at the below nutritional chart by Cornell University, at pH 6, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, and manganese are less available. Animal manures have plenty of such nutrients."

    Correction: I already tested cow-manure (high in salt & phosphorus), it was a disaster, my clean roses (for 3 years) broke out in black spots immediately. Salt and phosphorus induce black spots, since HIGH phosphorus make copper and zinc less available, and those 2 are the strongest anti-fungal agents.

    I dug up La Reine rose since it's the only BS-fest in my garden, while others are 100% clean. Why? I put tons of Encap-dry-compost ($2 per bag at Menards), and that rose at first broke out in tons of blooms, then the leaves became dry & brittle & yellowish (phosphorus-burn), then it broke out in black spots. I checked the drainage by digging up. No problems in drainage, the fault was with the Encap-dry-compost, made out of COW manure and a bit of composted leaves.

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Straw, but I don't use fertilizer on our in the ground roses to get burns of any type... Only fertilizer I have left is alittle Dr Earth Alfalfa Meal and 3 oz's of Gardenville Sea Tea...

    I'm using the rest of the Gardenville Sea Tea on that Cherry Tomato Plant and the little bit of Dr Earth Alfalfa Meal I have left I recently put into my 3 black large pots that has Marigold and other flower in them... And let me tell you that Dr Earth Alfalfa meal has kicked those flowers into high gear...lol... It works good in pots because it has beneficial soil microbes that break it down in the pots...

  • strawchicago z5
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    I did some research as to why bagged cow manure WAS HORRIBLE last year: made roses broke out in BS ... also why Encap dry-compost (made from cow-manure & leaves) made La Reine broke out in BS. The additives in cattle-feed are mainly: salt, sugar via molasses, and phosphorus. see link below:

    http://www.farmandranchguide.com/news/livestock/cattle-feed-what-do-those-vitamins-minerals-and-additives-really/article_dcac4f0b-7d08-5a11-bc3a-8a08e16e15ff.html

    They put chemicals in cattle-feed, such as salt, ammonium sulfate (acidic), ammonium poly-phosphate, monoammonium phosphate, ammonium chloride, iodine, and molasses.

    I notice that when I used molasses to deepen the color of my pink blooms .. that induced black spots and attract rose slugs. Fungi growth increases when sugar is added. But the main reason why cow-manure promotes fungal growth is: ANTIBIOTICS are fed to cattle, and these antibiotics kill off the friendly bacteria, so the pathogenic fungi take over. Also excess phosphorus is known to make copper and zinc less available. Zinc and copper are strong anti-fungal agents.

    Gardenville Sea tea has NPK of 2-3-2, high in phosphorus. The ingredients are: Compost Tea, Omega Protein Refined Fish Emulsion, Feed-Grade Molasses, Humic Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Nutri Leaf Soluble Fertilizer (Potassium Nitrate, Urea, Ammonium Phosphate,

    http://www.garden-ville.com/products/18/Sea-Tea-2-3-2-Organic-Fertilizer.htm

    Below document by Texas A & M extension showed how high phosphorus can hurt plants: Here's an excerpt from below link: "Perennial plants frequently have iron and zinc deficiencies caused by excessive phosphorus. Manure and composts should be applied judiciously. Annual soil testing to monitor soil phosphorus levels is recommended." That's why my basil plant became yellowish & stunt, but with many flowers when planted in the hole previously occupied by a blackspot-fest rose.

    https://aggieturf.tamu.edu/files-2005/phosphorus_Provin.pdf





  • strawchicago z5
    8 years ago

    Just a note that high-phosphorus is great for non-stop blooming like annual flowers. Also high-phosphorus is great for landscape roses that bloom non-stop like Knock-outs & Carefree Celebration, which are more salt-tolerant. But NOT good for salt-sensitive roses like Austin roses with a higher demand for potassium and calcium.