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| Ever wonder why the plants that look so full and gorgeous in the nursery don't look quite so good a month later and maybe haven't grown much, or actually got smaller? Probably because you've taken their drugs away and put them on a starvation diet if you aren't a regular user of "blue heroin" (or Miracle-Gro, Peter's triple 20, or their like). Nurseries want their plants to be lush and beautiful so they are fed a rich and steady diet of fertilizers, sometimes as much as 3 times a week-Or in the case of annuals, every two days! (been there, done that!
Just like with humans, the plants that get hooked on those drugs need them to continue to grow. If you don't intend to use chemical fertilizers on a regular basis, the plants need to be put in good nutrient-rich soil and weaned off the drugs either gradually or with a time-release fertilizer in the soil. Just thought this would be worth a mention, after visiting a big nursery yesterday with gorgeous plants, and hearing fertilizer injectors clicking away in the greenhouses, feeding all those monsters on steroids! Sandy |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| The public wants to buy plants that are already in bloom in a four inch pot, so that is what they provide. How many of these plant buyers when they get the plant home will pinch them back when they plant them in their garden? Al |
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- Posted by echinaceamaniac 7 (My Page) on Thu, May 31, 12 at 10:06
| They also spray chemical growth regulators on them. That full, bushy plant looks thin and tall the next year too. |
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| That is why I prefer to support smaller sometimes more specialized independent nurseries as I find such practices are less likely to occur. |
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| The small independent nursery I work for in the spring is a big user. The one I visited yesterday is also a "small independent" in spite of its size, they grow all of their own plants. So you can't judge a garden center's practices by their size! In fact, I don't know of an independent garden center that doesn't own a fertilizer injector, and if they don't grow their own, they buy them from nurseries that do! So either way, you're getting fat, lazy over-fed plants. You can avoid a lot of that by buying your perennials as early in the spring as they are available, before they become addicted, or in the fall when the fertilizing has slowed or stopped. Sandy |
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| I fail to see the issue here. Sorry, but why wouldn't anyone want to have plants as lush and full as possible, as long as they're still healthy? You can do it using conventional or organic fertilizers, as long as you apply them correctly either will do the job. I have small fertilizer injectors at home (EZ Flo brand) for the hose in my greenhouse and for my container plants. They do so much better when I constant liquid feed. Brand is irrelevant, this year it is MG because a local chain garden center had a fantastic buy on it, but I've used Peter's, store brands, or home-blended from chemicals bought at the farm supply with equally good results. I also use Osmocote in all of my containers. I don't think its fair to say that just a reduction in fertilization by the home gardener is responsible for plants looking a bit less happy after purchase and transplant. Plants also have to adjust to other changes, such as possibly reduced or increased moisture, often a dramatic increase in light and wind if they came out of a greenhouse into field conditions, and it takes them time to adjust. Plants that I buy always go through a short period of looking a bit rough around the edges as they adjust, then with luck, they kick in and grow. |
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| Wow, I am stunned by your generalizations and obvious lack of knowledge. ALL plants need feed. The amount and frequency depends on the plant, growing conditions, soil conditions and container. Your analogy of them being "hooked on drugs" is a fallacy. They are merely well taken care of, fed properly so they are strong and healthy. It doesn't matter if liquid fertilizer is used, or slow release granular, the end result is the same. The plants are healthy, not addicted. Stop feeding them, and of course they will begin to look sick. So would you! |
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- Posted by christinmk z5b eastern WA (My Page) on Thu, May 31, 12 at 14:52
| I am not sure I see the problem either, although that could be because I am feeling especially blonde today, lol. I've never been bothered by the fact that some plants I buy at the nurseries or box stores seem "hopped-up" in comparison to plants grown in more natural conditions. Maybe it is just because I never look at a plant in a retail situation and think that that is an accurate portrayal of what it will look like in my own yard. Just like I don't look at a floppy phlox in a nursery pot and think it will flop once planted out ;-) Some plants (the particularly nutrient-hoggish ones, lol) have often done the EXACT same thing you describe in my own garden, in areas where the soil is richer from amendments. First and second year they are humongous and then they seem to shrink a bit once they settle in or until I get around to fertilizing or top-dressing with compost again. We use time release granular fertilizer on shrubs and trees at work and liquid stuff on annuals and occasionally perennials (those raised in our own greenhouse at least, we have such a fast turnover on some plants newly shipped that it is hardly necessary for those). Our greenhouse lady probably fertilizes the annuals once a week at best. The fact is, they don't look as good when they don't get a shot in the arm with the blue stuff at least once in awhile. I tend to fertilize the crap out of my potted annuals too, so don't see the nurseries fertilization methods strange at all. Isn't the whole point of annuals to have outrageously big and floriferous plants?? I fertilized most of our over-wintered roses and shrubs this spring with the slow release stuff and have been totally amazed at how much better they look now from earlier on. There is just not enough nutrients to be found in the soil of a potted up plant to keep it looking great for a long period of time, at least that is what I have observed so far. It seems pretty sensible to be pro-active with regular feedings rather than wait until the plant starts to look sickly or in need of nutrients to fertilize again. The only major issue I have with the whole thing is that they don't use organic fertilizer, since I try to go as natural as possible in my own garden�. |
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| The only real issue here is that if you go home with those lush, fat, happy plants, expect to plant them in your garden and have them continue to look that good, you have to expect to keep feeding them that regimen. As a nurseryman, I know that plants fed chemical fertilizers grow hard and fast, relying on those chemicals to do so, as it takes a lot of energy to grow that way. Good for the short run, but in order to get healthy, long lasting perennials (annuals are different, they need the fast food), they need to have good soil with nutrients that will sustain them for the long run with stored energy to come back next year. So it is important to break that chemical dependency and get them on a sustaining diet. I have nothing against chemical fertilizers, per se, used as a suppliment they are a good tool at times but not as a steady diet. Lush and beautiful as it is, that plant that has been heavily fertilized is chemically dependent and without them will not do as well as you expect when you bring it home if you aren't aware if its needs. They need to be "trained" for lack of a better word,to pull food through their roots rather than just sucking it up through their leaves when they are foliage fed. That turns put to be pretty important when the force feeding is over, the plant tops are going dormant in the fall, and the roots are still growing under there, building for spring. Sandy |
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| I'm no expert on plant physiology, but I like language. I understand you used metaphorical language to make a point, but that and anthropomorphizing (sorry if misspelled) can get people's dander up. My knee jerk reaction is to look askance at statements with hyperbole. To speak to your point: I'd rather have a plant in a four inch pot that looks like it still has growing to do, and pay for a 4 inch pot. As I've started buying bigger plants, primarily because many many nurseries do not carry 4 inch pots any longer, those big lush ones just start at their "non-steroidal" size the next season...half the size I bought them at. I feel like I paid 12 bucks or more for a small plant in disguise. Maybe this phenomena has nothing to do with intense pre-sale fertilization but it is one of the few explanations I come up with for the increasing amount of "plant shrinkage" from year 1 to year 2. Despite hyperbole, an interesting topic. Thanks! |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Fri, Jun 1, 12 at 14:28
| Couple of points to be made here..... First, plants (annuals and perennials) in nurseries are grown in containers. Containers utilize potting soil, not garden soil, and are therefore lacking both soil microbes and any kind of a proper nutrient load. And they are watered frequently, often multiple times a day depending on size of container and weather. Everytime that plant is watered, whatever nutrients may be present are leached out and for growth to continue, these MUST be replaced. And the best, most efficient method of doing so is with a liquid or water soluble fertilizer - ie. the "blue heroin". Organic fertilizers are seldom the slightest bit water soluble so the ONLY way these plants can receive needed nutrient replacement is with a blue water, MiracleGro equivalent. FWIW, I too am a nurseryperson. Our annuals/hanging baskets/veggies get fed on a weekly basis with a water soluble fert. Perennials may get the same treatment once a month but typically are not in the nursery long enough to warrant frequent fertilizing - turnover is about 12 days. Shrubs and trees are dosed once a season with a coated slow release fertilizer. All plants are full, healthy and not overgrown. Since I do a fair amount of planting for customers and clients as well, other than watering, these plants do not require much of anything else after planting. Unless we are talking containers again and then the same argument applies regardless if on nursery property or the homeowners. The simple fact is that small annual plants grown/produced in nursery containers require frequent fertilization. Period. Even in the home environment the recommendation is "weekly, weakly". Why should the nursery/greenhouse setting be any different? |
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| I do the "weekly weakly" thing or maybe bi-weekly with a diluted Peters liquid food for a couple of hanging baskets and seedlings in containers. Also an occasional feeding to the houseplants. Sometimes I will use a diluted organic fert too (i.e. seaweed). Otherwise, everything that goes in the ground is completely organic. Regular applications of compost, seaweed solution, compost tea, and diluted urine are generally what I use for fertilizer, occasionally an organic granular fertilizer. And these babies are happy and lush, including the annuals and veggies, no "blue heroin" needed! Most of my annuals are started from seed, they are not artificially pumped up or rushed into their bloom cycle like the annuals sold at the nursery. Requires a bit more patience waiting for them to bloom though! |
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| Supermarkets and box stores have set the bar on this, and consumers allow them to. Plants must be big and lush and blooming or people won't buy them. Many small specialty nurseries offer well-rooted plants at good prices, but consumers are not educated enough to buy them. By the time the small nursery educates the consumer, it has spent so much time on the sale there is little to no profit. |
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| True Nina, I was in the nursery during April, and they were unloading some Foxglove that was sending up blooming stalks. That was about 6 weeks before they would normally bloom in this zone. I asked an employee about that and she said that customers won't buy plants unless they're blooming. It may be instant gratification, but it's a brief gratification to spend big money buying a short-lived bloomer like the biennial Foxglove! Sometimes you can get another year out of it if you deadhead diligently. And it's SO easy and cheap to start from seed. |
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| Although I grow my plants hard, it is worth the reminder that plants grown in containers are a completely different proposition to plants raised in a living garden. There are some definate issues involved with the artifical pushing of containerised, greenhouse grown plants (and yes, added gibberellins and such) which I think is fair for Mosswitch to comment on. However, I have found plants to be supremely adaptable and well able to make the transition from total pampering to the frugal (some would say brutal) treatment at my hands where the only fertiliser is coming from soil and sunlightand compost, and water is a rare treat. It may even take a season of floppy lush growth before they harden off to become smaller, tougher specimens with little need for staking. It may be that they are like husbands - treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen, but mine go through a sort of trial of hardship and those which survive (a remarkably high percentage) generally continue to thrive. It is also true that watering is as much of a contentious issue as nutrients since it is far worse to offer regular watering unless you are able to continue with the same regime all season - those poor little roots, loitering near the surface in the hopes of a reviving shower compared to the deeply foraging roots which have had to work hard for a living.... My home garden, as opposed to my allotment, is almost totally pot bound - and here, I absolutely have to offer additional food and no matter how deep roots might delve, they are never going to get much further than the hard terracotta pot bottom (although there are always those which make a break for freedom through the drainage holes). Horses for courses then, with generalisations being useful if only to stimulate a wider debate. FWIW, I would never resort to Miracle-Gro as I detest the Scott corporation and really do believe that it is the plant food equivalent of fast food - a truly junky Big Mac feast of cheap carbs and sugars. |
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