I am trying to reduce insects (especially mites) and fungal diseases (especially mildew + rust) by better garden practices with my roses:

1. 1 x per week --- Water spray in the early am. to wash off the leaf tops and undersides of the roses, followed by a deep watering.
2. 2-3 x per year (February, May (if necessary) and August --- Add compost about 1-2" deep (Kellog's N'Rich from Home depot). Cover with bark nuggets.
3. This year I planted alyssum from seed companion plants around the roses.
4. February + August --- Add Alfalfa meal (1 cup per bush)
5. February --- Added earthworm castings 1 cup to each bush
6. February + August --- Add soil conditioners; 1 tbsp soil sulphur + 1 tbsp epsom salt + 1 cup gypsum per bush with the the mulch
7. 1 x per month --- fertilize with fish emulsion, liquid kelp, liquid iron+zinc and Super Thrive.
8. 3 x per year (February, May, August) --- Fertilize with organic time release fertilizer
9. Pick off diseased leaves asap.
10. January --- Dormant oil spray. Hopefully the only spraying

Any feedback? Anything else I should try?

Thanks as always for everyone's kindness in sharing their experience and hard earned wisdom.

Lee

I would skip the earthworm castings, since there's a study conducted by The University of Kentucky - College of Agriculture, entitled, "Organic Fertilizers and Composts for Vegetable Transplant Production", which compared the performance of: worm castings, cow manure, horse manure, and MetroMix 560 (a chemical fertilizer), fish emulsion, and a soluble organic fertilizer (blood meal, bone meal, and sulfate of potash). Conclusion: Fish emulsion and SOLUBLE Omega organic fertilizer were effective. Composted cow manure, pH of 4, is somewhat effective. And least effective were composted worm castings (pH of 6.82) and horse manure (pH of 8.21).

The best performance is Peter's 20-10-20, a chemical soluble fertilizer, applied at 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water. This yielded a 732% increase in dry weight for tomato and 687% increase in pepper respectively. Tomato's optimal pH is the same as roses, from 6.5 to 7.

Here the Chicago Botanical Garden stated that their soil pH is 7.4 with composted leaves, and they use a SOLUBLE 20-20-20 fertilizer. Why soluble fertilizer? You don't risk burning and accumulation of salt like solid fertilizer. The first thing I learned from Roseseek (Kim Rupert) is that nitrogen moves with water, versus phosphorus and potassium stay put where it's applied. This means that if you put organic fertilizer such as bone meal rich in phosphorus, it stays at the surface, and the deep roots get none. The booklet about soil chemistry given by EarthCo. stated the same.

The University of Colorado specified that bone meal, a component in many slow-release-fertilizer, SHOULD NOT BE USED when the pH is above 7. Concentrated phosphorus like bone meal is notorious for burning roots, esp. in heavy clay. I once killed dozens of geraniums and a white pine with bone meal. Since nitrogen moves with water, and with the heavy rain here, I have good results with blood meal, NPK of 12-0-0 sprinkled AT THE SURFACE. In contrast, putting alfalfa meal AT THE SURFACE gunked up like glue, preventing water flow into the soil.

Below is a section of what I gathered on the book about soil and roses by Field Roebuck from Texas:

1) "Put epsom salt in Sandy soil only". This is correct, since sticky clay soil like mine is tested exceedingly high in magnesium.

2) "The level of calcium is just as important as soil pH." This is correct. I'm next to a lime stone quarry, but my soil is tested barely adequate in calcium. EarthCo., the soil testing company, recommends gypsum for my soil.

3) Field Roebuck advocated Garlic Chives for insect control, since it tested successfully against both spider mites and aphids. Garlic Chives is invasive if you don't cut the flowers off before they go to seed. I prefer Calendula, bright orange and yellow, since it host green lacewings.

I have some questions for you. What were you doing before as compared to the list you posted? As in what is changed? And with what you were doing before, how were the roses doing? Did you get much disease and insect pests?

Melissa

When I first dug up the gardens (heavy clay soil) I mixed in LOTS of aged horse manure...almost half and half, in some cases. It keeps the soil from drying/cracking and lets the water flow get down to the roots, more easily, too.

Our roses are still pretty young, but I water (in the hot part of the summer) three times a week and sometimes even use a sprinkler. Terrible, I know, but most of the old garden roses don't mind. If I had hybrid teas, I'm sure that would be a different story! :)

I should have noticed that since I've added the fish, etc. fertilizers this year I need to cut back on the granular fertilizer. Thanks for catching that. I bought some Jack's 20-20-20 (same people as Peter's just a diff. brand name) and am trying to figure out when to use it. I mix the alfalfa meal with the mulch and that seems to prevent the glue effect. My local feed store does not carry the pellets any more so I had to use the meal. Next year I think I'll try another store a little further away. Thanks also for the calendula idea. I do plant them in other areas of the garden but I'll try them next year as a companion plant with the roses. I tried the earthworm castings for the past couple years. I've read a lot about its benefits but you might be right and it's not necessary. Have not seen a big difference.

Tessiess,

My roses were generally fine with the exception of some mildew and aphids in the spring and a few bushes with mites late in the year. I was using chemical sprays for control but I want to avoid using them. The new things I am trying are the companion plants, adding the fish emulsion, epsom salts, etc. and water washing in the am. Everything else I've always done for years. My roses have always been pretty healthy and prolific and my friends comment on the size of the blooms. I just want to avoid the spraying.

It really is not much work. The bulk of the work is in the spring and August to condition the soil (sulphur, gypsum, mulch, etc.). The things that have made the biggest difference have been the alfalfa meal and the heavier mulching. I added a second mulching about 5 years ago and that reduced the late season disease some. I'll see if the water solubles make a difference this year. I have a gut feeling they will improve the quality of the blooms.

Good luck to all this spring!

Lee

And Spider Mites can be defeated by washing the roses with a strong spray from a hose.

If you've been using some pesticides, and you want to eliminate them, I have one warning.
We used to spray weekly, religiously. We did so, until we came smack up against the fact that use of garden sprays triggered Grand Mal seizures in our dog. It wasn't worth it.

We stopped spraying right away, but we soon learned that when you stop spraying, there's a period of adjustment when the garden builds up beneficial organisms, which do the work sprays used to do. Hang in there, and don't be discouraged by that. It's temporary. After about a year, "good bugs" began to arrive, as did birds and some near lizards. The garden is now far more fun than it was, and far healthier.

Jeri

I'll keep telling myself to be patient until the local population of beneficials rebuilds.

Lee

Fast forward to now. I don't use chemical fertilizer nor insecticides, just horse manure and alfalfa meal. There are lots of monarch butterflies, lacewings, ladybugs, toads, praying mantis, plus a bumble bee hive. The best part is zero aphids.

The Texas rosarian Field Roebuck advised against tiny bugs magnets such as marigolds, verbenas, and cilantro. These lacy-leaves, many-nooks & notches plant harbor both aphids and spider mites.

My favorite plant to attract beneficial insect remains Calendula - not invasive like garlic chives, very cold hardy and drought tolerant.

Small correction needed there. You are assuming all time released fertilizers work on a 6 month basis. I believe that if you read the small print, you will find that some of them work on either a 3 month or a 4 month basis also. Just depends on which type you buy.

If gardeners enjoy fussing this much over their roses, then go to it! Whatever works is fine. Myself, I've been gardening for 30 years and don't put in anywhere close to that much effort--and I'll put up my roses against anybody's else's.

Basically, unless you have really abnormal soil, I don't think you need to do all that messing with it. I usually add a couple shovel's full of humus or manure or something like that at planting time. Some years I add a circle of manure around the rose--other years I don't.

Other than that, about all a rose needs is regular watering (rain or hose) and an occasional feeding of a balanced fertilizer (10-10-10, for instance). Some springs I've been too busy to get to a spring feeding. Guess what--the roses bloomed beautifully anyway. Like most people here, I like alfalfa--I may spread it once a year -- or not, depending on whether I have time or not. The roses still bloom beautifully, either way.

And like most gardeners here, I avoid insecticides. There are usually other ways to handle insects--like, be patient and wait for the good bugs to arrive and eat 'em up. Amazing how often that works quite well! I do spray a fungicide occasionally, but I go out of my way to plant only highly disease-resistant roses, so many of my roses need little or no spraying of fungicide.

In other words, get back to basics. Give the roses sun, water them regularly (rain or hose), and feed them occasionally. That about covers most of their needs as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, I forgot one other essential--lots of mulch! : ) That's my most time-consuming chore--refreshing the mulch each year.

Kate

I took a class at Roses Unlimited last year and they had a handout with a schedule similar to yours, though it was a bit simpler. I have a small amount of homemade compost I add to the beds in the spring when I mulch and prune. They (RU) use Mill's Magic Mix instead of the alfalpha meal. They also discourage spraying insecticides for the same reason as everyone else. It encourages mites and mites are harder to eliminate.

I give my roses daily showers when it gets hot and dry. It cools them off and discourages the mites. By July, I see evidence of mite damage on Mozart (a HM), Darlow's Enigma (also HM) and Ghislane de Feligonde (generic monster shrub). All of these have tiny tender leaves low to the ground. I use amputation as an eradication method. All of those roses are vigorous enough to tolerate most of what comes their way.

I happen to enjoy the time in the garden in the spring/fall as I follow the schedule. I get pretty slack when it gets in the 90's and 100% humidity. Once it gets that hot, nothing much happens with the roses. I do water frequently and pour some Mill's EZ Feed every two weeks since it doesn't take that long. I mix it up in a 3-gallon Tidy Cat bucket and do three at a time. Sometimes I sling some 10-10-10 in the beds.

For my efforts, the roses reward me well with blooms. I never see many bugs and only a few chewed buds/leaves. I haven't seen too many japanese beetles. I think that is because I don't have a whole lot of blooms during their season and we have a lot of chameleons and frogs. I just watched a bird fly into a Mutabilis and then fly off, so maybe a bird feeder and bird bath nearby would encourage the birds to stop by. I do believe that a garden can reach an equilibrium with insects.

Dormant strength lime sulpher STINKS !!! I can say, though, that I have seen much less BS this year and only on bushes that I don't spray during the growing season because of their size, Ghislane de Feligonde and Silver Moon.

Insects, best control is creating bird habitat. A hungry bird is the best defense.