I used to add bone meal because Mom always did but now I don't really add anything. I don't amend my natural soil. I just try to dig big holes and break everything up very well so It isn't compacted.

Horse manure and kitty litter for my pure sand soil. How I wish I could just dig a hole and plant. I top dress with alfalfa pellets and/or cotton seed meal.

What to add depends on whatever is already there, or not there. It's good to get a soil test to see if your soil is low in phosphorus. More likely, it's adequate or high, and you should not be adding more.

Insofar as possible, we should amend beds rather than holes. We should check pH and correct before planting. I add kitty litter to the sandy area, which only needs doing once. I add compost or manure when preparing a bed or replanting in an old hole. There is no need to add a lot of nutrients, because you will be fertilizing from the surface for the life of the rose plant.

I forgot to add that I raise horses and have a huge pile in one of the pastures of the cleaned out stalls that has been there for years and is very well rotted - I thought of digging the rose hole and mixing/adding a bit of the rotted compost to the very bottom of the hole, then putting soil back over this then planting the rose. Let me also add that I have planted lots of my roses and they do fine w/out more than the bone meal/superphosphate, but I am just interested in trying to improve.
Judith

Manure should be mixed in rather than put at the bottom of the hole where it can't improve soil texture. The great majority of feeder roots will be in the upper 10" of soil, anyway. The rotted and leached horse manure will not burn. You could dig 2-3" into the whole bed 12" deep.

My soil is horrible and has been tested. I truly second Michaelg's comment regarding testing, as it can be provide very useful information regarding the actual make-up of your soil, which allows one to create the best "dirt" you can for plants to grow in.

I use blood meal for added nitrogen. I do not use bone meal because it is not recommended for soils with a pH above 7; which mine is. I now add gypsum due to the salt build up, have always needed to add soil sulfur due to alkalinity, and I use superphosphate. I have also periodically, at least bi-annually, added bagged steer manure from a local nursery. It is advertised as being well-rotted and free of the things that I do not want to add to my soil. All of the dirt that is removed from virgin planting areas receive about a 1/4 part mix of compost added to it. My soil is very low in organic matter; not a worm or anything living that is recognizable to the human eye will be in sight until it is properly amended.

Lynn

This post was edited by desertgarden561 on Mon, Nov 18, 13 at 0:42

I get a bag of manure/compost from Home Depot and add a couple shovelfuls of it to the planting area (mixed in). Anything else is added on the surface.

Occasionally, if I'm ready to plant and I have nothing on hand to put in the hole, I just plant the rose in whatever the garden already contains--after breaking up the soil carefully like Seil says.

I don't know if the roses have a preference which way I do it. Adding a couple shovelfuls of manure/compost might just make ME feel better. LOL

Kate

Nothing.

I have horses too, so access to an abundance of manure/bedding. I create beds (not holes) and dig into the whole bed several inches of compost. Then let it sit for a couple months before planting. Then I plant the roses and a couple inches of manure compost as mulch over the whole bed and for winter (or if I just want to make the beds prettier) cover the compost/mulch with another couple inches a pine bark fine mulch.

I don't put anything in the hole.

I would recommend you stop adding bone meal and/or superphosphate unless you have the very unusual results of a soil testing telling you are deficient in phosphorus. It is very rare for land that's not been used for agricultural crops to be deficient in P. Even more importantly excess P inhibits the growth of mycorrhizal fungi on the roots which is highly beneficial to a plant's capacity to absorb water and nutrients from the soil.

If you've got it I would also use fresher compost than some that has been sitting for years. Rain leaches much of the available nutrients from the compost over time. It can still be a good additive even if it isn't much more than humus , but something a bit fresher will not only add more nutrients but also more beneficial microbes that enrich your soil. Generally, I go for that stuff that's a few months old, but I've tossed manure straight from a stall on roses with no burning or other ill effects.

In the interest of full disclosure, I've had perennial gardens for a couple decades, but have only been adding roses to the mix for the last few years, but I haven't seen anything that makes me want to change my routine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Myth of Bone Meal

This post was edited by subk3 on Sun, Nov 17, 13 at 19:01

Up here in brick hard red clay land, I dig a BIG, DEEP hole for each bush. Usually 28" deep by 36" wide. Backfill about 1/2 full with a 50/50 mix of very crumbled up clay, potting soil, a couple of hand fulls of leaf matter. The rest of the hole is 3/4 potting soil, 1/4 crumbled up clay, 1 cup milorganit all mixed up good. My roses seem to like it so I don't think I'm going to change anything. EXCEPT, for any Rugosa's. Then it's got to be 1/2 clay and 1/2 sand.

I do not amend the planting hole...
So nothing...lol
Like Seil I dig and break up a large area.

Like Ken I'm blessed with hard as rock clay soil, so if I want my plants to survive I have to amend my soil. It's funny some on here say not to put manure at the bottom of the hole, because I learned how to plant my roses from directions sent to me from Heirloom roses. I dig a hole 24x24. At the bottom of the hole I put an entire bag of Black Kow cow manure. (Heirloom tells you to use aged cow or horse manure, about six inches worth, I likely don't do quite that much.) Heirlooms explanation for the manure is "It will provide food for the rose when the roots reach it after the first growing season". I don't use the bottom 1/3 of the soil from the hole, as Heirloom states it wouldn't be as fertile. In filling the rest of the hole I use 1/3 soil from the hole, 1/3 Peat Moss, and 1/3 bagged organic soil. This amending is due to my clay soil, if you have good soild you likely don't need to do as much. I do add Bone meal to the soil going back in the hole. After my rose is planted I only mulch, I do not top dress with cow manure the first year as it can hurt the young feeder roots. Here's a link to Heirlooms planting instructions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heirloom Planting instructions

There are a lot of horticultural practices that somebody recommends even though they don't do any good. If these practices don't do any obvious harm, people will keep doing them and recommending them.

The long-term value of manure is to improve the texture of too-heavy soil or improve the nutrient retention of too-sandy soil. These benefits come from the small amount of syrupy humic acids that are left behind after bacteria eat most of the stuff. Applied as top dressing, manure will help the upper soil. Mixed in 12" deep, it will improve soil in the main rooting zone. Buried 24" deep, it is mostly wasted because at that level there is little or no oxygen, relatively little microbial activity, and few feeder roots. Doing this will not keep the roses from growing, but it is not a good use of manure.

If you dig in manure, you don't need to fertilize for the first year or two, but the nutrients are relatively unimportant, because you can supply what is needed from the surface at any time. The exception would be if a soil test shows low phosphorus; then P should be dug into the main rooting zone at planting time--manure or superphosphate. P does not move around much except as it is transported by earthworms.

No additives here. The native soil is heavy, red clay but the house is thirty years old. Three decades of mulch has created loose planting beds. A couple of years ago, the termite man said 'no mulch around the foundation' but that's okay because the soil is improved now.

I use Mycorrhizae.