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Rose Food
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Posted by
daisyincrete 10? (
My Page) on
Thu, Sep 12, 13 at 1:53
Does anyone know the make up of a good rose feed?
I cannot buy ready, made up food here, but I have found a shop that will make up a feed to your own specification.
Vassilis will take some scoops of nitrogen, potash and potassium and mix them to your own needs.
However, I am not sure of the amounts of each I need to make a good rose feed.
Daisy |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Rose Food
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| depends on the time of year, Daisy. I usually do a spring top dressing with an NPK mix of 7:7:7 whereas later in the year, I stomp on the potassium more - say, 3:3:12. However, you also need the micronutrients such as zinc, manganese, calcium and magnesium. Daisy, there is an agriculture industry in Greece where you could access supplies, surely? I never go to a garden centre but always use my nearest agriculture supplies (I can buy 25kilo bags of organic mix for a fraction of the cost of a proprietary plant food)....and failing that, mail order is available. |
RE: Rose Food
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| Daisy, you can download the information for almost all fertilizers on line. People here have frequently said they like Rose Tone. Its data sheet is available from the link below. That will show you the NPK and micro nutrients. The same is available for pretty much any other "food" you want to check out. The sheets often show you what the sources of the nutrients are, which should help you have the person mixing yours provide better sources of them. Some are now showing much higher levels of nitrogen than they used to. Miracle Gro All Purpose used to be 15-30-15 where it is now 24-8-16. Kim |
Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Tone
RE: Rose Food
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| If you have any sort of barnyard manure available it could be all the fertilizer that you need. |
RE: Rose Food
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| Roses use NPK in the ratio 3-1-2, but any ratio between that and 1-1-1 is OK. The nutritional needs of roses are about the same as for other normal plants. Stable manure, poultry manure or alfalfa can serve a a complete fertilizer. Commercial growers use manufactured fertilizer in the ratio 3-1-2 or 2-1-2. |
RE: Rose Food
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| I was going to ask if alfalfa, aka lucerne, was available to you in meal or pellet form. In the states, it is used as animal (horse and rabbit) food, but also used as a fertilizer. |
RE: Rose Food
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| Daisy, what have you been using? Your roses are gorgeous, so you must be using something? |
RE: Rose Food
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Thank-you all. Up until now, I have only been using donkey manure at planting time. This is fine when dug in, but as a top dressing doesn't work so well.
In this dry climate, it doesn't break down, so is visible as donkey manure for years.
I expect alfafa is available here as an animal feed, but it is not sold as a fertilizer.
I would be wary of using it here, as I couldn't be sure what else was in it.
Suzy, garden centres here only sell plants, nothing else.
So for fertilizers etc, I have to go to an agricultural supplier of which there are loads. In the nearest big town, there are only two small garden centres but over forty agricultural suppliers!
Daisy |
RE: Rose Food
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| I can't help much here, but I can tell you that after having used manure, you will probably be somewhat disappointed with a typical balanced fertilizer (7-7-7) or equivalent. Manure is a much better source. Kate |
RE: Rose Food
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| I think it would be safe to use the alfalfa sold as animal food if you like. It should be pure alfalfa or say on the guaranteed analysis what else it contains. |
RE: Rose Food
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| If it's too dry for the manure to break down, it's too dry for alfalfa to break down. If you just want to add a little kick to the base of manure, I bet you can buy urea as a fast nitrogen source. Apply no more than 1 TB per plant and water it in. There is probably an ample supply of the other nutrients already in the soil from the manure. Or, if available, poultry manure is a rich source of N. |
RE: Rose Food
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| We're terribly dry here, as well. But when we apply fresh horse poo around roses, we water it in with a hose, then put mulch over it, and it seems to break down just fine. Jeri |
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