good comparision on fertilizer Marlorena.. Now if they say, it's once a year product then it should be economical I believe.. problem is, we are the guinea pigs.. and no straight forward way to test the old and new products..
@WhereAreMySecateurs I was wondering if you could return your fertilizer pack for the one Marlorena/ Nollie has.. with all the added micronutrient bits, they seem better don't you think?
@WhereAreMySecateurs I was wondering if you could return your fertilizer pack for the one Marlorena/ Nollie has.. with all the added micronutrient bits, they seem better don't you think?
Lol, undoubtedly better with the extra minerals, but I won't overthink it and will stick with this organic feed for now. Only two of my roses showed a deficiency in their leaves last year, one of which has been ditched, and the other is in much-amended soil. I can always switch mid-season if there are any problems. I sort of take the view that, like my dog, the roses eat better than I do in any case.😁
That 'Bajazzo' is rather nice isn't it.. I like it very much..
I'm itching to get started again, aren't you? ... the sun is getting warmer and my greenhouse temps are on the rise.. My Loubert roses all survived with those tantalising little red buds appearing..
WAMS, interesting your Gertie is more bendy, mine has always been the opposite. It’s possible it’s far more vigorous here than in the UK, or at least the Northern half of the UK. I think it was Lizzie that also had a problem with it getting out of hand in or on an obelisk..
I too have hard water and alkaline soil. Last year I gave a feed of seaweed at the start of the season with BFB, then tomato feed mid season. Its the best flowering I've had yet, even after the hot weather. Might have something to do with the roses in the ground now being mature at 4/5 years old.
That sounds as good a fertiliser regime as any and a lot cheaper, probably! BFB can vary in NPK but is usually pretty balanced at 5-5-6, seaweed for a general tonic and essential micronutrients and potassium-rich tomato feed for bloom boosting.
@Marlorena you were right earlier about manganese, it’s much less mobile than magnesium so you notice the lack in young leaves/top growth as opposed to on older/lower leaves as you do with magnesium deficiency. I’ve certainly confused the two in the past!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Done with re-labelling last years roses.. new ones and other plants for another day.. I write on plastic plant labels with a permanent marker.. yet, by the end of year most are faded.. wonder if there is a better/ permanent solution to that..
Very much itching and bored here! I have loads of digging and rose-swapping about to do but the weather is not conducive. It’s meant to be easing up by Wednesday, finger’s crossed.
For those interested in why some of us obsess over fertiliser, all this talk of NPK, micronutrients (trace elements), deficiencies etc.. Well, few of us have a perfectly well-drained, rich, fertile soil within the optimum pH range for nutrient take-up. If you do, lucky you! Plus we always want our roses to be as healthy-looking as possible and bloom more..
All but the poorest of soils actually contain pretty much all the nutrients plants, including roses, need to grow well. The key issue is whether those nutrients are ‘available’ to the plant i.e. easily taken up from the soil and converted into a form the roses can use.
Soil pH is an important factor as this chart below shows, if your soil is very alkaline (pH 8 or above) it can lock up important trace elements such as iron, manganese, possibly boron, copper etc. and this is when a plant can show signs of a nutrient deficiency. Very acid soils are differently problematic..
[some may recognise this, since I nicked it from another rose forum 😊]
Other factors can affect nutrient take-up, such as compacted, poorly drained or waterlogged soils lacking in oxygen or an excess of salts caused by overuse of artificial chemical fertilisers.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Posts
good comparision on fertilizer Marlorena.. Now if they say, it's once a year product then it should be economical I believe.. problem is, we are the guinea pigs.. and no straight forward way to test the old and new products..
@WhereAreMySecateurs I was wondering if you could return your fertilizer pack for the one Marlorena/ Nollie has.. with all the added micronutrient bits, they seem better don't you think?
I'm itching to get started again, aren't you? ... the sun is getting warmer and my greenhouse temps are on the rise..
My Loubert roses all survived with those tantalising little red buds appearing..
Also, the snowdrops are now out..
All but the poorest of soils actually contain pretty much all the nutrients plants, including roses, need to grow well. The key issue is whether those nutrients are ‘available’ to the plant i.e. easily taken up from the soil and converted into a form the roses can use.
Soil pH is an important factor as this chart below shows, if your soil is very alkaline (pH 8 or above) it can lock up important trace elements such as iron, manganese, possibly boron, copper etc. and this is when a plant can show signs of a nutrient deficiency. Very acid soils are differently problematic..
Other factors can affect nutrient take-up, such as compacted, poorly drained or waterlogged soils lacking in oxygen or an excess of salts caused by overuse of artificial chemical fertilisers.
In past years I have used Wilkinson rose food.