Feeding Plumeria's How often is to often

On an established (3yrs old) plant how much do you heavy feeders out there feed them.Every place info is availible it's pretty common to suggest every 2 weeks durning the growth season.When I say feed I'm referring to stuff like Bloom Burst or Bloom plus etc,etc,ect, (10-50-10).I've heard and read at differant places some whom feed their's more often.Like every week or every time they water.Now here in Florida it been very dry and hot.and with the additional watering I've had to do I'm sure I've been washing away most of the effects of my every 2 week feeding.
I'd like to hear from those who have fed their's more often .Did they see any draw back's from the additional plant food.Pros/Cons.
Happy 4th All
Don

Hi Don! Maybe the other collectors like Roger, Brad, and Hetty will chime in with their opinions. You are right that opinions on how often to fertilize and what to use will vary. Some like to use Bloomboosters/Bloombuilders with a high middle number to start with and then switch to regular forumulas or ones with even numbers. In addition, people often use supplements in addition to fertilizers. A common formula seems to be Spray 'N Gro combined with Bill's Perfect Fertilizer. I think some use this combination weekly from spring to fall. Some people do it every other week or once a month. Some people add the slow-release granules when repotting and also use MiracleGro every other week.

I guess it depends upon how hard you want to push your plants to grow and bloom. I have many inflo's on my trees, and I've only fertilized a couple of times with MiracleGro this spring. I don't want to push my trees too hard to grow because they are all in containers, and I don't mind it if they don't get huge in a hurry, and I am happy with the flowering that I am getting. I just use whatever fertilizer I have on hand, which is usually MiracleGro, and I foliar feed with different supplements for fun when I have time. I am pressed for time most of the time so I just fertilize when I can. Right now, I am fertilizing about twice a month. There are some good links and threads on fertilizing in the FAQ's sticky if you have time to check that out.

Clare,
Thanks for the reply.I'm curious what size your biggest plant is and what size pot you have it in?Is it a real rigid container or the softer black plastic type?The reason for asking is I'm potting and repotting some of my 2 and 3 year old seedlings and I want to figure out what size pot I should use to have a few grow into ,the few I intend to keep and a few I intend to push to see if I can get them to flower earlier than they would naturally.

Hi Don, my trees are not very big as I've only been growing plumerias for 3 years and got them as small cuttings or grafts. Growing them in containers keeps them small as well as they would grow much better and bigger if they were in the ground. I am a renter, and there is no room in the landscape here so I keep them in containers. My biggest ones are fairly rootbound in 15-gallon containers, and I have 25-gallon containers that I may re-pot them to some time this summer. I took a picture of them for you to see. Please excuse the mess in the back. Those are five-gallon containers being stored in the way back behind them. Most of my two-and-a-half-year-old seedlings are in five-gallon black nursery type containers, but a few are in ten-gallon containers. Seedlings have a large tap root, and I have heard that they will flower sooner if planted in the ground. Seedlings tend to need larger container space as their root systems are stronger. Three of my seedlings bloomed at between 19-22 months if I remember correctly. The other 37 of the same age have not bloomed yet, but three years is typical from seed so I may have to wait a little longer. If your two- and three-year-old seedlings are in five-gallon containers, then I would re-pot to ten-gallon containers or plunge them in the ground if you can. Plunging is the way to go if you need to pull them up in the fall.

Here are some of my seedlings last year at 20 months old. You can see that they are in five-gallon containers, which are called egg shell or something like that as opposed to the grip lip type which are more rigid. The egg shell five-gallon containers are less rigid than the grip lip, but they are also about half the price of the grip lip containers. If you really want to push your seedlings to bloom, you could keep using the Bloombooster/Bloombuilder formula with the high middle number weekly. You could also try some supplements such as Superthrive. Don't be shy about watering as underwatering will inhibit blooms.

This message was edited Jul 2, 2006 12:15 PM

Hi Clare,
Plunging is what I did with my first Plumerias.I have a Handyman service and one of my customers wanted her plumerias cut back so they wouldn't grow into the soffits.I think it was in 98 or99.They were all Celadine and I didn't have a clue at the time what they were but asked if the cuttings could be rooted.She had done it a couple of times but with little success.She wanted me to bag up all the cuttings and to put them in the trash.She had I think 6 trees or so and so there were alot of cuttings.I asked if I could take the trash with me and she was happy to get rid of it.So when I got time that night I did a search and come on to Plumeria101.com and had a full night of study.That same night I took all the leaves off the cuttings and waited a couple of days and then started potting and plunging to find I had over 50 cuttings to deal with.Now I have 6 of the orginal Celadine and they were left in the orginal 1 gallon pots and plunged in the same place that they are today.All are great bloomers and all at 5 to 6 feet tall.I've added several differant cultivars since.My biggest blunder was my visit to Florida Colors in 2003 and Luc gave me the tour and was taking cuttings for me.Like the bone head I am ,I didn't write the name of the mother plant just the color.Now I have several I'll have to ID hopefully when they start to bloom on a steady basis.I learned more about plumerias in the short time I was with Luc then I have before or since.He even gave me a demo on grafting too.The stuff just drips off him and Carol.


This message was edited Jul 2, 2006 4:55 PM

Here's some of the orginal

another

here's a bad picture of a Celadine,actually they are all bad.lol

Hi Don! LOL! Great story. Yes, Luc and Carol are wonderful people and so full of knowledge and so willing to share that knowledge with others. I am fairly familiar with most of their cultivars and can probably help you to identify the ones that you got from them. You can also email pictures to Carol, and she will help you too, I'm sure. I have two different emails for them if you need them. Your plumies look great, but they are a bit blurry;-)

It's time for a new camera. The digital camera is pre-jurassic era.sorry to put you through it.