I went out tonight to purchase some fertilizer for my Plumeria and I wanted to make absolutely sure I was fertilizing them at the right time and with the right strength. At first the fertilizer seemed obscenely strong, 12-55-6, but according to the FAQ here, that very brand is noted as a good brand to use. GreenLight "Super Bloom" 12-55-6.
So now my question is, when exactly do I start feeding them? I had been under the impression I need to winter them (until you guys set me straight), so now that I'm waking them back up "early" (compared to before), I am not sure when to fertilize them. I've got them under a heat lamp in the evening and in moderate (winter time) sun indoors (with decent watering) and they are already coming back to life. Do I need to wait for the leaves before feeding them, or can I start now?
Thanks again for all the tips. I would love to finally get some blooms out of my plants.
John
Fertilizing the RIGHT way
Hi John,
There are so many different opinions about fertilizing, and there is probably no right way or one way for everyone. What is right for one person in one climate may not be right for another grower in another area.
My thoughts are that you definitely need to wait until your plants have leaves and are outdoors in full sun after the last frost date has passed for your area before you begin to fertilize.
The SuperBloom and Bloombooster formulas have been touted as the best fertilizers to start with in the past, and I would go ahead and use what you bought, but more and more growers are choosing to stay with balanced fertilizers such as 20-20-20 or something similar. It is actually the last number, potassium, which is the most beneficial to flowering from what I understand from our friend Kukiat.
I will do a search to find Kukiat's fertilizing recommendations, which is what I will follow. I'm sure I have it saved on my computer somewhere. In the meantime, Jack has written something similar after learning from Kukiat also: http://socalplumeriacare.com/Fertilizing-plumeria-SF.htm
Here is the information that Kukiat wrote about fertilizing. I will add this to the FAQ's sticky thread:
"As for P and K, there is no need use a lot of P since most plants need it only little as compared to K. However, the P is also important for the growth of plants. Large quanity of P can be used to slow down the growth of the plants since it lowers the availability of N. Once the growth slow down, the plants accumulate food (in term of Carbohydrates) and increase the C/N ratio. (Note that C=Carbohydrate, N=Nitrogen.) This means that plants have lot of food and may be ready to bloom if the condition of the plant is right. In citrus, I have to lower the amount of water too (meaning lower the N since the N is the most water soluble one) in order to get the high C/N ratio. We are able to get our citrus trees to bloom at a specific time this way.
"However most P is generally fixed by clay particles and accumulated in the soil. Over a period of time, there will be too much P in the soil and make other elements like N and K less available for plants to absorb.
"I think it is important to note here that not all plants are the same. Their requirement for food elements also differs from plant to plant."
-Kukiat
John, it is definitely too early to start with the bloom booster. At this time of year I give all my plants a nice dose of a timed release general fertilizer (I like 'Dynamite). You want a strong, healthy plant, after all.Then as soon as they are wide awake, in my area in late March, the bloom booster goes on.
We're looking forward to see pictures of your abundant blooms this year!
Thanks guys, glad I asked about this. I'll give them some Osmocote that'll get them started into Spring, and then come warmer weather I can start really feeding them. Thanks again.
Osmocote no longer uses the minors like they use too,they stop about 3 or 4 years ago...
I would use Dynamite like Hetty said it has more minors which aids the roots and helps the plant uptake of the majors..
If you got a big nursery near by ask them or look for yourself if they make their own fert and sell it..
Most of the big nurseries here make all kinds of ferts and they all include many many minors and such..
The problem i have with alot of places like Home Depot and Lowes is that they store those ferts on fancy displays out in the full sun many times so buyers can see them as they are looking at the plants..
;(
Home Depot is carrying organics stuff now which is a good thing so look for that too..
I been testing some of their fish ferts and they work very well but i have a new problem...
Darn raccoons or opossums are eating thru the bag and munching on my fish ferts so i am guessing there is something they like..
I need to put this thread in the FAQ's Sticky Thread under fertilizer. Yesterday, Luc of Florida Colors Nursery posted a wonderful post in which he shared with us some thoughts on fertilizer. This is an edited version of what he wrote:
"I personally do not believe in the high Phosphorus for blooms. It should be a good balance of the three elements. A 1/2/3 balance is my prefered ratio. More K than P.
"I found the other day at HD a Bougainvillea fertilizer with a formula to my liking: 6-8-10. A bit pricey for the size of the container. Most probably only available in Bougainvillea country.
"I purchased a 5-15-20 fertilizer at Pro Source with good ingredients. It is called Bloom Fertilizer on the label. No KCl or Muriate of Potash in it. I will try that when I find the time sometime this year. They have a 50-lb. bag at a reasonable price.
"We grow about 5000 seedlings a year, but I am not interested in the blooms. They will end up as rootstock. For them, I use 12-6-8, the most used fertilizer in the South Florida nursery business. A good additional dose of Dynamite 13-13-13, 8 months, as side dressing will keep them growing for the whole year. By the way, burying all the fish bones, guts, and skin around your plumerias will do miracles."
Luc Vannoorbeeck
Florida Colors Nursery
More great advice about fertilizer was posted on another forum by someone who knows his plumerias: Luc Vannoorbeeck of Florida Colors Nursery:
"Please stop using that Bloom Killer fertilizer. It is designed for annual plants such as petunias and other small plants growing in the yard, not for trees or sticks growing in pots or in the ground.
"Select a good 6/6/6 fertilizer with very little Chlorine (KCL) at your local HD or garden center. Apply once a month in the summer. Spray a Peters 20/20/20 blue fertilizer on the leaves only if you see that your plants are under stress.
"If your plants are in pots, a 14/14/14 Dynomite fertilizer applied once or twice a year will do a very good job. Plumeria plants require very little care. Too many of them are killed with too much TLC.
"In my previous Hibiscus life, I witnessed a champion Hibiscus grower that could not grow a single hibiscus in his yard because he had overused that same Bloom Buster for too many years.
"The soils and waters of Florida are so full of Phosphorus that we have near Tampa the largest Phosphate mines in the world. Why add more with that Bloom Killer fertilizer?"
"I am well aware of the many stories and tales told on the many sites about Plumerias. It is very tempting to read Bloom Buster on a bag and decide to use it.
"Flowers are promoted by a well-balanced formula and not by an extreme. The P and K should be about the same with maybe a little more K. N is only needed if you want to produce lots of green. Roots growth will be promoted by P on young plants and on cuttings but not with extremes such as a P of 50 or more.
"If you understand the meaning of NPK, it means that the total of those numbers is the amount of plant food present in the bag. A Bloom Buster with a formula of 10/50/10 means that 70% of the stuff inside the bags is pure chemical or plant food. That is a lot of chemical that will, without any doubt, over do and hurt plants if used without control.
"Another fact is that N and K will leach out of the root zone with rain and excessive watering. P will not. Any excess of this element will remain in the soil. The farm land around Homestead Fl. has been used so long for growing tomatoes that there is now an excess of P. that could be mined."
Luc
FCN
Clare, thanks for that fabulous information.
I've copied and pasted it AND printed it out!
As an annual grower, I will go one further and say that everything that Luc says about plumerias apply to annuals (petunias etc) as well. Most plants can't utilize that amt of phosphorus, including annuals. I don't know of any annual grower that uses triple phosphate. We use ferts like 20-10-20 (higher % of nitrate nitrogen than ammonical nitrogen-which is what 20-20-20 is. Thats important to know if you are growing in a soiless medium like a peatbased medium, or cactus mix etc), 13-2-13, 15-0-15 etc.
If you have a healthy plant-it will bloom, it can't help it-it is how it reproduces and keeps it's line going.
The only thing that I would question is when Luc says to fert a stressed plant. Usually when a plant is stressed, you "undo" the stress that the plant is in-like if it is too dry-water it. Medium too wet-come off the water and let it dry out etc-not just fert it. I guess I am not sure what he means by "stressed". As a rule though, a sick/stressed plant doesn't need more fert at that point. It is kind of like having a sick baby-you wouldn't cook him a full course meal then and force feed it to him! lol
Just to clarify-slow release ferts (granular) will not leach out (N and K). They are designed to hold in the soil and release slowly. Its the watering that releases the fert. It is the foliar fert (liquid) that leaches out with excess watering. So when you water after you have applied the liquid fert-just water until BEFORE the water runs out of the bottom of the pot. That way the fert stays in. Also that is why when you are using the liquid-you fert every week, because the plant has either used it up, or it has leached out from rain or watering.
I can attest to the problems of having too much phos. in the soil. Phosphate was mined in my area back in the 1800's and we still find huge chunks of phosphate in the soil. It is an ugly sort of rock that looks a lot like lava.
This is a photo of a hibiscus I put in the ground a year or two ago. It is obviously very healthy but you can see how few blooms it has.
Thanks so much, Terry and Alice for adding your comments. This thread is in the FAQ's Sticky Thread under fertilizer to help those seeking information about how to fertilize their plumerias.
Terry, as a professional grower of annuals yourself, I'm glad you added this information. When Luc said "stressed," I'm sure he probably meant "refusing to bloom but otherwise healthy." There are some cultivars that will go years without blooming, and this makes some collectors very frustrated when they are getting the same care as their other ones which are blooming. I added up my percentage of what is blooming this year. It turns out that, not counting my seedlings, 79 of my 158 different cultivars are blooming. That's 50% that are not blooming and that will probably skip blooming this year. I think that is pretty typical for collectors, but I will do some research to see what percentage other collectors are experiencing. Thanks again for contributing your knowledge to this subject.
More great wisdom was recently posted from Luc of Florida Colors Nursery, and since this thread is linked to in the FAQ Sticky Thread, I thought I would add it for everyone to read:
"Hello Jo and Friends,
We should once and for all put to sleep the notion that plumerias growing in containers need a high phosphorus fertilizer. It is a myth.
One test conducted in Hawaii on trees growing in volcanic soils is the base for that love of high Phosphorus.. Those soils are famously poor in phosphorus, that chemical element does not come out of volcanoes. It is a sea base soil deposit.
During my recent trip to the Serado ( Savanah ) region of Brazil it was clearly shown that the oldest volcanic soil on this planet was totally lacking phosphorus, and nothing but grass could be grown on the land. The addition of lime and copious amount of phosphorous changed the chemistry of the farm fields. The region is now the largest producer of corn and sugarcane for the production of Ethanol. The phosphorus element was lacking in the volcanic soils. The same results are visible when dealing with plumerias growing in the volcanic soils of California and Hawaii.
Using fertilizers rich in phosphorus on plumerias growing in containers with organic soils purchased at HD or other garden centers is most dangerous to the life of the plants. A 10/50/10 or similar formulation has to be diluted in water and can only be sprayed on the leaves of cuttings starting to root. Once the cuttings are established, switch to a Dynomite or Osmocote slow release fertilizer. A well-balanced 13/13/13 is perfect, and it will not harm the plants in the long run.
Never apply the liquid high phosphorus fertilizer on the soil. P does not leach from the containers. It will accumulate until the plants die.
Like to hear the results of high P from anybody that used the high fertilizer for a long period of time on container grown plumerias.
Hello to you all.
Luc
FCN"
Here, Luc answered a question about slow-release fertilizers:
"Here is the poop on the slow-release fertilizers. They all depend on a process called osmosis.
A particle of complete fertilizer (NPK) is surrounded by a polymer membrane that is permeable to water. As the water penetrates the membrane, it dissolves the plant food and transfers it back through the membrane to the environment surrounding the pellet. There is a chemical balance between the solution inside the pellet and the environment. As the plant food is removed from the soil by rain or by the roots, more chemical transfers through the membrane until all plant foods are transfered and a zero balance is established.
Water is the element that makes the transfer trough the membrane. The temperature of the environment and the type and thickness of the membrane determine how fast the plant food will travel.
Osmocote made in the U.S. with resins from Norway is very affected by temperature. On the label it says 90 days at 70 F in the root zone. If the temps are above that, the plant food transfers faster. This means that, under Florida conditions, Osmocote may only last 30 days at best. Nobody can maintain a 70F temp in the root zone under our Florida conditions. Scott Products came up up with a Florida formulation. It is probably only available in fertilizer warehouses. Various durations 90, 180, 270, 360 days are available with less temp dependence. The thickness of the membrane if the factor.
Multicote made in Israel is a similar product with similar durations but with a much smaller price tag.
Nutricote or Dynamite comes from Japan. The type of polymer membrane is different because the temp of the soil has no effect on the chemical movement through the membrane. Cold or warm, the osmosis transfer is the same. Good for plumerias in the summer, but the fertilizer is released at the same speed in winter when the plants are leafless. It is critical to select a specific duration. We use the 8-month 13/13/13 formula, and we slightly incorporate the pellets. The pellets are pooped out when winter comes.
The problem with Nutricote is the marketing system. Everything comes from Sarasota, Fl. No local stores to buy from. Anybody can drive to Sarasota and purchase it. It can be free delivered in Florida if the purchase is $500 or more. No problem for us. We use a lot of it at over $54 per 50 lb. bag. The price is up again, and we have not ordered yet. A rather expensive proposition if it is purchased in 3lb. or 5 lb. containers at HD. In the long run, it is very practical because the plants in large containers are fertilized once a year.
We cannot afford to use this on the plants growing in the ground. Those receive a good 6/6/6 fertilizer when we think about it. I say good because the Chlorine content is 1% or less. No Muriate of Potash as a source of potassium.
Another type of slow-release fertilizer is the sulfur-coated type. No osmosis involved here. My advice is to shy away from it. That type of fertilizer will drop the pH of the soil in containers like a ton of bricks. Upon reading the label, which everybody must do, you will discover that there is very often 5% to 10% sulfur in that bag. That could be okay for plants growing in the alkaline ground but not those in containers. One year, I lost a whole nursery of Hibiscus because I believed a fertilizer salesman. They are almost as bad as used car salesmen.
Fun to talk about poop and give the poop about it.
Luc
Florida Colors Nursery"
This message was edited Jan 28, 2008 6:27 PM
What I have purchased is Dynamite (not Dynomite) "up to 9 months" 13-13-13 - by Florikan. Can I assume this is the same that Luc mentions here?
I've seen the two spellings used at times, and I'm wondering if it's just accidental or if there is another brand.
where can i find red dynamite?
thanks hetty! i'll check both stores.
Thanks, Hetty.
Yes, I bought mine at HD, too.
This message was edited Jan 28, 2008 2:51 PM
I've edited the typo to avoid confusion:-)
Sorry, Clare, force of habit - I used to proof read for a living.
***
This message was edited Feb 17, 2008 6:21 PM
I said I "used to." LOL I'm retired, so it only kicks in now and then! Do people get tired of you correcting things? One of my co-workers found a typo on the itty bitty print of an eye chart. It's fun sometimes. :-)