How to fertilize roses in spring and summer for a lush flowering

Roses need lots of care and plenty of long blooms so they don’t just enjoy occasional, solitary buds, but also plenty of fertilizer to keep them going.

Rosaries never go out of style. Despite the capriciousness of roses and the sharp thorns that often injure enthusiastic rose growers, many dreams of planting a beautiful flowering bush on their plot. But to make their dreams come true, they need a little extra nutrition.

The people of the German town of Hildesheim think that they have the oldest rose bush in Germany. According to legend, it was planted in 815. Botanists, in turn, suggest that this bush is more than 400 years old.

The main importance for the stimulation of abundant flowering is phosphorus. It affects the size of flowers and the number of buds, and also promotes the formation of new roots. You can fertilize plants with phosphorus all season long. But it is a mistake to use only phosphorous fertilizer on roses. Potassium also plays a role in bud formation. Roses also need nitrogen to promote healthy green growth.

Apply it in spring because nitrogen fertilizers in the autumn make roses less winter hardy. If you overfeed your rose with nitrogen, it will bloom later and make the plant more susceptible to disease. Magnesium (which comes first during bud setting and affects the brightness of the petals), iron (to prevent chlorosis), and boron and manganese are also helpful.

How to fertilize

There are different methods of fertilizing. For example, you can step back from the stem by 15 cm and, being careful not to damage the roots, make a shallow circular furrow. Fill it with fertilizer mixed with black earth, and then cover it with soil. Experienced gardeners say that with such an application, the fertilizer will partially dissolve during watering or rains, and the plant will receive all the necessary substances gradually.

It is important to remember that the fertilizer should not be applied in wet soil, this can lead to root burn.

Following foliar fertilizers are good for roses, because they can be taken up quickly through the leaves without changing the soil composition. Both mineral and organic fertilizers can be used. Watering and spraying too late in the evening (after dusk) is not advisable, since the moisture which has not had time to evaporate can cause fungus.

You can spray in the morning or evening, as the sun evaporates or loses its properties, and the plants can get burnt

But remember, foliar feedings cannot be a full-fledged alternative to root feedings.

Fertilizing roses with organic fertilizers

Some novice rose growers prefer to use only complex preparations, completely forgetting about organic fertilizers. Meanwhile, the latter increases the fertility of the soil reduces the number of weeds, as well as attract beneficial worms.

If you carry out mulching in the fall, placing peat or compost around the rose bushes, the root system will grow faster.

Feeding with chicken manure is carried out in the spring during the development of plants, as well as during flowering. This organic fertilizer can easily burn the roots, so it is important not to exceed the dosage. After all, as popular wisdom says, “Less is better. Fresh manure is diluted with water 1:20, decomposed – 1:10. The solution is infused for five days and then diluted with water at a ratio of 1:3.

Cow manure is diluted with water 1:10, infused for a week, and then diluted again at a ratio of 1:2. The first feeding should be done with the onset of heat, because in cold weather roses poorly absorb nutrients.

Spring applications of chicken manure and cow manure will be especially beneficial to young plants.

If you have planted a rose bush directly under your windows, an infusion of weeds can be used as an alternative, less aromatic fertilizer. A container should be filled with chopped grass, haulm or weeds by 3/4, add 2 tbsp. of soda ash. Fill the remaining 2/3 of the container with water and wait for the composition to ferment properly. After straining, you need to dilute the infusion with water in the proportion of 3:10 and spend foliar feeding. Just keep in mind: weed infusion can not be prepared during their insemination period.

For abundant flowering, it is important to combine mineral fertilizers with organics

Fertilizing roses with mineral fertilizers

If young plants in the spring prefer organics, mature plants prefer ammonium to nitrate. Fertilizing with ammonium nitrate can be started immediately after the snow melts (20-30 g per 1 sq. m.).

To ensure roses abundant flowering in May is better to use potassium-phosphate compositions (10 g of superphosphate and potassium sulfate per 10 liters of water). Feeding is desirable to repeat in June. In July, 500 g of chicken manure and 10 g of nitrophoska are added to the solution. At the same period, you can add wood ash, which normalizes the acidity of the soil. Roses are fed with ashes in the second year after transplanting. Dissolve 100 g of ashes in 10 liters of water for root feeding, and 200 g of ashes per 10 liters of water for foliar feeding.

Lush flowering that delights the eye and arouses admiration can be serious stress for the rose bush because the plant consumes a lot of nutrients. If you want your rose bush to bloom as profusely next year, it is important to feed it in the fall. Nitrogen fertilizers are not used in this period, because they provoke the growth of the green mass, and the plant simply will not have time to prepare for winter. But the green pets need potassium for a successful winter, as well as phosphorus. Therefore, a mixture of 16 g of potassium monophosphate and 15 g of superphosphate dissolved in 10 liters of water can be used in autumn.

You can also prepare a solution of 1 tbsp of superphosphate 1 tbsp of potassium sulfate per 10 liters of water. No more than 4 liters of solution can be poured under one bush.

Yeast dressing can be an alternative. 10 g of dry yeast and 2 tbsp of sugar are diluted in 10 liters of warm water. After two hours, the infusion should be diluted with 50 liters of water and water the plants.

Because yeast infusion actively removes potassium from the soil, immediately after such feeding the soil around the rose bushes is desirable to sprinkle ash

Fertilizing roses with ready-made compound fertilizers

The undoubted advantage of ready-made complex fertilizers is the ease of use. Usually, it’s enough to add a few caps of the compound in water and water or spray the plants. Fertilizer can accelerate the setting of the buds, increasing the number and size of inflorescences, as well as making the color of the roses brighter.

Do not place compound fertilizer on transplanted plants until two weeks after they have been transplanted.

Whichever fertilizer you choose, remember that it is all about moderation. Not only can over-fertilizing harm the plants, but it can also make the soil worse. And reclaiming it will take extra time and money.