Recommend me a plant for acid loving shrubs

Sorry guys, if this is common knowledge but all new to me, I have a few pieris and a rhody in possesion, oh and a skimmia fragrant cloud too.. all acid loving,

Do they need top dressing with ericascious compost once a year in Spring (as the label says), but what about regular feeding the plants? Is miracle gro stuff all chemicals, I'd hate it to disturb all my lovely worms, is there any other feed one can recommend and how often ?

Is feeding container plants any different to the ones in ground apart from more water?

Any help appreciated to this garden newbie.

Thanks

 

Is this for plants in containers, or ones planted in the ground?

Yeah, but so is any fertiliser ... even "manure" Miracle gro won't hurt the worms. Use the Ericaceous version for acid-loving plants.

 

I use the Miracle Gro Slow Release Plant Food for ericaceous plants which feeds them for several months. I bought a pot in 2011 and still have plenty left (and I have quite a few ericaceous plants). A mulch with ericaceous compost around the roots in spring with the granules sprinkled round the drip line.

They also get a (very diluted) liquid feed every month or so from May to July with Vitax Seaweed plus Sequestered Iron

Mine are mostly in containers and they do need a bit more TLC as the goodness leaches out of the compost pretty quickly.

 

Totally spot on advice guys, loving these forums already..]

Kristen, all my acid loving plants are planted except for one, the Pieris mountain fire is in its original pot but leaves wilting a little and leaves turning yellow so need help asap with this one, planted ones are fine ! I have been ensuring the rootball is moist daily , I suspect it may be becuase my daughter pulled the plant out of the container and then I put it back in, maybe air sneaking in? Problems started after this unfortunate event.

Just read the reviews on Amazon for the granules where someone said,

"One tip: don't apply these granules too late in the growing season because you'll get tender, leggy growth in the autumn which will succumb to frost and snow. "

You know where this is heading dont you, my next question, when is the growing season for a Rhody and pieris plants ? I have planted 2 out of the 3 pieris plants in the soil with ericascious compost / my soil mixed with bonemeal, this was about a month ago, so when can I start with additional feeding for these ? Shall I get the liquid feed as mentioned above for the monthly feeds? Does this not cause any tender leggy growth if this is the growing season, im confused ! :s


I read online somewhere that using bonemeal on acid loving plants is a big no no as it increases PH, is this true ?

Sorry for so many questions.. its a whole new worm to me, I mean world.

 

All MiracleGrow is, is the minerals that are naturally present in the soil anyway. Except that we disturb the natural cycle a bit in our gardens and take stuff away, so there is a gradual loss of such nutrients. MiracleGrow and the likes put them back.

My only concern with 'neat' feeds like MiracleGrow, is that it is possible to overdose the garden on it. I see it as slow release vs quick release. Manure and other such organic feeds are the former. The nutrients are there but not available to the plants until soil microbes have got to work on them, taking time to unlock the raw nutrients. Whereas the chemical solutions are available immediately. Sounds good, and is, until you consider that the minerals are largely just salts. When the concentration of such salts is higher in the ground than it is in the plant tissue, osmosis can't happen so the plant starves and dehydrates. I think you'd have to spill the whole box on the floor for that to happen though.

 

" The nutrients are there but not available to the plants until soil microbes have got to work on them, taking time to unlock the raw nutrients. Whereas the chemical solutions are available immediately."

clueless - im now confused, What are you recommending - Which chemical solutions? - I have already added manure and compost to my existing clay soil prior to planting to break it up a bit, are you suggesting that miracle slow realease granules for acid loving plants can cause overdosing or have I got the wrong end of the stick, I thought it was slow release, sorry just trying to absorb your above post best I can.

 

wilting either means too much water, or too little ... the way I tell is to pick up the pot and feel the "weight" of it. Takes a bit of experience to gauge whether a pot is light & needs water, or not.

For an ericaceous plant my first thought would be to give it some sequestred iron (Murphy make a suitable sachet product, no doubt there are others). If you have been feeding it Miracle gro (dunno about the ericaceous version) it might be Magnesium deficiency as there is no Mg in Miracle Gro (dunno why ... probably not needed for single-season crops ...). You can fix that with Epsom Salts (Google for the dilution rates - its only a teaspoon in a watering can, or something like that).

Some sequestred iron on your ground-planted plants will probably help. If you have hard water don't water them from the tap, use rainwater instead.

Bonemeal probably not a good idea full stop. Bit of a sweeping statement! but there is increasing evidence that it disrupts the micro-fauna. Wood ash will certainly increase the pH, not sure about Bonemeal per se.

Avoid Nitrogen later on in the season (September onwards say). That's what encourages fresh/vigorous growth. If you are using slow release fertiliser beware how much nitrogen it has if you are applying it later on in the season. Fertiliser should have an N:P:K ratio on it, the first one is Nitrogen, so if the ratio is "High number : Low number : Low number: then that means it has proportionately higher levels of Nitrogen.

 

Just make sure you get the dose as per the instructions and you'll be fine. Being "generous" to help the plant won't work, and may make it sick - same as trying to force feed a child that is not very tall!!

 

Sorry, I didn't know MiracleGrow had brought out slow release granules. When you mentioned MiracleGrow, I was thinking of the blue crystals you mix yourself in water. This is the stuff that I meant is essentially just salts. Slow release granules are usually the same stuff bit mixed in with fairly inert stuff that effectively prevents all the salts escaping at once. I guess it would still be possible to OD on them but you'd need an awful lot more to do any harm I guess than would be the case with the neat stuff.

 

Cheers Kristen, so in a nutshell, If i go and get this miracle feed today, follow instructions and place the granules under the drip lines as per instructions on my skimmia and pieris plants that have been planted in the ground a month ago, I will be fine ? and the feeding wont be an overkill considering these were planted in ericasious compost / manure / soil / bonemeal mix ? Or Shall I just place the granules next spring ?

Thanks!!

 

The Miracle Gro granules feed for up to six months, and you don't want to feed them after August as they may put on leggy growth which can easily be killed off by the first frosts. If it were me I would play safe and get some liquid Miracle Gro or seaweed with sequestered iron and water it once a month in a very dilute solution until August, then stop until the following spring and use the granules then

TIP : Don't overfeed as it's worse than underfeeding.

Re the Pieris in the pot, I would say daily watering is too much. Wait until it dries out a bit (shove your finger in the pot about an inch down and if it's dry then water it). Give it a good drench (until the water starts coming out the bottom of the pot) when it's needed rather than more frequent watering.

 

Thankyou Merleworld , I see the logic in all of that, I also have non acid plants such as Eunymous emerald and gold, emerald geity, etc just planted too, what about those ? Shall I also get a different liquid feed for those TO APPLY till August, and then get the appropriate granules for those for spring too? Recommend me one?

So do I not need the bonemeal in Spring for the non acid ones if using the non acid granules?

Thanks!

 

The vast majority of my plants are acid loving (both in the ground or in pots) but I do have some others, for which I follow the same process, but with Miracle Gro slow release for general use (not the ericaceous one). There are lots of other fertilisers about though such as Osmocote, Growmore, etc which I haven't used so don't know if they are any good.

I have some general purpose Miracle Gro liquid as well, plus some Vitax organic liquid seaweed. If they are in the ground and growing in the right kind of soil, then they will need a lot less TLC than if they were in pots, so maybe just give them a couple of feeds between end June and mid August and then leave them to their own devices until spring.

 

Brilliant, this is going to take a big beating on my wallet but its worth it !

So all in you use..

For Acid Plants = Acid Loving slow release granules to apply in Spring and Vitax with sequestered iron for light/diluted liquid feeds before Autumn

For Non Acid Plants = general Miracle Gro granules to apply in Spring + a different Vitax bottle as mentioned in your last post + Miracle Gro liquid plant food, can I get either the Vitax or Miracle Gro liquid feed or better to have both and use either of them ?

Once I have a set procedure to follow, It makes it alot easier, so I dont fear killing them

Thankyou for such wonderful easy to digest advice everyone !

 

yeah, sounds fine. Some additional feed (from manure, whatever) won't do any harm - assuming you don't pile the manure on several feet thick!!

I wouldn't put the granules just under the drip line, that may encourage them to dissolve more quickly. Spread them around the plant, when it rains that will wash in (periodically) and do the trick. All the root area then gets "some"

I think 6-month slow release would be better used a bit earlier in the year, but I'm always sceptical that it carries on "at full tilt" until the time period is up! so may be fine now. There is 3-month release too ... dunno what period is available for Miracle Gro slow release - best to check the packet. Otherwise as Merleworld suggests you could do fortnightly or monthly liquid feed, and you can reduce strength if you wish, particularly towards the end of the season. Or switch to a low Nitrogen liquid feed later on. (Chempak have a range of speciality fertilisers. They mix up to make a HUGE amount, so will last you a long time - works out cheaper than buying liquid fertiliser, but slightly less convenient having to dissolve them first - its definitely NOT hard though ... liquid feed just for convenience, a bit like ready-meals )

It comes down to cost vs. convenience. In a small garden the cost difference between one type and another probably doesn't make much difference, unless you are on a very tight budget. Slow-release usually the most expensive, but most convenient. Liquid feed will be next, and granular feed (that you dissolve) will be cheapest - you aren't paying for the weight/ volume of water in liquid feed to be transported to you

If you don't use slow-release then you can choose what to apply, in the various seasons, and if you want to become fanatical about growing, say, the largest Pumkin in the Guinness Book of Records then chances are you will have to become expert at adjusting the feed you use ... for the rest of us, wanting a healthy looking plant that performs well, I think its splitting hairs worrying too much about Brand A vs. Brand B. Amount of nitrogen at various times in the year, and possibly some Potash for flowering/fruiting, is definitely good enough.

There are a few plants (Brugmansia for example) that respond well to gross overfeeding ... but there are not many, and there are many more that will get sick instead ...

Could also stand the pot in a bowl of water for 10 minutes (don't leave it longer). This would work well if the pot has dried out a lot, particularly if you find that watering from the top runs straight through (around the sides of the rootball).

Definitely agree that a good decent watering, less frequently, is better than little-and-often, although in a pot there is not much "reserve" for the plant to draw on, so don't push the plant to the point where it wilts from lack of water

I don't think it will do any harm using ericaceous feed on non-ericaceous plants, but I expect that fertiliser is more expensive?

There isn't a set formula to this. If you use something (appropriate!) at around the recommended dose your plants will look a lot better for it than if you just left them to use only whatever happens to be in the soil.

In containers its different, the nutrients will only get replaced when you provide something ...

Keep in mine that the runoff, and "pollution", from fertiliser overuse is FAR FAR worse from gardens / gardeners than it is from agriculture, so us gardeners chuck way too much of the stuff on! - although I guess there is a much larger area in agricultural use so it gets the blame.

Most of the chemicals the plants need are readily available in the soil, Nitrogen is the one that you can provide that makes a difference. It is worth boosting the Pottasium / Potash during/after flowering/fruiting; in the main the rest are included in the fertilisers to ensure that there is enough in the soil ... better would be to test your soil and only add what is actually needed; not many gardeners do that ... in agriculture the cost of the fertilisers, and the area to cover, means that it is cost effective for farmers to do that, and try to only use add will actually make a difference

So don't worry about it too much just try not to overdose the plants too much