hi all, i am a beginner when it comes to growing plants. i'm interested in growing some herbs on my apartment patio. my question is this: is liquid fertilizer safe to use on these herbs i'm going to be cooking w/ or should i buy the fertilizer that i mix into the soil? TIA.
mk =)
With the exception of garlic, shallots, onions , and tarragon almost all of the culinary herbs do well without fertilizer, They are from poor soil originally. A nice mulch of sifted compost would be good. If you decide to feed use whatever is handy the difference between solid fertilizer and liquid is usually water. Just use it sparingly.
I`ve grown herbs on my balcony since 1986 quite sucesfully, you`ll fin that most herbs don`t like too much feed at all, many are quite happ in plain soil for many years with nothing but rain water and tap wate during dryer seasons. a general rule of thumb though, is that if it`s a leafy type of her (basil, parsley etc..) a little nitrogen is good for them on occasion perhaps a little potash (potassium) if they flower (chives, rosemar etc..) and if it`s for roots (ginger especialy) a little Phosphoru won`t hurt :) but you`ll find that you`ll not really NEED to add any, but if you do be sure that the plant will only take what it needs and your foo liquid or solid will not make your herbs inedible in anyway! the worst that can happen is that you`ll be wasting the food or you`l burn the roots if the plant is very young or your mix is too strong. all plant food is safe on edibles, except where mixed with herbicide or pesticides, but a drop of baby-bio or miricle grow won`t hurt thing :
- YT209 Say it with Flowers,,,Give her a Triffid :
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For plants in general, liquid fertilizer is a good "quick pick-me-up" (like coffee in the morning for us) but for sustained growth the granular fertilizer is best.
Bob
What are you planting them in? Soilless potting "soils" like house plant potting mix? Or are you using a mix of dirt/sand/peat?
If you're using a house plant or planter mix that is Soilless, you've pretty much got to feed them some. If you're using miracle grow, or schultz plant foods, you can use them, but I generally diluted them at
1/4 strength if I was using it to water nearly every time I watered. I'd probably try that for half the waterings of herbs in a Soilless mix, as there isn't anything else for them to get nutrients from, but they do like lean soils, generally hot well drained soils are the norm for things like true Greek Oregano, thymes, rosemary may be a bit different climate, but it grows into a shrub where it's warm enough for it to survive over winter..hence the resinous quality.As others have mentioned, juicier herbs like basil and marjoram you can treat bit more like house plants and water with diluted plant food each time you water if in potting soil.
You want to give them enough nutrient to thrive, but not so much it creates "salts" in the soil and along the edge of th pot. If you see a whitish crystalline deposit on the edges of the pot, that would be a sign of too much chemical fertilizer. But you'd notice the plants having trouble before that I'd imagine ;-)
Foliar feeding can be done by spraying the leaves with a mix of fish emulsion too, but usually the stuff is only sold by the gallon, so unless you have other plants, might be kind of hard to use up!
Janice
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