feeding details

[Frank]

Dear all,

Maybe because I just start my gardening life, I try to make sure the care I give to my plants is correctly done, sometimes maybe care too much about the details.

My question is about the feeding. I water my plants once a week on Saturdays and plan to feed every other weekend. I do not have land so all the plants are in the containers. Should I feed after watering or just count feeding watering as one watering? During the normal watering, I can see a lot of water coming out from the bottom, I just keep on adding water. Sometimes the plants will suck the water back from bottom saucer. The suggestion I got from this board is that I should discard the excess water after say half an hour. But if I do this for the feeding watering (the every other week one), that means I have to make a large volume of plant food solution to afford the same level of water consumption as the normal watering and discard the excess volume (or save for next time?). Is this what you normally do for pot plants? How much nutritional solution do you let pass the roots?

I also try to keep the habit of soaking + draining Azalea and orchid every Saturday. That means if I want to feed Azalea and orchid, it will be after soaking. Or, do you actually soak them in plant food solution? That means I have to make a large volume of food solution every weekend!

My question may sound silly. But as you can see, I'm quite enthusiastic about my new gardening adventure. :-) Could you please share how you do the feeding/soaking/watering etc.?

Thanks a lot, Tiff

[Phisherman]

[Hal]

There is more than one way to skin a cat and several ideas on watering plants. I prefer to use the saucer under the pot for several plants, watering until the saucer fills. Coleus like plenty of water and African violets don't like water on the leaves and I like a saucer for both of these plants. Other pots I simply measure the amount of water so I don't overflow the pot tray built on the bottom of the pot, and don't use a saucer. I sometimes use 1/2, or 1/4 strength fertilizer mix instead of watering, some use as directed fertilizer strength mix instead of watering every other week, or once a month. Not much point in fertilizing immediately after watering, or watering after fertilizing, the fertilizer is washed out with the overflow.

Regards,

Hal

[escapee]

Actually, that's a bit incorrect. Fertilizing plants in containers is done more frequently because it's their only source of fertilizer. Plants can stretch much farther in the ground for fertilizer or nutrients.

In my containers, I use Osmocote. It's not a organic fertilizer, but it's a prill which releases a small amount of fertilizer each time I water.

For food plants, like tomatoes in containers, I use manure tea, seaweed, and fish emulsion. I also amend the potting mix using compost before I plant to assure there are plenty of bacteria and fungi in the container. These organisms make any fertilizer or nutrients more available to the plants in containers, and in the ground.

v