The variety of garden ornamental plants is simply amazing - coniferous and deciduous shrubs, trees - flowering and evergreen, undersized, soil covering and more ... All these plants make the gardens and parks look beautiful. But in order to keep such plantings healthy, viable and aesthetically appealing, we should make a lot of efforts, in particular to provide them with the most important nutrients.
So when and how to start fertilizing flowering shrubs?
In order to get abundant and long-lasting flowering, it is necessary to properly plan the nutrition throughout the growing season. It is important to keep in mind that during flowering and bud formation the plants make extensive use of soil nutrients, which means that additional efforts are needed to provide the plant with all the necessary elements.
In fact, the basis of health of flowering shrubs is laid already at planting. After preparing the place, you can add some rotten manure or compost, as well as 100 to 120 grams of NPK into each hole and above. The root system of seedlings should be treated with stimulating products, such as GROS Rootgrowth (optimally - soak the roots before planting in 0.03% solution for 6 - 8 hours). The effect of such products is to reduce stress in plants from transplanting, stimulate the growth of the root system and its nutrition. In addition, GROS Rootgrowth has a fungistatic effect that will inhibit the development of pathogenic microflora, which is very important for the weakened plant.
During the initial growth period, all the energy of the seedling is spent on the formation of a strong, well-developed root system and on the formation of new shoots. After the plant has "settled" at a constant place of growth, it is worthwhile to do some more fertilization - either with irrigation or by spraying. The goal is to ensure the active growth and development of both the vegetative mass and the root system. This can be done by introducing nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizers (and liquid fertilizers are most convenient). For this purpose, we recommend a special liquid fertilizer GROS Phosphito-NP in the rate of 2 l / 200 l of water (1% solution), application of which will not only provide the plants with nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus in the form of phosphite), but will also protect against diseases. Such nutrition is needed by mid-July (once a month). For flowering shrubs, it is necessary to add ECOLINE Boron (Opti) 1 l / 200 l of water (0,5% solution) for prolonged time and increase of flowering intensity and additional nutrition of plants with microelements.
From mid-July, the nutrition system is changing significantly. By this time, the growth of shoots should already stop, otherwise they will not have time to fully mature by winter and will be damaged by frost. All nitrogen fertilizers should be completely excluded from the nutrition of bushes. But phosphorous and potassium feeding continues for another 3 months. They improve the timber and help lay the buds of flowering next year. During this period, it is recommended to apply ECOLINE Phosphite (K) 1.5 l / 200 l water (0.75% solution) and ECOLINE Boron (Opti) 1 l / 200 l water (0.5% solution). Using these products will help the plants to accumulate enough sugars and plastic substances and prepare for wintering.
