I'm cautious about organic time release fertilizer. I would use only once for cold zone (6 months of growth), and twice for warm zone. Small correction needed there. You are assuming all time released fertilizers work on a 6 month basis. I believe that if you read the small print, you will find that some of them work on either a 3 month or a 4 month basis also. Just depends on which type you buy. If gardeners enjoy fussing this much over their roses, then go to it! Whatever works is fine. Myself, I've been gardening for 30 years and don't put in anywhere close to that much effort--and I'll put up my roses against anybody's else's. Basically, unless you have really abnormal soil, I don't think you need to do all that messing with it. I usually add a couple shovel's full of humus or manure or something like that at planting time. Some years I add a circle of manure around the rose--other years I don't. Other than that, about all a rose needs is regular watering (rain or hose) and an occasional feeding of a balanced fertilizer (10-10-10, for instance). Some springs I've been too busy to get to a spring feeding. Guess what--the roses bloomed beautifully anyway. Like most people here, I like alfalfa--I may spread it once a year -- or not, depending on whether I have time or not. The roses still bloom beautifully, either way. And like most gardeners here, I avoid insecticides. There are usually other ways to handle insects--like, be patient and wait for the good bugs to arrive and eat 'em up. Amazing how often that works quite well! I do spray a fungicide occasionally, but I go out of my way to plant only highly disease-resistant roses, so many of my roses need little or no spraying of fungicide. In other words, get back to basics. Give the roses sun, water them regularly (rain or hose), and feed them occasionally. That about covers most of their needs as far as I'm concerned. Oh, I forgot one other essential--lots of mulch! : ) That's my most time-consuming chore--refreshing the mulch each year. Kate

That was interesting,I will be using the computer to look up things in my free time too. I have tons of books but they've been reread too much as it is. It sucks that these bugs and pathogens can wipe out a country full of a particular tree. If oak wilt gets big like that I'll have a nearly empty yard.Maybe the white oaks will be okay. One thing though, I can see fertilizing to help vigor but wouldn't that make the foliage more attractive to leaf eaters?You hear alot of conflicting things about fertilizing. I bought a big sack of powdered seaweed, it's supposed to have trace minerals and good for all plants. I read the " nutrients" and it has 9% sodium.Sorry for dragging on, I'm gonna see what the soil, mulch forum think of the seaweed, there is some interesting stuff on there, too. poaky1

. . . . "Host Plant Resistance Although there is no real resistance in Citrus spp. to citrus greening disease, some species and cultivars are somewhat tolerant. Koizumi et al. (1993) did extensive field surveys showing that some cultivars were less susceptible to decline than others. Most of the sweet orange trees became infected with the pathogen and subsequently declined, while grapefruit was more tolerant. In general, sweet oranges, mandarins and tangelos are most susceptible, grapefruit and lemon are more resistant, and limes, Poncirus trifoliata and citranges are the most tolerant (Lee 1996). Cultural Control Management of citrus greening in areas where the disease is endemic depends largely upon cultural control. Infected limbs and trees should be removed as symptoms appear. The pathogen apparently moves fairly slowly within the plant after infection, so severe pruning can be helpful. For African greening, Buitendag & von Broembsen (1993) make the following recommendations: If the infected tree is 5 years old or less, remove the tree. If it is between 6 and 10 years, remove it if it is 75% infected; otherwise remove branches. If it is more than 10 years old, remove affected branches up to 40% of the tree. Do not plant young resets in old groves affected by greening. The tendency for suckers that sprout after pruning to be infected with greening depends upon the diameter of the branches. Branches 10-19 mm in diameter grew no suckers. Among branches 20 mm in diameter or more, the smallest ones were most likely to produce infected suckers (86% for branches 20-29 mm, as compared with 29% for those that were 40-60 mm) (van Vuuren 1993). Roistacher (1996) cited a Chinese program for rehabilitation of citrus in Fujian Province in which cultural control played a major part. Windbreaks were established to protect plants from psyllid vectors (although the efficacy of barriers for protection from a persistently transmitted pathogen is questionable). Trees were examined regularly for citrus greening disease, and all infected trees were immediately removed and replaced with healthy trees from a certified citrus stock program at the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Ke & Xu 1990). In another Chinese program, part of the control program involved hand-removal of summer flush in high density citrus plantings following rice cultivation (Aubert 1990b). " Here is a link that might be useful: Some tolerances to citrus greening

Khalid wrote in another thread: "Then I stopped spraying even any organic matter. I gave more calcium to my roses which made the soft branches and leaves harder thus making it relatively unattractive for the pests. This reduced the affected bushes / leaves to a good extent." Agree with Khalid, folks in rainy climate lime their soil, either in late fall or early spring, depending on how many inches of rain they get. Rain is acidic at pH 5.6, as the pH drops, less calcium and potassium are available. The best lime to use is Espoma Garden Lime (sold at Walmart for $10 per 5 lb.). It has 20% calcium and 10% magnesium ... both are essential in keeping leaves thick so pests cannot invade. From the above chart, around pH 5.6 (rain water), less molybdenum, less magnesium, less calcium are available. Next nutrients that are less: phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen. I already posted in Organic Rose my experiment that I did with 2 identical Thai basil: I lowered the pH of one with acidic cracked corn (pH 4), plus gypsum (17% sulfur) .. that Thai basil' leaves became pale, plus THINNER due to less calcium and magnesium available. Then I saw blackspots on a Thai basil for the 1st time !! The other basil I planted in my alkaline clay (pH near 8), and it's twice taller plus really thick & glossy leaves (more available nitrogen, potassium, sulfur, calcium, and magnesium). But leaves were just a bit pale due to less iron at high pH, so I gave it blood meal, has chelated iron, and leaves became dark green. I once planted a bok-choy vegetable next to my patio with a limestone base, so the soil is very alkaline, pH 8. The leaves were dark-green, but its so tough that I boiled it for one hour, and it's STILL so fibrous that my teeth can't handle, let alone some tiny pests like aphids, rose slugs, or midge. Rose slugs (sawfly larvae) are very rare in my alkaline clay, unless I lower the pH with my experiments: Put acidic cracked corn (pH 4) in potting soil, and roses got rose-slugs from THINNER LEAVES in acidic rain (calcium, magnesium, and potassium drops when pH drops). Mirandy rose got a big-fat rose-slug on it for the 1st time. Why? It's next to a tree, and the tree robs the soil of calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Plus tree roots secret acid, so the soil became even more acidic with rain (pH of rain is 5.6). Used molasses, plus vinegar, plus sulfate of potash (21% sulfur), plus gypsum (17% sulfur) ... such acidic solution made leaves thinner, plus the stinky molasses really attract sawfly which give birth to rose-slugs. CONCLUSION: The best solution for pests is to raise soil pH by using dolomitic lime such as Espoma Garden lime (20% calcium and 10% magnesium). My soil is dolomitic clay, so I don't have midge, rose-slugs (sawfly larvae), nor aphids, unless I use acidic fertilizer. When there's tons of acidic rain, I throw pea-gravel on top of roses that like it alkaline, pea-gravel has many alkaline minerals to make leaves thick, glossy, and to prevent pests.