If it is growing so fast on its own then i dont think you need to fertilize it.
I got one early october and it has not put on any new growth.

I was under the impression that you should fertilize plants when they're in their optimum growing period. Is that not correct??

Is it possible the coconut fiber is supplying some nutrition?

I am amazed your plant is growing. I have had mine a month or so in a north window and it hasn't grown at all.
But as I understand it that is typical for ZZ in winter.

I've been reading a lot about houseplants since I started this new hobby, and all of it says to NOT fertilize when the plant is dormant.
I don't know if the opposite would apply when it is growing in the winter.
Hopefully someone with more experience will comment.

It is never mandatory to fertilize any plants.
They have to ability to grow just fine on thier own.
If you do decide to fertilize go with a basic 10-10-10 water soluble one and wait until spring. I would not fertilize at this time of the year, but you can do what ever you want with your plant.

Wish mine was putting out new growth.

Here is a picture of my plant when I first brought it to the office.

Here is my first growth that shot up at the end of September.

This is my third shoot that's about 2 inches long now.

And this is my brand new (4th) shoot that I noticed on Wednesday!

boy, you must be doing something right!

Even a soil with only a 20% organic component would be considered to be high in organic matter (OM) when compared with the soil in our gardens and beds, and some breakdown of the hydrocarbon chains that make up the OM into elemental forms the plant can take up will occur - but not enough. People that grow in pots should take control over the nutrition their plants get, and not rely on the breakdown of soil components to provide nutrition.

Most houseplants slow down significantly in the winter, but don't stop using nutrients to slowly grow and to keep their systems orderly. It IS a good thing to have an appropriate measure of nutrients in the soil and available, but how efficiently the grower can do that depends on how the grower can water. If you are forced to water in small sips to prevent long periods of soil saturation, you have a fertilizing problem that needs special attention to work around. If you can flush the soil when you water w/o having to worry about the soggy soil issue - it's very simple to maintain an appropriate level of nutrition all through the winter, a level that assures enough nutrition so there are no deficiencies yet not so much the plant can't take up water or is forced to deal with problems associated with the ratio of nutrients in the soil becoming badly skewed.

The incentives for using soils you can water correctly are many.

Al

I have been told it's in coconut fiber which I believe is inorganic?

My phone posted the above twice. Sorry

This post was edited by fly_gal on Fri, Nov 28, 14 at 21:08

Anything with a carbon base is organic, so anything that started as a plant or animal, each comprised of hydrocarbon chains would be organic. Peat moss is a common soil fraction, which is also organic, as would be pine bark for those that use it in soils.

Soil ingredients that do not contain carbon, like perlite, vermiculite, sand, gravel, Turface, Haydite ..... would be on the list of inorganic materials.

Al