I like alfalfa tea for my pot roses. Mulching pots with alfalfa meal mixed with horse manure works, but it overflows and get messy when I water. This week I mixed alfalfa meal with horse manure on Mirandy before it rained non-stop for 3 days, it gained 6 red shoots (2" growth each). In the summer Annie L. McDowell went nuts with alfalfa meal, I had to pinch off 10+ buds per day, so she'll grow roots for the winter.

Below is the tall shoot 3-days-growth from top-dressing Love Ya Dad's pot with alfalfa meal mixed with horse manure.

Be careful with the organics if you have dogs. They will dig alfalfa and other organics out of the soil and eat it.

OK Strawberryhill, alfalfa time. You've convinced me.

eahamel, only a cat.

Thanks!
Diane

I use alfalfa pellets and time-release fertilizer. I have to be careful with the pellets because they swell and get mushy when wet. I have had them rot canes before when they got too close to the canes.

Thanks for the heads up, floridarosez9. I'll make sure to be careful.

Diane

Hi Diane!

First, I'd like to ask you how you have fed the roses in your pet ghetto in the past and what have been the results? If good, I'd be reluctant to change the routine.

I do use fish emulsion but only since last year (before that I didn't have a pot ghetto!!!). It was Marissa at Greenmantle who suggested the fish emulsion, and I have been happy with the results. I think it also depends on which roses are being fed. Many of the old roses which are my preference also tend to be less heavy feeders than many moderns which were often bred without regard to how energy efficient/groceries they require to keep happy. The age of chemical dependence I'm afraid.

I have found that alfalfa and/or horse manure is too rich a diet for the majority of my roses, and I have a garden heavily skewed to oldies such as gallicas, damasks, albas, hybrid perpetuals, and rugosas as well as many species from around the world. Fish emulsion alone is more than plenty (the rugosas don't need even that and are happier without it--at least here!). In addition, my garden is full of California native plants which object rather strenuously to a diet the equivalent of heavy creme sauces!;)

So I'm back to it depends. What I did last year was experiment a little by adding one thing at a time and seeing what happened. If multiple changes are made at the same time, how is one to know which made the difference? I tried feeding one plant of a cultivar one food, and another plant of the same cultivar a different food and then comparing how they did. Repeated the experiment multiple times on those same cultivars as well as others. Fish emulsion had positive results throughout my garden, but most plants fed alfalfa sent up a white flag. Some that actually liked it tended to come from particular classes which do not fare well here in general (teas and chinas), fyi.

The fish emulsion that I've used and liked best is Espomas Gro-Tone (2-2-2) which is unfortunately very hard to acquire locally. It is expensive, comparatively to other fish emulsions (it does smell better though). I've been using it at half the concentration on the label. For roses in the pot ghetto, perhaps once a month. As I no longer have a source for Gro-Tone, I've just switched to Neptune's Harvest (2-4-1--without kelp). It also smells better than many brands of fish emulsion, quite possibly because it (and Gro-Tone) are cold processed. Other brands positively REEK!!!

I just got my pot ghetto down to almost zero. So what did I do? Why naturally ordered a bunch of roses and it has exploded in size again. Within the last month 5 new roses from High Country Roses, 7 from Heirloom, and 6 from Vintage, with another 7 shipping next week from Forestfarm, not to mention multiple suckers/tip roots now in pots from over enthusiastic mother plants. I should be better able to review Neptune's Harvest in the next several months.

Melissa

Floridarose, I use alfalfa meal, which is the same as the pellets, but ground. You have better control over it and can dig it in, and it there isn't enough in one place to get mushy.

I use fish emulsion every two weeks. Good stuff in my opinion, though it gets more and more exspensive.

Eahamel, I use the pellets because they have no additives. The brand my feed store carries has salt in both the cubes and meal. I'm not sure why the difference.

Florida, someone else was saying that, I think the one with salt is fed to rabbits a lot. I get mine from a nursery supply that sells organic stuff and they have both pellets and the meal, both recommended by our local rose society.

Really appreciate the responses and will proceed with trying fish emulsion.

Melissa, thanks for your detailed response. I've been using a combo of compost/manure mixed with potting soil and as a top dressing. Sometimes I've used Osmocote. Am wondering if I've made it too rich as I've got Gallicas, HPs, Portlands and Noisettes. Some are growing well, some are not.

Diane

I use Mills Magic Rose Mix. It has the alfalfa in it plus other good organics too. Have had very good luck with it.

Thanks for this reminder. I have been neglecting mine and it shows. I went out and scattered the appropriate amount of Dr Earth and watered it in.

Rosefolly

When you want them to grow, a high nitrogen fertilizer works, then switch to one high in phosphate and potassium to induce blooms. Ive used a professional time release lawn fertilizer on some of my potted plants in the spring and been pleasantly surprised on how well it worked! I recently bought cotton seed meal-has anyone tried that or blood meal on their roses? I do know my roses respond well to water soluble nitrogen when I see they they have ceased growing. I was also told that rust and Epsom salts help roses! I dont know if Epsom salts would help me since I have naturally high calcium and magnesium here-probably too much calcium for the roses to be really happy and Im assuming enough magnesium TO make them happy. Im going to add some sulfur soon to bring down the PH in the beds. The pots do much better than the beds with a mix of peat moss and soil/compost. Im assuming the peat is acidifying the soil enough to bring down the PH to the near neutral PH they like.

I use a fish emulsion. Even fish smell better than alfalfa, lol!

Seil is right. I used alfala meal and I have to hold my breadth until I turn blue. It's not much the smell, but I don't want a alfalfa-nose-plug. A smart rose grower here suggested alfalfa hay, which is cheaper. I'm going to topdress with that stuff, and will post pic.

This summer I did an experiment with my pots: MiracleGro soluble fertilizer (NPK 18-24-16), Osmocote (NPK 19-6-12), granular high nitrogen fertilizer (NPK 10-5-6), and alfalfa meal. Alfalfa meal netted the biggest growth, which I posted the picture earlier. Why? It has no salt, contains growth hormone, and since it's sticky, it doesn't get flush out.

Top-dressing pots with alfalfa meal mixed with soil is great, but A-meal in the planting hole was a disaster, it glued up to my heavy clay and made a "concrete" cast around rose's roots. I dug my rose and saw the root enclosed in a "concrete" cast of alfalfa meal and clay. Nice rose pottery!