You're going to slap yourself in the forehead for not just knowing this, Andrea. You know the Miracle Gro Feeders you find at Home Depot, Lowe's and your garden centers? They foliar feed. You can also add a water soluble fertilizer, fish emulsion or sea weed/kelp liquid to your fungicidal or insecticidal pump sprayer when you spray, if you spray. Easy, peasy!

If you spray, put a tablespoon per gallon of spray mixture of your favorite water soluble or however many spoons full of your liquid organic stuff its label recommends per gallon, shake well and spray away. Each type will suggest how much to add per gallon of water. If you use a two gallon sprayer, add enough for two gallons of water. If you don't spray, you can still use a pump sprayer with only water and the liquid or water soluble fertilizer of your choice, or just get the brand of hose end fertilizer applicator of your choice. Miracle Gro is the most common most places. There are two types; the crystal water soluble one which is the most cost effective in my opinion, and the liquid feeder which requires their bottles of liquid fertilizer.

The instructions will tell you how many square feet of garden you should be able to feed per jar of product in how many minutes. Figure out how many square feet of garden you have, then time yourself to determine how quickly you should move through your garden holding the feeder "raining" on the plants. I prefer the No Clog Feeder from Miracle Gro because you can use Vigoro, or any other brand of crystalline, water soluble fertilizer you wish. Most state to use one tablespoon per gallon of water, which is what Miracle Gro says to use, so the other brands with the same application rate suggestion can be substituted for the brand name. Many come in both All Purpose or Rose and Flower formulations. I'm cheap. I use whatever is available at the best price. As long as it's the right type, the plants can't read and won't balk at "generic".

If you don't want to use either their feeder or a pump sprayer, you can always mix up the solution of whatever type you desire in a watering can and pour it over the plant. It will work whether you make it involved and high tech or keep it simple and inexpensive. It will work with organic as well as "chemical", inorganic, as long as you have the correct application concentration of the type you want to use.

I like combining both organic and inorganic types, particularly earlier in the year so both the soil organisms and the plants get fed in one operation. If the soil is too cool for the organics to begin really digesting and releasing their nutrients, the inorganics will start feeding the plants and be readily available for the soil bacteria to begin using as soon as the soil warms enough to stimulate their activity. As long as you don't use more than the suggested dose, you can't "over feed". The organics are going to require time to release all they have to offer. By then, it's either time to reapply the inorganics, or simply rely upon the organics. Kim

Andreark, thanks for asking the question, I learned a lot...

Kim, thanks for answering. Lots of knowledge there.

You're welcome. I hope it helps. Thanks. Kim

OK Kim, you've confused me again. One of the first things I gleaned from this forum about two years ago was to use only organic preparations. So I buy everything I use from Regan's or some other good nursery. Now you are telling me about Miracle Gro, which I believe is NOT organic.

(Actually, you said you liked to use both early in the year) Ok, since it's not early in the year, I will use a water soluble organic and just spray. It doesn't seem right to mix Bayer Advanced Disease control with fertilizer. But if you say it is, I believe you.

Thanks a bunch, again,

andrea

Whether to only use one type or the other is a completely personal choice. Each has its benefits and its downsides. Whatever works best with your ethics and aesthetics, as well as the types you grow, where you grow them, is appropriate. What I deal with, where I deal with them, a combination of both works very well and satisfies all involved. There are situations in which I simply can't use organics. Many clients have dogs (as do I) and they LOVE organic fertilizers. Most organic fertilizers are stuff dogs eat and they love rolling in all of it to mask their scents, a holdover from ancient times when they were actual "predators". Most organics also attract all manner of "wild life", including skunks, raccoons, opossums, rats, squirrels, rabbits and coyotes. Organics also increase the earthworm population greatly. If you have significant mole issues (I DO!), then more earth worms means more moles, which loosen the soil around the plants tremendously. You know how undesirable loosening the soil around your plants is.

Organics don't work as well, as efficiently, in colder soils. Most of the proper bacteria work best in soil temps of at least 70 degrees, in the presence of oxygen, moisture and available nitrogen. If there is insufficient nitrogen available when the bacteria require it, they can and will rob it from the plants until they generate more than they require, when they release the excess to the soil for the plants to use. If it's too cold, too dry or the soil too compacted, organics aren't going to digest efficiently and can even "sour", rot instead of composting. "Souring" releases methane and hydrogen sulfide, both of which are toxic to oxygen "breathing" life, including plants and you. If your conditions aren't right for organics, they can simply be expensive and ineffective, or less efficiently effective than inorganics. Not that they are "bad", but why spend money on things which won't do what you want them to, when and where you want them to? Again, personal choice, dependent upon location, conditions and expectations and budget.

Inorganic types are all salt, hence, they can burn if not used properly. They can also wash into waterways causing pollution as well as build up in soil which doesn't drain well. But, they also work at lower temperatures more efficiently than organics and can deliver much higher doses of the nutrients than many organics can. Often, they are also less expensive. Organics can help build soil. Inorganics usually can't, unless they contain Humic Acid, which can help condition soil.

So, which is best? It all depends upon all the factors involved. It doesn't matter that you feel organics are best if your hundred pound Great Pyrenees is going to roll in them, crushing the plants and requiring daily baths. Like anything else, you have to weigh the costs versus the benefits and decide what you can live with best.

Check the label on your Bayer for instructions about mixing it with fertilizers. Most will tell you how, if they suggest doing it. If it isn't mentioned, you can always call or email them to ask. If they say not to, you'll have to figure something else out. Perhaps foliar feeding early in the day you intend to spray? Let the foliar feed dry then spray the Bayer. Even if the Bayer leaves a residue on the foliage, limiting the leaves' ability to absorb the salts, it's almost all going to drip into the soil and root zones anyway, so what isn't absorbed through the leaves will be by the roots. Very little in gardening is exact. Much has to be done the best it can be accomplished. Nature frequently seems just fine with that. Kim

Kim, thanks as well for adding on a simple solution for those of us for whom putting anything through a formal sprayer is too much like work. Putting diluted fertilizer solution into a hand watering can is more my speed if I would do foliar feeding. However, I don't see myself doing that 700 times for each of my roses, particularly if I actually followed your "weakly weekly" recommendation. For me it's more like "monthly maybe" in a good year.

Can I safely presume that things like fish emulsion and other liquid fertilizers are effective with a soil drench, just not taken up as fast as with the foliar feeding? My usual liquid fertilizer method, once I've put down the mail granular and alfalfa fertilizer in spring, is to set out 30 or 40 empty milk cartons, drop in the recommended amount per gallon in each container, then fill in the rest from hose water. That way I can carry 4 jugs at a time and gauge how much I think a particular plant needs from its size and vigor at the time, and only need to refill the system once or so per bed. I don't really care how fast they take it up, since with barely monthly feedings I'm hardly going to overdo it or get impatient for quick results.

At the same time, I don't want to waste fertilizer if things like fish emulsion are not effective at the root level, though it seems like ultimately the point is to affect the underlying system rather than the leaves (as opposed to fungicide, which is aimed directly at affecting the leaves). As long as Andrea asked the overall question, it seemed like a related issue.

Cynthia

I'm not Kim, but I apply fish emulsion via drench along with Mills Easy Feed (liquid fertilizer), because I'm afraid of the oils burning the leaves if I use it as a spray. Others have been successful applying it as a spray, I haven't.

Kim,

I DO have dogs. One wonderful and gorgeous Airedale girl and one horrible little monster boy. (This week he chewed up my table cover, and some carpeting, and took the moss out of my potted plant. He just figured out that he could sail over my interior gates and cause havoc. He is a rescue pup. Part Jack Russel and part whippet. And ALL monster.

They are both VERY interested in the soil under my roses. Fortunately, my pups have their own gated and grassy area. My yard is divided into 2 sections. Roses on one side, Airedale and monster on the other. My potted roses,however, are in their territory....He almost removed the Carding Mill from it's pot the second day I had it. I have found ways (until he figures out how to remove the fences) to keep him out of the pots.....By the way, would you like a beautiful little white and liver colored pup? He's very clever and quite darling when not destroying my habitat!

andrea

I have the best results in early morning or late afternoon when the pores on the lower sides of the leaves are open and they are breathing in the cool moist air.

Andreark, I don't know if this helps but I use Miracle Gro on my larger established roses and they do very, very well with it. It definitely improves their bloom size. I use the milder, organic stuff exclusively on my younger roses. I could be fulla beans, it just seemed logical to me.

Andreark, I don't know if this helps but I use Miracle Gro on my larger established roses and they do very, very well with it. It definitely improves their bloom size. I use the milder, organic stuff exclusively on my younger roses. I could be fulla beans, it just seemed logical to me.

Cynthia, of course the fish emulsion is fine as a soil drench. That is how it is usually applied.

Andrea, no, your "little boy" isn't a "Terrier", he's a "Terror!". I have two female Toy Fox Terrors and they're wonderful, though they make me crazier. One is sitting in my lap right now, ripping my hands off the computer, pushing her runny nose under my hand and wriggling around to force me to pay attention to HER instead of typing. We won't mention she just had an hour of playing with me, so she's not ignored. Now, she's climbed my chest and is fully in my face! LOL! So, no thanks, there is also the blind, male Chihuahua and he is King. No more male dogs for me. The "ladies" are enough

Kitty, that's a great idea! I'd imagine the fertilizer might actually be a bit more effective when the stomata are open. I'd not thought of that. Thanks! Kim

Thanks all and great idea Cynthia.

andrea

A footnote to what was said above:

I want as many earthworms as I can induce to live in my heavy clay loam, so I go for all organics all the time. I have not moles but voles, which do eat plant roots. Visitors to my yard are strictly forbidden to kill the garter snakes.