One important step to do that will help prevent fertilizer burn is to water your roses at least 3 hrs but not more than 24 hrs before you apply fertilizer & than water your roses a second time immediately after applying the fertilizer. This is extremely important to do with inorganic chemical fertilizers because many of them have properties similar to salt & this is why they are the fertilizer most likely to cause chemical burn. Many of the fertilizers you talked about are organic & are less likely to burn but I would still do this double watering because they are very dry & you need to get them wet so the soil microbes can start breaking them down & realeasing their nutrients to your roses. One last thing, I suggest that you have a soil test done to see what you really need to add to your soil. For example, you are talking about using Epsom salts & this is commonly recommended by many rose growers for the Mg but I don't use it because my soils have adequate to high levels of Mg & maybe your soils have enough Mg also but you won't know until you test your soil.

I haven't noticed any problems. I try to toss everything in together because there's too many plants to feed and it takes a long time. It's certainly possible that some of the products might interact or neutralize each other but the plants seem happy so I've never really given it a thought. B1 is given by itself because I use that for transplanting and stressed plants, otherwise I dump everything in the barrel at once. lol Since the brugs are fed weekly I put their food in a hose end sprayer 3 weeks out of the month. It's the monthly feedings that get lumped together. Karyn

I've been through the Master Gardener programs in several states, and ultimately opted out of ever bothering with it again. Largely because of the political aspect - as a "master gardener", you are not allowed to provide any information that doesn't toe whatever the current party line is. In one state, that was used to disallow ANY discussion whatsoever of any organic methods (granted this was about 30 years ago). Sure, there's a lot of misinformation possible re "organic methods" - but really no more than the usual gardening misinformation. In another state, it was the exact opposite - there was no discussion or mention by master gardeners allowed of any pesticide that was not approved organic. I briefly considered going through the MG program here, but ultimately decided against it, after having an extension agent tell me that as a master gardener, I was NOT ALLOWED to tell someone asking about vining plants that trumpet vine is extremely invasive and likely to become a nuisance to their neighbors. Apparently in this desert state no one has gotten around to officially designating it as a noxious weed. When I pushed to find out WHY this person had this opinion - it turned out that this ag extension agent had planted trumpet vine in her yard, and was upset that her neighbors had complained about it coming up in THEIR yards. Yeah. I need to be involved with somebody who ignores good horticultural practices and uses her personal life to inform her opinion of appropriate information to be given to people who, after all, ASKED first. And then there was the ag extension agent who allowed a "master gardener" of allegedly decades of experience to weed some of the university beds of native plants. That woman pulled up every native plant and left most of the actual weeds. The sad fact is that more and more extension agencies shove a "master gardener" at you rather than let you talk to an actual extension agent. These "master gardeners" then do google searches, and send that to you as if it is actual factual information. If I call an extension agency for help, its because I want a TRAINED response based on sound knowledge and scientific fact - not crap you find on the Internet. I know how to use Google - better than any "master gardener", in fact. If it is not the duty of a master gardener to provide answers - not "help researching" but actual answers - then the master gardener program is of little use. Which, over the years, is exactly what it has proven itself to be - of little use. The occasional highly competent gardener that you find in a "master gardener" program is the exception, and gets drowned out by the sea of people with 6 weeks of training in looking stuff up on the Internet who know little or nothing about actual gardening - or worse yet, THINK they do and pass along bad information.

not all soil is created equal. its very possible YOUR soil is either magnesium or sulfur saturated. some clay soils are, especially in central USA with Mag if you need iron, use humic acid, or better, fulvic acid. its very beneficial to the plants at the same time as giving it the iron. its a 2 fer. if your soil has a lot of calcium, and is low on magnesium, epsom salt can make a big difference. 1 tablespoon per gallon of water has been the general recommendation. if you soil is low in calcium, and high in Mag, then, you will be further locking out the calcium, creating a bigger problem. soil test...