Generally easier to find the pellets, from my experience (so that's what I use), and you want 100% alfalfa (no additives!). I get mine at the local feed store/farm supply, for about $12 - $15 for a 50# bag (price varies from year to year). When alfalfa meal was specified in a contract spec on a project I was working on recently, the only place we could readily find it was Peaceful Valley (alfalfa meal), where it is available online at 40 lbs. for $29.99 (contractor was desperate -- procrastination is a terrible thing-- so they had a guy drive all the way up to Grass Valley, where Peaceful Valley has a store, to pick some up...).

I used alfalfa pellets in 50# bags from the garden and feed store The Grange. They seemed to work well and be low cost. They swell with H2O so should be sprinkled around a bush away from the canes. This has been a great help I thought.

If the purpose of this operation is to supply certain soil minerals your soil should be tested to see if it needs what the product can supply in the amounts it supplies it before spending much time and money on it.

If instead the main objective is to supply organic matter, humic acids etc. then there should be cheaper ways to do that available from a soil and bark dealer in the area. If you cannot get or handle bulk products then there should be cheaper bagged products such as composted manures being offered. These can often be bought at a discount during fall closeouts. If you are in an area that has a winter cold period fall (before it has gotten cold) is an excellent time to mulch as covering the soil while it is still warm helps it stay warm a little longer.

I think the aim with using alfalfa is its reputed benefit of encouraging basal breaks via triacontanol, which forms as the alfalfa breaks down.

:-)

~Christopher

Christopher's right. It's the triacontanol. SEE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triacontanol

YMMV, but we found the best benefit to come from using it as "alfalfa tea" -- putting the meal, or pellets, or what have you in a 32-G trash can, and dipping out the "tea." We usually dilute the "tea" and find it's a growth-promoting powerhouse.

Try to avoid stuff that has a high content of molasses . . . unless you really love ants. :-)

After we dip out all of the liquid, we scatter the "dregs" around the base of roses, as far as it goes.

"Reputed"? I see several pages of hits brings up only one vetted journal article where they say spraying the chemical on pelargoniums affected the roots but not the shoots. The rest is the usual .com and other sources that have not been vetted. Including a piece from a consulting rosarian who says alfalfa is used for the chemical - and then immediately goes on to say the main benefit is how application of the applications of alfalfa stimulate soil bacteria.

When I searched scholarly articles for "triacontanol effects on plant growth" I found lots of references. Alfalfa meal is one of the ingredients in the Espoma Plant Tone I use in the garden and when potting-up bands to push growth.

:-)

~Christopher

Meal, bought from feed store (we still have a lot of horse farms in the area, it is used for horse feed), applied dry, tea was too much work. ;-)

I use Espoma Holly-tone, like the Plant-tone, it contains alfalfa meal.

Alas in south florida alf meal is not sold at feed stores. It is actually not a feed for horses, they eat the hay or cubes...rarely even pellets. Most horse feed pellets are also not pure alfalfa. Anyway the feed stores here don't even know what the alf meal is. Makes me want to get a big grinder and make my own with the cubes. :/

I tried alfalfa pellets last year. I bought them as horse feed, approx £8 to £13 per 20kg bag. (Top end included delivery) We don't feed alfalfa hay in the uk so this is by far the cheapeast option.

I will head to the local feed store. Thank you to all! I like the idea of more basal breaks. And it seems to be an ingredient that can't really hurt anything when used in moderation.

The jackrabbits may love me!

I buy my alfalfa at the feed stores too, but I've switched to alfalfa hay rather than pellets. I've found that when the pellets get wet and swell they can roll up next to the stem and create an acidic mush that damage the canes. The hay doesn't roll anywhere and stays where I put it. Surprisingly, the bunnies don't seem all that interested, but after all they have a 900 rose buffet to choose from, and alfalfa must seem boring in contrast.

As for its effect on basal breaks, I got independent feedback on that from a neighbor that I gave a bucketful of alfalfa hay for her few roses. She spontaneously commented on the tremendous difference it made, and with only a few roses she would notice it more quickly than I would. As others have mentioned, as long as the pellets don't roll up against the canes it can't hurt, and it's about $10-12 for a 50 pound bale at the feed store.

Cynthia

A few roses seeming to look better than they did before treatment is not a trial. An adequate trial providing a basis for comparison is something like 20 roses of the same kind and age on the same site split in half, with 10 of them getting the treatment and 10 not. And then after an enough time has elapsed digging them all up and weighing them, seeing if one group is heavier - and therefore grew more - than the other.

Not scientific but I think that a good trial is the experience of numerous knowledgeable growers, for instance people who show their roses and see the effects of how they grow alongside others. After all, never knew a rose could read all those papers :D

Embothrium -- There are many published studies about the benefits of triacontanol on plant growth. You can find them in the google search I posted above. But since I suspect you haven't clicked that link, I'll post a few other links to individual articles below.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730380/

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10412905.1996.9700645

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v36n3/v36n3-hinerman.htm

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1023321024040

http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/95/4/986.short

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00024071

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/195/4284/1339.short

Something to keep in mind, however, about information not backed up by scientific studies -- if there are no studies done, the claim can be neither confirmed nor denied on the basis of studies. If the information turns out to be correct after scientific studies deem it to be so, that information was also correct before the studies were begun. To say something isn't true because a proper trial hasn't confirmed it is equally guilty of coming to a conclusion without a proper trial -- you're saying it doesn't work, yet you have no studies to confirm that conclusion. Unfortunately, this is a common error among those of us in the sciences -- assuming something is NOT true until it is demonstrated to be so via controlled studies. The CORRECT answer is to say we can neither confirm nor deny until studies are performed.

But, in any case, there are studies examining how triacontanol positively affects plant growth, on a range of species.

:-)

~Christopher

Just bought my alfalfa pellets for this year and the price at Livermore Feed and Farm Supply is $16 ($15.99) for 50 lbs. Drought pricing (did you know that growing alfalfa is the single largest water use in California?), but still "cheap"!

I looked that fact up and was amazed how much water alfalfa does use. I had heard almonds are water thirsty and they are but no more than any other deciduous crop tree. That pellet price is cheaper than when I had rabbits about 25 years ago!

Two separate things triacontanol and alfalfa. Proving or documenting the efficacy of the one does not necessarily prove or document the efficacy (or the reasons for it) of the other. Further than that, applied field study results should exist which document the proper method of applying any such agent. The actual connection needs to be studied and documented. I believe with regards to triacontanol itself there are scientific results which make it mostly uncontenstable that it can act as a plant growth regulator.

However, Chris is very correct in stating that not having proof of something does not mean that it doesn't exist. Particularly in matters of soil, plants and agriculture, science often follows experience and general practice. It often proves and refines what has been known to many by experience. Other times it discovers wrong attribution (i.e. any effects were due to reasons other than thought). Less often it positively disproves accepted facts and uncovers fallacies in common thinking.

PS. and btw, one can learn lots of things by perusing pothead forums...

Well alfalfa certainly smells like it is good for the roses.

I've used the pellets mostly, and find it's best to scratch back the mulch and a little soil and cover them up. Of course I'm down to less than 50 roses so this may be WAAAY too much trouble for you. I've also made the tea but in a small yard it can be hard to cope with the stench. Maybe I'm letting it steep longer than need be?

Older plants can be rejuvenated and new plants will establish more readily. I volunteer in a huge organic rose garden and really appreciate how fast small own-roots fill in their spaces and put on a display when fed with the tea.

Even in years when I've used blood meal with the spring feeding and done 2 spring feedings with Mills Magic-- I still get much better results when alfalfa is part of the program. After 40 years of growing roses those 50 pound bags are getting heavier but no way would I grow roses without alfalfa.