Green Hill Fertilz

“What kind of fertilizer do you use?”

by Bob Solberg, Green Hill Farm, Inc.

Whenever I give a talk to a hosta group, the question always comes up, “What kind of fertilizer do you use.” I’m never quite sure if they believe that growers like me have some kind of magic plant food that we use to grow our hostas bigger and better or that if they really want to know what, when and how to fertilize their hostas.

In the garden hostas need light, water, and nutrients for healthy growth. Any fertilization program must take all these as well as soil type in to account and balance the needs of the hosta. If you water a lot you will need to fertilize more often during the season as watering leaches nitrogen away from the plant (and/or garden). If your garden is very shady over fertilization will not necessarily produce bigger hostas because of the lack of light. Sandy soils will leach nutrients faster than clay soils. Get to know your garden.

There are organic and inorganic fertilizers. Both contain the same nutrients (chemicals) but they come from different sources. At the cellular level hostas “see” these nutrients identically. Organic fertilizers tend to have lower analysis numbers than inorganic ones and thus tend to burn less but you will need to apply them in larger amounts to apply the same amount of nutrients, making them often more expensive in time and money. They may also attract rodents (code word, voles) since several of the materials used as sources of nitrogen in organic fertilizers like cottonseed meal and alfalfa meal are used as animal feeds. Manure is a good cheap organic fertilizer that should not burn if properly composted.

Both types of fertilizers come as a liquid feed, a granular and a slow release. Liquid fertilizer, Peter’s 20-20-20, Miracle-Gro, Fish Emulsion, etc., can be used as a drench into the soil or sprayed on the leaves only as a foliar spray. (If this is the only type of fertilizer you use then a drench is more effective.) Liquid fertilizer needs to be applied to hostas at least once every two weeks during the growing season if not weekly since it remains in the root zone for only a short period of time.

Standard inorganic granular fertilizers like 10-10-10 are quite inexpensive and remain in the garden 4-6 weeks depending on the amount of rainfall. Thus two to three applications are necessary, beginning as the hostas emerge and ending when their growth slows in the heat of summer. Beware! Formulations with a high percentage of urea will release their nitrogen in a short period of time in periods of high rainfall and at best be washed from the garden or at worst burn your plants.

Slow release fertilizers like Osmocote and Nutricote release nutrients over time dependent on temperature and rainfall and have the advantage of only needing to be applied once a year. They come in a variety of formulations with hostas preferring a nitrogen number of 18-21. Choose a time of release, 3 months to 9 months that matches the active growing season for your hostas. Many bagged organic fertilizers release their nitrogen slowly also and can be treated as slow release fertilizers and applied just once a year.

Which fertilizer you choose probably has more to do with you than your hostas. What kind of gardener you are and how often you want to feed your hostas? If you enjoy preparing snacks for your hostas and want to shower them with tender loving care, then liquid fertilizers once a week during the growing season is the way for you to go. If you are a lazy gardener like me or one just pressed for time, then you should choose a 9 month slow release formula and fertilize once a year when your hostas first start emerging from their winter’s nap. The important thing is to have nutrients available when your hostas are actively growing, from emergence to fall.

Probably the best way to fertilize is a combination of the two. Apply a organic or inorganic slow release fertilizer in early spring. Then supplement this with foliar applications of a high nitrogen liquid fertilizer with Epsom Salts (18-24 nitrogen) maybe twice, a couple of weeks apart while the hostas are growing at their most rapid rate. For us that is around the first and fiftieth of May. An application or two of 10-10-10 liquid fertilizer can also be applied in August when the hostas make their “little flush” of new foliage, especially if all the slow release nitrogen has been released by high summer temperatures and rainfall. This diet is sure to fatten up your hostas.

What fertilizer do we use in here in the nursery? We grow all our hostas in containers, so we can control as much as possible the environment in which we grow our hostas. Currently, we are using a slow release “Nutricote” product sold by Florikan that has been blended with some soluble urea and magnesium. It is actually three fertilizers in one. Since we want nitrogen available from day one for our newly planted liners, there is some soluble nitrogen for the first week or two. Then some 10-10-10 like fertilizer with magnesium for the second and third weeks and then in the third week the Nutricote kicks in. The Nutricote works great in regions of the country that have hot summers, releasing its nutrients evenly into the fall. Our formulation is 14-5-10 and because we would like the nitrogen number to be up near 20 we apply the fertilizer at the “high” recommended rate rather than the normal rate.

We like this fertilizer so much that we now sell 20 pound buckets of it here at the nursery under our own private label. It is called “Green Hill Hosta Fertilizer” and we are now licensed as a fertilizer manufacturer in North Carolina. Sorry the law does not allow us to ship our fertilizer to other states but you can legally come to the nursery, pick it up, (with a few new hostas to boot), and take it back home. Our local customers keep coming back for more!

Tips to remember:

1. Use a foliage feed as a supplemental feed especially for magnesium (Epsom salts 50 ppm) and trace elements when your hostas are actively making new leaves.

2. Hosta roots do not grow during the winter. They stop growing when the plant goes dormant and begin only after the soil has warmed in the spring. New roots are not made until after the first flush of foliage has unfurled. Winter fertilization for added root growth is unnecessary.

3. You can test your soil throughout the season to measure the available nutrients in the soil. It may be more fun to test your hosta leaves for their nutrient content. Hosta leaves can be tested by most State Labs to determine the amount of nutrients that actually are available in the plant not just in the soil.

Hosta Hosta!

Copyright (c)Green Hill Farm Inc. 2004, 2006 Revised December 5, 2006

http://www.hostahosta.com

“What kind of fertilizer do you use?” by Bob Solberg, Green Hill Farm, Inc.
Whenever I give a talk to a hosta group, the question always comes up, “What kind of fertilizer do you use.” I’m never quite sure if they believe that growers like me have some kind of magic plant food that we use to grow our hostas bigger and better or that if they really want to know what, when and how to fertilize their hostas.
In the garden hostas need light, water, and nutrients for healthy growth. Any fertilization program must take all these as well as soil type in to account and balance the needs of the hosta. If you water a lot you will need to fertilize more often during the season as watering leaches nitrogen away from the plant (and/or garden). If your garden is very shady over fertilization will not necessarily produce bigger hostas because of the lack of light. Sandy soils will leach nutrients faster than clay soils. Get to know your garden.
There are organic and inorganic fertilizers. Both contain the same nutrients (chemicals) but they come from different sources. At the cellular level hostas “see” these nutrients identically. Organic fertilizers tend to have lower analysis numbers than inorganic ones and thus tend to burn less but you will need to apply them in larger amounts to apply the same amount of nutrients, making them often more expensive in time and money. They may also attract rodents (code word, voles) since several of the materials used as sources of nitrogen in organic fertilizers like cottonseed meal and alfalfa meal are used as animal feeds. Manure is a good cheap organic fertilizer that should not burn if properly composted.
Both types of fertilizers come as a liquid feed, a granular and a slow release. Liquid fertilizer, Peter’s 20-20-20, Miracle-Gro, Fish Emulsion, etc., can be used as a drench into the soil or sprayed on the leaves only as a foliar spray. (If this is the only type of fertilizer you use then a drench is more effective.) Liquid fertilizer needs to be applied to hostas at least once every two weeks during the growing season if not weekly since it remains in the root zone for only a short period of time.
Standard inorganic granular fertilizers like 10-10-10 are quite inexpensive and remain in the garden 4-6 weeks depending on the amount of rainfall. Thus two to three applications are necessary, beginning as the hostas emerge and ending when their growth slows in the heat of summer. Beware! Formulations with a high percentage of urea will release their nitrogen in a short period of time in periods of high rainfall and at best be washed from the garden or at worst burn your plants.
Slow release fertilizers like Osmocote and Nutricote release nutrients over time dependent on temperature and rainfall and have the advantage of only needing to be applied once a year. They come in a variety of formulations with hostas preferring a nitrogen number of 18-21. Choose a time of release, 3 months to 9 months that matches the active growing season for your hostas. Many bagged organic fertilizers release their nitrogen slowly also and can be treated as slow release fertilizers and applied just once a year.
Which fertilizer you choose probably has more to do with you than your hostas. What kind of gardener you are and how often you want to feed your hostas? If you enjoy preparing snacks for your hostas and want to shower them with tender loving care, then liquid fertilizers once a week during the growing season is the way for you to go. If you are a lazy gardener like me or one just pressed for time, then you should choose a 9 month slow release formula and fertilize once a year when your hostas first start emerging from their winter’s nap. The important thing is to have nutrients available when your hostas are actively growing, from emergence to fall.
Probably the best way to fertilize is a combination of the two. Apply a organic or inorganic slow release fertilizer in early spring. Then supplement this with foliar applications of a high nitrogen liquid fertilizer with Epsom Salts (18-24 nitrogen) maybe twice, a couple of weeks apart while the hostas are growing at their most rapid rate. For us that is around the first and fiftieth of May. An application or two of 10-10-10 liquid fertilizer can also be applied in August when the hostas make their “little flush” of new foliage, especially if all the slow release nitrogen has been released by high summer temperatures and rainfall. This diet is sure to fatten up your hostas.
What fertilizer do we use in here in the nursery? We grow all our hostas in containers, so we can control as much as possible the environment in which we grow our hostas. Currently, we are using a slow release “Nutricote” product sold by Florikan that has been blended with some soluble urea and magnesium. It is actually three fertilizers in one. Since we want nitrogen available from day one for our newly planted liners, there is some soluble nitrogen for the first week or two. Then some 10-10-10 like fertilizer with magnesium for the second and third weeks and then in the third week the Nutricote kicks in. The Nutricote works great in regions of the country that have hot summers, releasing its nutrients evenly into the fall. Our formulation is 14-5-10 and because we would like the nitrogen number to be up near 20 we apply the fertilizer at the “high” recommended rate rather than the normal rate.
We like this fertilizer so much that we now sell 20 pound buckets of it here at the nursery under our own private label. It is called “Green Hill Hosta Fertilizer” and we are now licensed as a fertilizer manufacturer in North Carolina. Sorry the law does not allow us to ship our fertilizer to other states but you can legally come to the nursery, pick it up, (with a few new hostas to boot), and take it back home. Our local customers keep coming back for more!
Tips to remember:
1. Use a foliage feed as a supplemental feed especially for magnesium (Epsom salts 50 ppm) and trace elements when your hostas are actively making new leaves.
2. Hosta roots do not grow during the winter. They stop growing when the plant goes dormant and begin only after the soil has warmed in the spring. New roots are not made until after the first flush of foliage has unfurled. Winter fertilization for added root growth is unnecessary.
3. You can test your soil throughout the season to measure the available nutrients in the soil. It may be more fun to test your hosta leaves for their nutrient content. Hosta leaves can be tested by most State Labs to determine the amount of nutrients that actually are available in the plant not just in the soil.
Hosta Hosta!