Plant Fertilizer – When More Isn’t Better

October 29, 2009

There is one thing we should keep in mind when fertilizing our plants – the more isn’t the better. Even though I knew this rule-of-thumb very well (I thought I did…)  and practiced what I preached (for most of the time), recently, I’d over-fertilized my African violet – Frosted Denim – and burnt most of its flower buds :(

African Violet Care - Fertilizer African Violet Care - Fertilizer

African Violet Care - Fertilizer African Violet Care - Fertilizer

Real Life Example of Bad Fertilizing Practice

A few weeks ago, my African violet – Frosted Denim – was growing beautifully with many flower buds. Since African violets like to be continually fertilized during their blooming period, I diligently fed mine in a regular basis with diluted fertilizer. African violets are happy with weak fertilizer, so I always feed my African violets with diluted fertilizer solution at half of the strength recommended by the fertilizer manufacturer. Everything was fine, until one day when I was left with some diluted fertilizer that I used for my Pachystachys lutea (Lollipop Plant) which was extra-strong (stronger strength than what was recommended on the label). Since I didn’t want to waste, I used the leftovers to feed my African violet… and that’s how the tragedy began… :(

I actually diluted the extra strength fertilizer solution a bit before using it on my African violet. But since I have got the flower buds burnt, I guess the fertilizer solution wasn’t diluted enough… or I might have fed my African violet once too often.

Arrggghh, I should know better than this!

Here is how my African violet looks after a few months  – My Keep-Blossoming African violet :)

Tags: , ,

3 Responses to Plant Fertilizer – When More Isn’t Better

  1. Amy Emerick on October 29, 2009 at 10:27 pm

    Good post and so true. You are not alone…I over fertilized my impatiens plant and it did not recover. -Amy

  2. Stephanie on October 30, 2009 at 11:34 am

    This is a good lesson for me to learn too. TQ for posting this experience :-)

  3. caglar keskin on February 15, 2010 at 10:49 pm

    I live in a village and work in agriculturing. We use fertilizers and i try to read everything about them.
    This information is very useful for me. I also found another useful guide about fertilizers;

    http://agricultureguide.org/agriculture/fertilizers/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*