Plant Fertilizer – When More Isn’t Better
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
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






Good post and so true. You are not alone…I over fertilized my impatiens plant and it did not recover. -Amy
This is a good lesson for me to learn too. TQ for posting this experience
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/