April 6, 2022 7:44 am

Dominika Best

 What are you growing in? A container? Raised bed or in-ground bed?

Knowing your growing conditions is everything when trying to answer how often to fertilize your plants. (You didn't think I'd give you a definitive answer just yet, did you?) As with so much else in gardening this answer is contingent on a bunch of other conditions. When I try to answer this question, I have to know your growing conditions. The very first one is: What are you growing in? 

What is a foliar feed?

A foliar feed is when you apply the liquid fertilizer mixed with water per their instructions directly to the leaves of a plant instead of into the ground. I use this sprayer for my weekly feedings.  

Fertilizer Schedule: Growing in a Pot 

  • If you are growing in a pot or container, then your plants solely depend on you for water and food.
    •  I fertilize weekly with a fish and seaweed fertilizer that my friend Gina would call mermaid juice. It gives the plants a big nitrogen boost and they love it. I pour it into the soil as well as do a foliar feed. 
    • Other options for weekly feeding are : DIY Compost Tea, DIY comfrey tea or DIY chive tea. 
    • I am trying Malibu Biodynamic Compost Tea Bags out this year for ease of use when it comes to making Compost Tea.
    • Monthly dosing of Dr Earths Rose & Flower fertilizer
  • Fertilizer Schedule: Growing in a Raised Container Bed

  • If you are growing in a raised bed, this is still a relatively easy question to answer since you have so much control over your soil and what you've mixed with it. 
  • Fertilizer Schedule: Growing in an In-ground Planting Bed

  • If you have an in-ground planting bed, this question gets a tidge more complex. 
    • What is your soil like? Is it clay? Sandy? Loamy? Each one of these soils has different feeding needs. If you have sandy soil, then you won't have nutrients stay in your soil for very long and I know some flower farmers feed their plants twice a week with a foliar feed. I have clay soil which isn't that great with drainage but keeps in the nutrients really well. I still feed my dahlias once a week with a foliar feed during the growing season. 
    • Have you sent your soil out to be tested? If you don't know what your Nitrogen, Potassium or Phosphorus levels (NPK) are, it's hard to know how to amend the soil and see what's missing. I did the LeMotte N-P-K test kit to figure out my levels. It also tests the pH.
    • I add a 2" layer of compost between each successive planting. 
    • I still do the weekly foliar feed on my in-ground beds especially the dahlias. They are hungry plants like tomatoes. 
  • About the Author

    Dominika Best is a multi-passionate entrepreneur in the areas of design, filmmaking, writing and teaching. She currently is an author writing under three active pen names, a film/tv writer/director translating her novels to the screen and an avid gardener with over ten years of experience of creating beauty and green space amidst a sea of concrete in Los Angeles. Dominika loves to help people find stress relief and some much needed peace by growing their own tiny flower gardens, let her help you now!

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