June Flower Photos of the Day

[farmer d]

John I can't get enough of Cindy's Heart, always a pleasure to see

Louis thanks for the compliments on FF, not only an outrageous bloom but the plant is really pretty too.

Today's blooms...

Acapulco Gold




Flickering Flame - day 2


Farmer D

[Doll]

Darren, I love that Acapulco Gold. I hope mine starts blooming soon.
I am trying to get my CH to be as big and lush as your bushes are.
Here is a pic of my CH bush. It's only 2 feet tall but very full.

[farmer d]

Darren, I love that Acapulco Gold. I hope mine starts blooming soon.
I am trying to get my CH to be as big and lush as your bushes are.
Here is a pic of my CH bush. It's only 2 feet tall but very full.

John what has really helped me out significantly this spring has been the HVH booster (hadn't used it before).  My plants pretty much lost all of their leaves (except COF) due to winter cold so they are in the process of growing out new leaves and branches.  I would seem to barely water them and the leaves would yellow pretty quickly with not much water and slow growth all around.

When I added the booster along w/ my regular doses of special blend fert all of a sudden my plants could take in so much more water (and fert along with it) and boy did they ever green up (and it has been very cool here all spring long).  No more yellow leaves and a heck of a lot more new growth and blooms. 

I also do daily sprayings of supernova to instigate new branch growth for fuller bushes.  I'm chicken to prune them down a lot to get a nice full bush on some of the more skyscraper type cvs instead trying to create new branch growth down low as well as up high just with spraying.  Seems to be working so far.

My goal is to get all of my plants if possible looking like my COF bush.  So far so good.  Adding the booster has definitely been the difference maker for me.  For those that have potted plants watch the amounts & frequency of the booster for salt burn.  In ground seems ok as the water tends to leach down the ferts continuously so not as much an issue.

It is a big time commitment, but hopefully once they have the right branching it's just a matter of monitoring their strength and frequency of feeding.  This season I'm making the big push to get them all around 4 ft tall.  End goal is to get them like the pics on the world gardens page from Australia.  So a few more years to go there.

I planted them all last April and only a few were not 4" babies last year.

Farmer D

[jpiper82]

What ratio are you using with the HVH Fert and Booster?
Thanks, John Piper

[farmer d]

Alright

What ratio are you using with the HVH Fert and Booster?
Thanks, John Piper

I've got to start by saying that the ratio I use is really strong and I have done my best to have soil that drains pretty well so my plants hopefully won't get any fert burn. 

At the same time I am really trying to find out what the max point is for my plants so I've been increasing the dosages to the following:

2 heaping spoon fulls each of both special blend fert & booster with 2 gallons of water every other day.  I also mix in one capful of supernova as well for root growth stimulation with this mix. 

So far no burn at all and the plants are loving it.  Question is how much might I be wasting that gets leached down with the water past the root ball?  Again all of this with cool weather.  I'm curious to see what happens with the plant growth when we finally get some warmer weather here.

Hope this helps, my advice is every location has it's own requirements so you got to keep experimenting until you get a result that stands out.  This has definitely stood out for me so far this season.

Today's theme: Multiple Blooms

Flickering Flame








Chariots of Fire




All That Jazz Quads




Acapulco Gold


Black Dream


My Happy Plumeria loves the hibiscus booster too!


Farmer D

[helixturnhelix]

Wow Darren, you garden is going to town!

I would say you really need to cut the amount of fert you are using. That is ALOT of fertilizer every two days, so much so that I would say your plants arent even metabolizing it.  Nitrogen is very water soluble so it is going to trickle down into the water table.  The Phosphorous (along with nitrogen) is going to follow any excess water and organic particulates out to the storm drain.  In Los Angeles this directly inputs into the ocean and causes massive algal blooms which cause hypoxic events, fish kills, shellfish poisoning, etc.  This is called Eutrophication and it is very bad, there is more information here:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication

The cool weather is likely the reason you haven't experienced any nitrogen burn yet, but as more water is taken up during hot weather the fertilizer regime you are currently using will likely cause nitrogen burn even in your plants in the ground.  They are likely regulating the amount of nutrient uptake via temperature like you mentioned.  In fact the pseudo-misnomer that you should not fertilize during hot weather is derived from the rationale that too much uptake of fertilizer will cause burn.  

Please decrease your fertilizer dosage simply for the environmental reasons if nothing else.  Your plants will still look great with a more modest fertilizer regime, in fact you probably wont even notice the difference!  If you plot the rate at which plants can uptake nutrients, you get a max metabolism.  This is the value you want to shoot for, at the rate you are applying is much higher and you are wasting alot of it. Check out http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/tfer.html too

[Nievesgirl]

2 heaping spoon fulls each of both special blend fert & booster with 2 gallons of water every other day.  I also mix in one capful of supernova as well for root growth stimulation with this mix.  

So far no burn at all and the plants are loving it.  Question is how much might I be wasting that gets leached down with the water past the root ball?  

Whoa I would cut back like chris said. I would not put heaping spoon fulls of both booster and special blend. The new directions on the containers say 1/2 teaspoon. I use one full teaspoon because I been using this for the past 2 years and no problems ( and this was the old directions) . I added the booster because my plants where not fertilized during the winter. I am now cutting back on booster and will just give them special blend. The super nova is ok to Over dose some because its just sea weed extract.

I would use Bart's recipe ( I modified it some )
2 teaspoons Special Blend
2 teaspoons Booster
in 5 gallons water
I added 5 teaspoons of super nova

My plants loved this mix so much.  I will start this up once I make sure their is no salt burn.

I use 1 teaspoon Special blend 1 teaspoon Booster and 1 teaspoon Super nova per gallon when I water. I water plants any where from 5-7 days each time.  Doing every other day will insure salt burn.

[Nievesgirl]

After 2 years of waiting finally got Stand !!!!!

[davidwood]

2 heaping spoon fulls each of both special blend fert & booster with 2 gallons of water every other day.  I also mix in one capful of supernova as well for root growth stimulation with this mix.

When you break down what Darren is doing, apart from the fact he is heaping the teaspoon he is giving whats highly reommended by this site by Charlie.

1/2 teaspoon of fert and half teaspoon of booster per gallon per day, it sounds a lot because he is mixing 2 galllons at a time and feeding every other day.

Maybe he should not heap the teaspoon but you cant get away from the fact he is having some fantastic results so I am at a bit of a loss as to what is the problem.

[helixturnhelix]

David,

If you do the math 1/2 teaspoon per gallon, would be 1 teaspoon per 2 gallons. Therefore, following your computational skills 2 tsp per 2 gallons would not be equivalent to the recommended dose, but double it. I do not understand how double the recommended dose is "giving whats highly recommended by this site by Charlie"  

Also if you reread the response, we are simply trying to provide advice so that Darren does not run into problems with salt burn.  In addition, over-fertilization of soil causes massive environmental problems and again are stated in the previous response.

[Darkhorse]

Mine get with every watering:

1/2 tsp per gallon HVH acid blend
1/2 tsp per gallon Supernova
1/8 tsp per gallon iron chelate
1/8 tsp per gallon seaweed extract

Also, every two weeks they get 1 tsp per gallon Fulmag magnesium or 2 tsp per gallon HVH booster.  (I alternate between weeks, so I'm giving one of these each week)  They really seem to love this mix.

[Charlie]

It's interesting to hear what everyone is doing. As far as what is the best program, well, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

One factor that needs to be kept in mind is that growing in the ground provides the maximum buffering effect for nutrients added to the soil. Growing in pots provides less buffering and growing hydroponically in water provides the least amount. Buffering dilutes the effects of the nutrients, meaning that in the ground they will be less potent and more can be used. The same amount added to a hydroponic solution could very well fry the plant.

According to chemical engineer and hibiscus enthusiast Constantino Garcia, the amount of potassium nitrate (Booster) that can be used increases with continued use. He theorizes that hibiscus can develop a tolerance to it and so in his growing he starts with lower amounts and increases them as the season goes on. Of course the end result of that, if you do not stop increasing at the right time, is that you can defoliate your plants through too much use. With the right amount you get superb growth and blooms.

Growing is both art and science. There are so many variables and so many microclimates in any growing situation that one has to discover what works for you in your conditions. Spending a lot of time with your plants, and learning how to observe their subtle changes, goes a long way toward developing the art of growing.

My two cents,

Charlie

[davidwood]

David,

If you do the math 1/2 teaspoon per gallon, would be 1 teaspoon per 2 gallons. Therefore, following your computational skills 2 tsp per 2 gallons would not be equivalent to the recommended dose, but double it. I do not understand how double the recommended dose is "giving whats highly recommended by this site by Charlie"  

Also if you reread the response, we are simply trying to provide advice so that Darren does not run into problems with salt burn.  In addition, over-fertilization of soil causes massive environmental problems and again are stated in the previous response.

I can now see the mistake I have made and can see Darren is using double whats recommended by Charlie, it still took me about half an hour to work that out and maybe Chris you should take into account that some of us have been a long time since school.

[Darkhorse]

Ok guys, don't make me pull this car over..............................






Now it's time for some pretty flowers!!  Buttercup, Sleeping Beauty, Splash!, and Illuminati

[davidwood]

Stunning set of pictures, Sleeping Beuty is wonderfull.