I’ve been trying to do a better job of feeding my plants with food appropriate for the different plants I’m growing.
It’s time to feed the following plants:
Feed camellias with 2-10-10 with iron for larger buds for dark green leaves.
Fertilize staghorn ferns with 20-10-10 to give them a boost since they are starting to grow
Epiphyllums need a 0-10-10 fertilizer to promote blooming in the spring.
Cybidium orchids should be fed a 0-10-10 fertilizer until they bloom
Citrus needs to be fertilized with a high nitrogen mixture because they are starting to sprout new leaves. I bought some citrus food that is actually an amendment on top of what I would use for citrus fertilizer. I learned that copper is a key ingredient for citrus because it helps sweeten the fruit. I also realized after doing some reading that I probably have a pretty acute copper deficiency on my tangerine tree based on the unusually large, green leaves that developed on my very small tree. Apparently that is a classic system of copper deficiency.
Here are some general rules of fertilizing:
Generally leafy plants (ferns, hostas, grass, etc) require high nitrogen fertilizers as they consume relatively little potassium and phosphorus. Flowering plants on the other hand has a very high need for potassium and especially phosphorus. Fruiting plants are similar to flowers except they benefit from added potassium and calcium, also.
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