As the world passes the time and stays home more than normal due to Covid-19, I find myself spending more and more time in the garden – a nice place to be with my two dogs and husband.
As I’m here gardening I am trying more and more things, and reading away on gardening sites online and in books.
This year Chad and I added more flower beds to our backyard and roses are planted in 5 of the 9 flower beds. I would imagine that in many parts of the world growing roses in flower boxes could be tough as they could dry out quickly, that does not appear to be a problem here in Washington state. Heck, we’ve had SO much rain here and being concerned about black spot is top of my concerns.
More on that later .. for now let’s talk about feeding the roses.
For the roses, after much reading of articles online, I have decided to try feeding them an alfalfa tea. Alfalfa Tea will provide your rose shrubs with the organic nutrients that they need – and I’m all for organic treatment for my roses. Each recipe I read about the alfalfa tea had a slightly different variation, this is what I ended up cooking up:
2 44 Gallon Garbage Cans – Rubbermaid Commercial Brute
A ratio of 1 cup of alfalfa pellets to 1 gallon of water – Standlee Alfalfa Pellets
3 – 4 cups of Fish Fertilizer – Founder’s Fish Fertilizer by Heirloom Fine Gardening
Let this stew for 1-3 days, depends on how hot is is in your area. Here in Washington it is cooler so I let the concoction brew for a full 3 days.
On the day you plan to water the roses add in 1 cup of epsom salts – Epson Salt Plus Plant Nutrient
Give each rose bush one gallon of alfalfa tea each.
This alfalfa tea can be given to your roses every 5-6 weeks.
When purchasing alfalfa pellets be sure to buy pellets that are 100% alfalfa with no additives such as molasses. Roses don’t respond well to sugars.