Palm feeding issues.

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karl66
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Palm feeding issues.

Post by karl66 »

Last year was a nightmare with constant rain & this year may be the same!!, on my more recent planted palm's i always give them palmbooster to establish a good root system, yesterday teatime this was done again only for us to have heavy rain overnight!, will this of totally washed away booster or as its a liquid feed will it already have soaked in enough?, Last year i tended to use nigels blue liquid feed more so than the pink granuales as i wanted a more direct quick feed . I find the 15-5-15 ratio a good balance feed but the question is how much do the plants acctually get with all the wet weather. karl.
Dim

Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by Dim »

the roots will be deep .... if you dig a hole nearby, you will find that the soil is dry after a foot or so, so continue what you are doing
jungle jas

Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by jungle jas »

Karl I use a 6 month slow release fertilizer, put it on in spring and forget it. It doesn't get washed away. You can tweak it through the summer with other additives if you wish.
Tom2006
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Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by Tom2006 »

I think you need an inch of rain to soak down 6" so if anything the rain will have helped get the feed to the roots.
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Yorkshire Kris
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Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

jungle jas wrote:Karl I use a 6 month slow release fertilizer, put it on in spring and forget it. It doesn't get washed away. You can tweak it through the summer with other additives if you wish.
I think this is a good solution. Liquid feeds better for containers.
jungle jas

Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by jungle jas »

Yorkshire Kris wrote:
jungle jas wrote:Karl I use a 6 month slow release fertilizer, put it on in spring and forget it. It doesn't get washed away. You can tweak it through the summer with other additives if you wish.
I think this is a good solution. Liquid feeds better for containers.
Yeah, thanks Kris, I'm full of ideas, some of them better than others. :roll: icon_thumright
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redsquirrel
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Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by redsquirrel »

if your soil is any good you shouldnt need any of that.a pile of the pink stuff wont do them any harm but palmboosting in the ground in my opinion is a waste of time unless you have been unlucky and got some bare or poorly rooted palms,
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karl66
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Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by karl66 »

Darren, i know it's going over old ground but palmbooster as you know is a rootenhancer & not a fert so the bigger more healthy roots that can be produced, take up more water? surely this mean's more healthy palm's come winter?, i've had great results with it & it's been vital on transplants, i keep virtually nothing in pot's so can't comment. I find the soluable blue 15-5-15 works a treat on planted out bamboo!!. karl.
GoggleboxUK

Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by GoggleboxUK »

I used Palmbooster on 4 palms last year but otherwise I just used 20kg of pellets. In wet weather you can't beat a top dressed feed that will dissolve and soak in over a few days. I've had a lot of comments on how lush and green my garden is looking so early in the season and I can only put it down to the chicken pellets.

In wet conditions you don't even notice the smell.
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redsquirrel
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Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by redsquirrel »

karl66 wrote: will this of totally washed away booster or as its a liquid feed will it already have soaked in enough?, karl.
i misunderstood you here,it looked like you were saying it was feed as in fertilizer to me.

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Vagetarian

Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by Vagetarian »

I'm pretty much of the opinion that 15-5-15 is overdoing it in an average UK soil. That NPK, which is used for most palm fertilisers, is designed for sandy soils in which the N and K wash away easily. Most UK garden soils are abundant in everything and only really need applications of nitrogenous fertilisers, hence Goggle's success with chicken poo.

As for the Palmbooster, if it is indeed a sort of copy of Super Thrive, then it contains naphthaleneacetic acid which does stimulate root growth. The NAA is not very soluble at all and so probably won't wash away too easily.

I planted a half dead Phoenix canariensis_CIDP in a 3ft tall pot last spring, despite not really growing any leaves all year and subsequently spear pulling this spring (it was unprotected), it rooted right to the bottom and it took me quite some effort to get to the stage of being able to put a new plant in the same pot. If I'd put Palmbooster on it I'd surely be singing its praises, but I did nothing to it.
Dim

Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by Dim »

The way that I see it, is as follows:

Many people just assume that adding NPK to a plant is good enough .... yes, the plant will survive, and it's the same as comparing human's diets .... if humans only have water, air and bread, they will survive, but they will not 'thrive'

give a human a balanced diet, with vitamins, minerals and supplements etc, and they will fare better and be healthier ....

when taking a good multi-vitamin, your body only takes what it needs and you pee the rest out ....

same goes for plants .... give them additional nutrients that contain minerals etc and they will fare better .... that's why I fertilize with specialist nutrients such as fish hydrolosate, volcanic rock dust, seaweed extract, Actively Aerated Compost teas, etc .....

and yes, it does make a big difference, even on vegetables
Vagetarian

Re: Palm feeding issues.

Post by Vagetarian »

There is no doubt that plants need micronutrients, almost identical to the micronutrients that us animals need. But...
Dim wrote:when taking a good multi-vitamin, your body only takes what it needs and you pee the rest out ....
In many situations this can be a potentially dangerous assumption for both plants and animals but especially for small children. Your body cannot get rid of excesses of many vitamins, vit D for instance is stockpiled from the summer sun for the winter. Wiki says that in the USA in 2004 there were over 60000 cases of vitamin poisoning of which 49000 were children under 6 and 3 people died. We don't really know about long term effects from less life threatening overdoses, yet. I have looked at some big brand children's supplements in this country and they can contain several times a childs RDA of certain vitamins, eat a healthy, balanced diet and leave the supplements out.

As for plants, I personally mix in some rockdust and seaweed meal into my potting mixtures but I don't see a difference, perhaps since I use a compound organic fertiliser (FBB, etc) anyway. I don't personally think that it's necessary and most UK soils should be very high in much of this stuff. These are the same micronutrients that make up plant and animal tissues and thus things like home made compost, fish blood & bone and chicken manure contain it all already.

As always you can definitely have too much of a good thing. Both sodium and chlorine are essential plant miconutrients but I can't imagine you piling the table salt up on your plants and I only use fresh tap water directly on potted plants if I'm feeling very lazy, due to too much chlorine.
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