Hi everyone this is Noelle at Petitti Garden Centers and we're talking about
fertilizing houseplants now you normally don't do this during the winter months
so we avoid fertilizing usually around October November December January
February and we kind of once we move into March and we spring forward you
start to notice a big difference in how your plants react to the growing of the
daylight okay in the day length is lengthening and the plants are reacting
to it that's when you want to start fertilizing them again they're sleeping
in the winter they don't use a lot of fertilizer or water even for that matter
so it's kind of like wasting your money so fertilize when they're actively
growing and that's going to help them really perform much better for you most
of your fertilizers when you come to the garden center you're going to find
different formulations for different plants because some of them do like more
types of nutrients versus the other don't need those nutrients so I'm going
to explain to you how a fertilizer ratio works and I have the Schultz plant food
which is a 10 15 10 fertilizer normally it's about seven drops of this plant
food and it you can really use it indoors or outdoors and so you take 10
drops of the dropper and you put it in to about one quart of water so your
smaller watering can is what's going to work for you inside the house and then
when you move outside you'll use a larger watering can so what happens with
that is the first number in the fertilizer ratio is nitrogen and
nitrogen helps green foliage okay so if you have a foliage house plant like this
dieffenbachia then your nitrogen number probably is a higher percentage because
you're trying to keep those leaves green okay so we call that the up number two
so just remember that it's the up growth on that plant the foliage growth the
middle number is actually phosphorus and phosphorus helps plant root systems
develop okay so a lot of roots stimulators they have a high middle
number because they're trying to get the roots
to develop in that plant it also helps blooming and fruiting so
if you're trying to get a lemon tree or a lime to start developing those flowers
and fruit you'll notice that there's usually a higher middle number in a
citrus food versus something like the the dieffenbachia or foliage plant food
okay same thing with orchid food you'll
always notice that higher middle number on orchid foods as well the last number
is potassium or potash and what you're going to notice is with potassium it's
an all-over grower so it helps the entire plant body the root system the
leaves the flowering and the stems everything so it's nice to have a
balanced type fertilizer but again helping that plant out overall so again
those three numbers they do represent nitrogen phosphorus and potassium and so
they will help the plant up down and all around so that's kind of how we keep
track of our fertilizer ratios and you'll always find that on every
fertilizer package the other thing that I want to remind you is that fertilizers
you really do want to read the package instructions make sure you're not over
fertilizing because with some of these fertilizers you actually could burn the
plant or make it grow so fast that it might stress out for you so read the
package apply it the way that you're supposed to and you'll be fine usually
liquid fertilizers are applied about once every week to two weeks so 7 to 14
days typically and your granular fertilizers like Osmocote I have it over
here Osmocote can last for six months so
really one application of this going into the growing season will take you a
very long way with your houseplants so that's something to consider too if
you're not good about remembering fertilizer you might want to try
something like Osmocote and that'll work really nicely or plant spikes so those
are usually available as well around your house plant
area and those can work as kind of a long-lasting food for you about thirty
to sixty days normally your your plant spikes will last in that pot of your
plant for you some other neat types there's lots of organic options out
there so if you like to use organic foods and soils and things there's some
good organic options and they kind of have a nice easy pre-measure you go
ahead and tip it over it's got just the right amount for a quart watering can
like this to go ahead and measure out so you literally can tip this cap open and
you can just pour that pre-measured amount right into the watering can
you'll notice that it just came out real nicely and then you go ahead and shut
that lid and basically you're ready to go you're ready to water your orchid so
watering in the morning is always great making sure that the water is not
sitting in the pot you want to make sure that it's draining out after about a
half an hour that that plant has been watered and again because the day length
has increased these plants are gonna start needing a little bit more water
don't don't go too crazy but they will start to utilize water more so do keep
an eye out for that and you'll probably need to slowly increase your watering
for your houseplants indoors if you have any other questions folks please by all
means write us a question we'll answer about house plant fertilization and
enjoy