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Does bloom food create a soil imbalance?

14 years ago

I am using less chemical type fertilizers now because I sometimes see weird growth from them. My question is about bloom food. If the plant is in bloom cycle and you want to feed it, if you feed high nitrogen it will stop blooming, so you should feed bloom food. But, let us start with the assumption my soil is in balance. If I want my soil to stay balanced, I should use 10 10 10. If I use bloom food won't the balance be upset? I am thinking more about the soil then the plants. Bone meal caused a lot of leaf burn on my Asian magnolia one year, so I don't apply bone meal to plants anymore. I only compost bone meal. I did use a bloom food on the bulbs once this spring.

Comments (14)

  • 14 years ago

    Plants use different nutrients for different purposes so the answer to your questionb is maybe, maybe not. What soil nutrients are available to the plants and in what quantities? What nutrients does your soil, if any, need? No one should be telling you to add X amount of anything without a good, reliable soil test for guidance.
    Bone meal, Phosphorus, should not have caused leaf burn on anything. Blood meal, Nitrogen, might have done so.

  • 14 years ago

    You would have to use truck loads of any kind of bloom fertilizer to create a soil imbalance. The amount of nutrients provided by the use of a bulb or flower fertilizer are insignificant when compared to what exists already in the soil. FWIW, just because a plant is in bloom does not mean a bloom type fertilizer is required - one applies a fertilizer only when it is known that a nutrient deficiency exists. If the plant is blooming already, why would you think it needs fertilizing??

  • 14 years ago

    Every year I get this burn on the Asian Magnolia leaves
    {{gwi:286047}}

  • 14 years ago

    For flowering plants I would think you would apply a bloom fertilizer right before, or just as, your bloom cycle begins to give them a "boost" of food for bigger better flowers. If your plants are beginning to bloom then the plants will uptake all the bloom food so I dont really see it becoming a problem in the soil. The only way I would see it becoming a problem is if you used bloom food all the time as a regular fertilizer. Then the excess nutrients will not be used by the plant and stay in the soil. Only use bloom booster type fertilizer when you know your plants will start their flower/bloom cycle. Otherwise, just use something general or what is recommended for your soil/type of plant.

    I would only use bloom boosters when I wanted fatter better looking fruit/veggies. Usually towards the beginning of the end of a harvest to "pump it up". But for non edibles/non smokeable, just for pretty looking blooms, make sure to use it just before, or at, the onset of the bloom cycle so your flowers can make the most of it:-)

    Thats what I think anyways. I could be totally wrong. But I have grown some serious "tomatoes" using bloom boosters

  • 14 years ago

    Sorry, I had logged in with old ID, to answer a reply on the laundry forum. Anyway, someone on the CA gardening forum said it was the bone meal that burned the leaves. But, every year I get the same burn even when I did not use anything at all near it. Bone meal is similar to bloom food, but it is organic. If using the wrong fertilizer can put that other guy out of balance who I suggest use blood meal, then bloom food could put it out soil out of balance. But, if bloom food can't put the soil out of balance, then it does not matter.
    But, why do my leaves burn up every year? After it blooms it gets leaves. At first the leaves turn green and look nice but later on the newer leaves start to crisp up and turn brown. Maybe they are getting sunburn? But, the tree is in part sun only. I thought they liked sun. I only used compost this year, not any kind of fertilizer (organic or chemical) and it still burned.

  • 14 years ago

    Is it windy? Sometimes wind burn can resemble the symptoms in your pic.

    Maybe your soil is high in salts?

    It can also resemble scorch when it NEEDS NUTRIENTS. Maybe it is hungry?

  • 14 years ago

    I did see the burn appear this year after a big wind came along in fact. We had about three days of high wind. Maybe it's wind burn?

  • 14 years ago

    Thats how my plum tree leaves look. We get windy days around here alot. Its ocean wind I guess.

    Today one of my dahlias almost broke at the base and I had to squeeze a tomato cage down over it.

    Anyways, it could be wind burn. Or it could be frost damage? It does look exactly like my plum leaves after a high wind. It could be sunburn maybe?

    My guess is if you have not been feeding them they need food. Or do you think it could be bacterial?

  • 14 years ago

    Plant leaves transpire, evaporate, moisture all the time. If a plant looses moisture through it leaves faster then the plants roots can supply it the leaves can indicate that by showing scorching, burned areas, hence the name Scorch. If enough Bone Meal were to be plunked into the soil that might, possibly, absorb enough soil moisture to contribute to that problem, maybe. But by itself I have yet to see any sign of Bone Meal causing burning of plant leaves as a high Nitrogen fertilizer does.

  • 14 years ago

    I looked up what to do about wind burn, and I bought some wilt pruf on Amazon. It's too late for this years leaves, but if I spray it on next year when the new leaves come out. I may get some benefit from using it now. The leaves are still young and light green. Some times they burned up so badly that the tree was like ugly for the whole season. It was only nice when the leaves fell off.

  • 14 years ago

    Dang that sux:-( Oh well better luck next year I guess

  • 14 years ago

    Your mag likes acidic soil, bone meal alkalinizes soil. Damn that was easy. It's time to start busting on Kimmsr again... ;)

    Mackel

  • 14 years ago

    I did not know bone meal creates alkalinity, good to know that for the future. I don't have any bulbs near the mag anyway.

  • 14 years ago

    Wilt Pruf is from pine tree resin, I thought it would help, but and I ordered it on Amazon, but the order failed to come. They returned it to shipper. Now I think it's too late as the leaves on the mag are more mature. They won't burn anymore. They only burn when the leaves are new. I have to get some for next year. Wilt Stop is the same as Wilt Pruf. It will wash away in a few months. Normally I don't like products that block a plants pores like oils, but I want to try this because the leaves burn up every year.