There aren't any rules, Alfalfa is a low-analysis, slow release 3-1-2 fertilizer. The pellets are around 80% as dense as granular fertilizer--I don't know if meal is less dense but I'd guess so. Since nitrogen is the main concern, a cup of pellets is roughly comparable to 2 oz 10-10-10, except the N is released over a year or two instead of immediately.

You could apply tea in spring as soon as the leaves green up. I don't know where the after-bloom rule came from. There is no "should" about how many times to apply it, but most people aren't going to mess with it more than a couple times a season. As for meal/pellets, each cupful could replace an application of regular fertilizer.

If I wanted an organic lawn fertilizer, I'd used pelletized chicken manure instead. Alfalfa laying on the turf would take forever to break down and release nutrients.

Thankyou michaelg! Pelletized chicken manure? Never heard of that one I'll have to check on it.
OK, I figure then that I will use the dry meal now around the roses and clems, etc. and after their initial bloom I will try the tea on them then. Sounds like a plan. Then that'll be it for the season I think. I don't want to overdo anything.

Cathy

I like the alfalfa pellets since I can throw it around the base and then the rabbits chew some and they leave their "fertilizer" behind further fertilizing the roses. Win win there.

The pelletized chicken manure is prob. Black Hen, dehydrated.. put out by the Black Cow people, it is very good and I use it, as well as Alfalfa pellets and Cottonseed Meal and Milorganite, but I just throw it all around the beds and let it break down gradually... but of course here in Fla. the roses grow year-round... I find that I can get all this stuff at a Feed Store, not HD or Lowes, they have never heard of most of it.... sally