It is interesting. I never fertilize newly bought and planted bulbs. I start fertilizing from the second year if they are in "spent," not new garden soil. I use Miracle gro on them and they fatten up no problem.

Cuddlyotter...I am no expert and only base my fertilizer application on what I think the plants need in different stages of their growth. First of all, I would LOVE to try the recommended low phosphorus fertilizer but cannot find any here in my area.

This is what I use that works well for my amaryllises in my growing conditions:

Seedlings with a 1-2 leaves - fish emulsion. I think at this stage, they need the extra boost of nitrogen that would be mild enough for their tender roots.

Seedlings with 3 or more leaves - fish emulsion with balanced fertilizer (NPK are all equal). Most of my seedlings are ready at this stage to take up more nutrition. They already have a good root system and a decent bulb size to store food.

Newly planted purchased bulbs- plain water with a few drops of Superthrive that has Vit.B1 and Naphtyl acetic acid. This seems to help my bulbs to grow roots. At this stage of the bulb, I think there is no use fertilizing them if there are no or limited roots.

Newly planted bulbs that has leafed out(2-3) - Bloom booster (high phosphorus). Now the bulbs have leaves they are ready for some nitrogen and still the extra boost of phosphorus for roots.

Established bulbs (more than 3 leaves) and year old seedlings - Complete fertilizer (NPK equal), organic fertilizer mixed on topsoil, once a month of bloom booster and fish emulsion.

This fertilizer regimen of mine has made some of my amaryllis bulbs 3-6cm bigger, leafed out beautifully and produced bulblets and bulbbils. But then again increase in bulb size also depends on variety. Papilio for one in my experience is slow in increasing it's bulb size compared to the large flowering ones.

The recommended low phosphorus fertilizer I think is good for hippeastrums grown in a controlled environment using almost 'no nutrition' potting soil . I believe that what kind of fertilizer you should use should be based on what your amaryllis needs in your growing conditions. I grow my established plants outdoors starting spring, potted, and exposed to full sun and watered everyday during summer. They do need more fertilizer than the ones grown in the ground or ones that are grown in greenhouses.

Do you grow your hippis indoors all year round? Sir Hans can give you better advice on indoor culture fertilizer requirements I guess.

Here are some pics showing the results of my fertilizing method. As I said earlier, my growing conditions are not the best for them, but they thrive.

My 2-3 month old seedlings still in common seeding containers. Remember my "mini-doughnut greenhouse"? When the seedlings are hardened off, the lid of the container is cut off and used as a bottom tray for watering ( mildly fertilized water all the time).

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This are older seedlings (6-8 mos old) that have been seperated and planted individually in cell packs or 4"pots. They do get a set-back from being seperated and roots disturbed. Once established, they are starting to put up bigger and fatter leaves almost twice the size of their older leaves. They need more fertilizer at this stage.

{{gwi:431135}}

And the mature bulbs in 8" pots. These are newly purchased bulbs last season that has received more or less 8 months of growing time and always watered with the above mentioned fertilizers. Grown outside starting spring under sun and rain, some get fungus, mites, thrips, grashopper bites, whatever mother nature has out there to offer them. But still, if fed enough, they have the strength to fight, recover and flourish.

{{gwi:431136}}

Ah Maria! Now that looks like what I'm dealing with only I haven't separated the seedlings into different cells. I'm at a dilemma now because pretty soon it's going to be cold enough to have to bring them all in and I need to figure out what the heck I'm going to do.

I was tempted to leave them all mashed together in the window boxes they are in, but I know it would be better to separate the roots before they are tangled beyond hope.

Also, even though everything is green and growing new leaves, I have to figure out what I'm going to do about the insects living in my pots and window boxes. I could either drench them in insecticide (which I hate to do and don't have complete confidence would get everything anyway) or take all of my growing bulbs and seedlings and wash the soil off and plant in new potting soil (not a job I would look forward to!)

What are you going to do with all of you outdoor amaryllis' that need to come in?

Jackie...All the mature bulbs with the exception of Papilios and cybisters/exotics go into the unheated garage to rest. The seedlings will have to stay in the community container and not seperated till next spring. I have no choice but they will get the prime window space indoors in winter. The older seperated ones will be grown under flourescent lighting.

Nice pictures, Maria... nice healthy bulbs. Sounds like you have a really good feeding program going.

Now that I have tons more bulbs to care for, it's not as simple as checking and occasionally feeding two Hippis and just letting them do their thing... I need to rethink how I'm feeding and what I'm feeding. There will be a total of 35 bulbs shortly. I got a bottle of Superthrive today, so I have that part covered. I use fish emulsion, and I also use a regular houseplant liquid feed.

I'm rethinking the soil I'm using, as well... I noticed something very interesting recently... I got two baby bulbs from a friend a while ago, and I planted them in slightly sandy potting soil. They're alive and green, but not growing very fast. I got two more baby bulbs from another friend just a few days ago. These I planted in cocopeat. They are already growing new leaves, and this is even before adding any fertilizer! This tells me that the potting soil and all it contains, bacteria-wise, is making the babies use energy to fight off bacteria and fungus instead of growing. The babies planted in the cocopeat have no decomposition bacteria or fungus around them, and can therefore put all energy into growth. I'm thinking of investing in a large amount of cocopeat to use for any bulb that is too young to flower, perhaps to use on all bulbs. I'm not sure how cost effective that would be, but I certainly am getting some for the babies! Huge difference!

In coco peat, you most definitely will have to use fertilizer regularly, since there is not much food to pick up for the bulbs from it.

Right. I did a little reading on coco coir, or cocopeat, and found out that it's an excellent growing medium, but that it is devoid of fertilizer, and requires balancing the fertilizer and PH level... I have a nice meter that will give me numbers for both PH levels and fertilizer. It also measures light and water. I got it when I realized that my bulb collection was getting serious!

The good thing about cocopeat is that it is not decomposing, and doesn't have the bacterias and molds associated with that. The only drawbacks I see are the constant need to check fertilizer, and the cost and availability of the product itself. No one in my area carries the product, so I'll have to order it... it's not cheap, either, but it's worth the money. And when hydrated, it goes a long way...

I was just very surprised by the nice results, and so fast!

Is it made of the coco nut or the coco tree bark or something? Anybody knows anything about it?

Coconut husk.

It's a really nice soil substitute, and after having worked with a bit of it, I am definitely going to convert! In fact, my husband ordered some last night...

I will say, however, that you have to look for cocopeat, or coco coir, that has had the salt removed from it. And there are a few different grades manufactured for the growing industry...

I'm definitely sold, though... I can see the difference in my babies already!

Interesting. I might look into it myself, though I am a very lazy gardener when it comes to watering and fertilizing, so I think I should stick to something that can retain moisture and has nutrients in it... Once in a blue moon, I fertilize, but it is such a nasty procedure, and I paint everything blue with the fertizlizer, so I don't like doing it. :o)

What kind do you use, Soultan? I alternate between fish emulsion and Schultz houseplant food... no mess, no funny colors... and just recently, I bought some Schultz for blooming plants... it has a different formulation, and I think the NPK numbers are better for the bulbs... also, I got some Superthrive, which I'm starting to use. Oh, by the way... all the fertilizers I use are liquids, so it's easy to mix without making a huge mess.

For my outdoor gardens and patio pots, I use a mixture of Ozmocote when I first plant, then later on I use a granular fertilizer, Schultz, I think... it's blue and messy, but I'm outside so I don't care. I also use a granular systemic with insecticide built in that I sprinkle on the beds and water in.

I am bad at it. I just buy something and use it if I use it. So far, my bulbs didn't even need it, and they grew into monsters outside in the bed. Probably, I will pay more attention to fertilizers next year.
Now, if and when I use, I use Miracle Gro.

Hi Guys:

Sorry I didn't reply to your replies...I forgot to hit the "email replies to me" button *blush*.

Maria: Thanks for your insight on the fertilizer. It helps me a great deal. To give you more information, my hippis are under the HPS lighting for most of the year until about the end of May here in my Zone 3 area. Last year, I put them out on my balcony but that faces northwest and only got maybe 2 or 3 hours direct light in the morning which I think didn't help any. So what I'm going to do this year is keep them under the lights until the end of May and then take them to a friends place where he's got a spot outside that faces full south and THEN they can get the sun they need. Also I'll be curious to see how my hippis perform under the HPS lighting instead of the Metal Halide. For the soil, this year I'm using Pro Mix Bark mix that has the Myke mixed in (Mycrorhizzal supplement which is a special fungus that inhabits the roots of plants in a healthy symbiosis to help the plants take up nutrients more efficiently). I read in Veronica Read's book about the mix they use and while I can't emulate that mix for my hippis, this bark mix is the closest one I can get to that. It drains VERY well and has a wetting agent in it to help it to take water more efficiently. I think what I'll do is alternate between the high potassium feed I have and 20-20-20 which should help things along. I think that approximately equal portions of fertilizer as you suggest will do the trick. I'm not familiar with the SuperThrive but if it's anything like what we've got here I can see the benefit. At the garden centre I work at we sell a product called Root Booster which has a rooting hormone in it to help establish a very strong and robust root system very quickly. I might make use of that again.

Soultan: Your advice makes very good sense i.e. not fertilizing until later on. I am not fertilizing my newly bought bulbs knowing that they've got all they need this time around to grow and flower however I will start fertilizing my Amaryllis bought over from last season that have already started growing leaves.

I also use ProMix BX.

Cuddly,

I meant I do not fertilize my bulbs because they are in new, very rich SOIL. I will start fertilizing when the soil will get olders, for next season. I would fertilize even my newly purchased bulbs once they have finished blooming and they are shooting leaves out.

I'm giving mine a good head start with a bit of Superthrive... I think it will help promote faster root growth, which will, in turn, promote faster top growth... I usually dose everything with a weak fertilizer solution when I do fertilize, once every few weeks or so during peak growing season.

Miracle Gro is a good product... I've used that plenty in the past... and had good results.

Miracle Gro is probably the fool's gardening fertilizer. You hardly can go wrong with that. (Hopefully I did not say something stupid.)

I like Miracle Gro... I'm sure I have some in the cabinet...
Actually, I have a bunch of different jars and bottles of fertilizers... some for houseplants, some for flowers and outdoor gardening... they all have good points, and hopefully, I'll figure out what works best for my bulbs.

Hey guys:

Good to know re: fertilizer etc.

Soultan: To clarify: when you say soil do you mean soil right out of the garden etc? or some sort of potting mix with extra stuff blended in. If garden soil, how do you overcome the issue with bugs, diseases and lack of drainage which would be death for the amaryllis which, from what I understand, needs VERY well drained soil. The Pro-Mix Bark Mix that I use is excellent in that it drains VERY well.

Re: fertilizer etc Jodic: That makes perfect sense i.e. to get the roots going which in turn gets the top growth going.

I just picked up some 15-30-15 today and may try that to see what happens.

Somewhere in all these threads is a post from Hans Werner giving the best NPK numbers for fertilizing Hippeastrums... I forget what he said, but I believe the middle number should be higher and the first number should be the lowest... I'm just learning about the technicalities of fertilizers... I've always just mixed and used fertilizers according to the directions, not really knowing what the numbers meant or why different formulations were important for different plants... now that I have an investment in bulbs, I want to know why I'm feeding what I'm feeding!

Be very careful, cuddlyotter, when using a soil product with bark in it... I read somewhere that bark and wood products decompose at a quick rate and are not good where Hippeastrums are concerned... I may be wrong about the product you're using, and it may be perfectly safe for your bulbs, but do please look into it... it has something to do with different fungus and molds and the decomp of wood and bark in particular. I either read it here in the forum or in one of my bulb books... I can't remember... but I was researching cocopeat, or coco coir, products and how it stacks up against potting soil mixes...

Hi Jodik:

Thanks for the insight. I'll have to look into the concerns with the bark mixture. This mixture I use is what we use for all our perennials at the greenhouse and we've had no problem at all. It drains well and has a wetting agent in it to accept water very well. The bark part by the way is not visible i.e. it is pretty well all decomposed. Plus the mycorrhizal fungi that are mixed in are beneficial. We've seen fantastic results of these mixes (for our annuals, we use a regular Pro-Mix with the Myke mixed in) and so I'm confident that my hippi's will do well with this mix. In Veronica Read's book, she talks of a Kew mix which contains Sylvafibre which is composed of "chipped and composted forestry waste, mostly bark & twigs from commercial East Anglian forests in Great Britain" (quoting directly from her book). Since this bark mix I use also contains composted bark products, I'm fairly confident that it will be no problem. Time will tell and I will keep you guys posted.

As for the cocopeat mix, I'm noticing that there is a lot of buzz from this forum on it's use. There seems to be a lot of favor for it's use and the cocopeat seems to be in a large percentage in that Kew mix (they call it coir which is another name for it).

The one difference of course from this mix is that mine does not contain any loam. Being a horticulturalist and teaching customers at work on various aspects of container gardening or indoor gardening, I steer them clear of using any loam because of the problems associated with it. Unless it is properly pasteurized, it causes nothing but problems with plants grown indoors. That being said, Veronica claims that the Kew Mix works wonders for Amaryllis and I don't doubt that at all. What they must do there is pasteurize the loam so there is no problems with diseases etc. and using 10% won't aggravate problems with poor drainage AND would help with nutrient retention.

Hope all that rambling makes sense *blush*.

Cuddly.

Jodik:

Sorry... I forgot to comment about the fertilizer. Thanks for the info i.e. higher middle number. Makes perfect sense as the Phosphorous helps drive good root growth which will in turn drive good leaf growth etc. I've just picked up 15-30-15 and will use that. I'm not TOO concerned about the exact number as long as the proportions are close i.e. higher middle number. I'll have to search for Hans' post on that subject *grins*....I'll get back to you in a year or two after I find it in this HUGE forum.

Cuddly

This was Hans's contribution about fertilizing:
6-3-6 !!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Hans - a question

Thanks, jaapm... I couldn't remember which numbers Hans posted as being better for use... actually, the post I was thinking of was a later post, fairly recent... I'll look for it later today when I have more time... but anyway... thanks for correcting me! I'm still learning about all the technical information associated with plant feeds!

Cuddlyotter - I'm glad to find out that you are a horticulturalist working with plants every day! And that you do know more than most about growing mediums and the like! My post must have sounded silly to you! :-)

When one hears about "orchid medium", one pictures the bagged stuff sold at local retail stores... I didn't know (or didn't think about it) until just recently about soil decomp and the fact that indoor growing with regular potting soils can lack the "beneficial microbes" and such necessary to keep the fungi and bad things at bay...

I've never had a problem with bagged potting soil, but then most of my other houseplants are not as sensitive as a bulb would be... outdoors, in the garden, there are worms and other tiny creatures that constantly "clean" the soil of bad fungi and other harmful things, thus creating a balance. Indoor growing doesn't have those beneficial things happening in the pots... I hope I explained that right...

All I can say, is that what works for one person and the environment they have, may not work for someone else and their growing environment. I admit, most humbly, that I have a lot to learn about the more involved aspects of growing Hippeastrum... which are quite different than growing things like spider plants, or english ivy, for instance! But, as you can see by some of my other posts, I am learning through trial and error... and from a lot of great info posted here in the forum! :-)

Hi Jodik:

Never worry about sounding silly. I'm finding that, even though I'm a horticulturalist, that there are other people out here on this forum who, through their experience, have more knowledge than I, soooo....I do my best to balance all the info given with what I've experienced :-).

Your insights about the soil etc are bang on. There is a balance out there in our gardens that doesn't seem to happen indoors so we have to change the map a little and adapt where necessary.

I think that it's great we can all share our experience and then everyone can take what they need to and go with it etc. I used to think I had it all together regarding growing these beautiful flowers but skimming through these posts suggests (like you say) there is a fair bit to learn.

Thank you, Cuddlyotter, coming from you, I take that as a huge compliment! There's a lot to be said for using common sense, adding a grain of salt, and taking from others' experiences what you can use in your own situation... I've been gardening, both indoors and out, for about 30 years, and I find that I still have so much to learn! I'm really grateful for this forum and it's many diverse gardeners and their skills, and their many diverse gardening climates... and their willingness to share the trials and errors and triumphs of their own gardening experiences.

I've always wanted to take some college courses in horticulture, but was never able to... in lieu of that, I've spent a lot of time digging in the soil and planting things, reading books and magazines, and I even spent several years working at a local garden center in the town where I used to live. I've designed several perennial gardens for people, but get the most joy tending my own little patch of earth. I despise cold weather, but it allows me time to do garden research and tend my houseplants, of which I have many!

And now, since the weather is changing, I shall spend my time working with my Hippeastrums, and learning just what it is that makes them grow and bloom optimally.

In fact, in between reading and posting here in the forum, I'm re-potting several baby bulbs into fresh growing medium, and setting up my grow lights to place them under.

All told, I have 35 bulbs that need my attention, not to mention a dozen or so other plants that look to me to keep them healthy... it's quite a job, but one I love.

I don't know how Maria and Soultan and others, whose collections number well past 100 different varieties, are able to keep every bulb happy and healthy and growing strong... I give them so much credit! I'm a bit nervous about my little collection and whether or not I'll be able to keep everyone in shape over winter! I've already run into rot problems, and I see a few fungus gnats trying to take up residence... I'm in a quandry about growing mediums and fertilizers, and I need a crash course in pollination, pollen saving, and who is diploid and who is tetraploid... a bit hectic, yes... but very exciting and very fun! And the learning, and then seeing the results of putting that knowledge to work is very satisfying.

I'm glad to be a Hippi Addict! Knowledge breeds Success!!

Happy Gardening!

Cuddly,

When I plant inside, I plant in Miracle Gro potting soil with time release water gel or whatever in it.
When I plant outside... That is longer: I created an elevated amaryllis bed with holes on the bottom and a generous gravel bed that would let the excess water run through and let the water out over the bottom holes. Then I laid gardening soil in the bed that I purchased in a garcen center with fertilizer in it already. When it arrived, I just used a construction concrete mixer to mix it with about half the amount of sand. This would let the water run through it well. No critters so far, whatsoever, even thouth we live in close proximity / almost in / in the middle of a wildlife reserve. So that is the outside.

Also, I heard that fertilizers with low middle numbers are the ideal for amaryllis or where the three numbers are about the same.

Veronica recommends 14-10-17 and I agree with her.
Please note that Phosphate is particularly not-outwashable once it is in the substrate.
I regard a "middle number" higher than one of the other two numbers as potentially hazardous.

Thank you very much, Sir Hans, for posting that... I couldn't find your previous post, and couldn't remember which numbers NPK should be for optimum benefit!

So, middle number should be lower...

I have so much to learn! Yikes!