If they are still leafy and blooming, I'd feed them before they go dormant. Once they lose all their leaves, no more till spring.

Thank you, disneyhorse.

Chintana

I fertilize until October 15 then not again until April 15.

Thanks, kms2.
I ordered BR 61 fertilizer online a few minutes ago. I searched the internet about fertilizers for plumeria, it popped up several brands. I want to try BR 61 and see how my plumeria doing. So, I still have time about a month to fertilize them.

If your plants are in containers, it's very likely you'll see chlorosis due to an antagonistic Fe (iron) deficiency and pH issues caused by the EXTREMELY high P content of this fertilizer (9-58-8). Plants use about 6X as much N as P. The BR 61 provides almost 17X as much P as your plant can or will use in relation to N, the standard against which fertilizers are compared. Anything in the soil solution that is in excess of what the plant needs has only the potential to limit, so all that excess P is going to be a limiting factor.

When you notice chlorotic foliage, please don't interpret it as the plant showing symptoms of needing more of the BR 61, because using more fertilizer to 'correct' the chlorosis simply adds to the already serious excess of P and increases the severity of the problem. Also, the problem would be greater in severity if you're using a soil you can't flush when you water because not flushing the soil regularly increases the speed with which the ratio of nutrients in the soil becomes badly skewed.

Al

Hi Al,

Thanks for the information! It helps a lot. What fertilizers are you using? How often do you fertilizer your plumeria?

Thanks so much for your help!

Chintana

I don't grow plumeria, but I do grow more than 100 species of trees in containers. The nutritional requirements of plants are very similar, and the ratio of nutrients (one nutrient to the others) used by plants is remarkably similar. As an example, Sunflowers, sedum, sequoia, and snapdragon all use about 1/6 as much P and about 3/5 as much K as N. The rest of the nutrients used fall into a pattern that varies very little in ratio. What varies most is the AMOUNT of nutrients various plants use, rather than the ratio.

Based on actual usage, even the common 20-20-20 soluble fertilizer made by so many fertilizer producers is a high phosphorous fertilizer. When using 20-20-20 your plants will use about 3.3 parts of P for every 20 parts of N. After doing the factoring for how P is reported on fertilizer labels, 20-20-20 provides 2.6X more P than your plant can use, so if a grower really thinks he needs an extra measure of P to produce more blooms (he doesn't), it's much better to use a 1:1:1 ratio fertilizer like 20-20-20 than to use a fertilizer that supplies P at problematically high rates.

In years past, I used to use Miracle-Gro 24-8-16 or miracle-Gro 12-4-8 fertilizer, which I would fortify with Scott's STEM (soluble trace element micronutrients). It worked very well. When I discovered Foliage-Pro 9-3-6, I knew before I even used it that it was going to be an excellent product. It's easy to use, has ALL the essential nutrients plants normally take from the soil, at the average ratio at which plants actually USE the nutrients (a big plus), and the nutrients are soluble, meaning you don't have to depend on the activity of biotic soil populations to break the nutrients down into a form plants can use. It also doesn't utilize urea as a N source, which helps to keep your plants full and compact.

It really is pretty difficult to go wrong using the FP 9-3-6 in combination with a soil you can water to beyond saturation (so your flushing the soil as you water).

Best luck.

Al

Thanks, Al. :)

Plumerias-lover,

Since you have already bought it perhaps you could use it on in ground plants and/or use the high P fertilizer during cooler months. I know people who use br61 and say they have great plants (maybe even have a picture of a once great blooming season) but not results every year and I know others that use 3-1-2 ratios. Some love it and others say its like crack or makes them lanky.

IMO its not so much what you use as it is how you use it. Not that much is known specifically about Plumerias so nothing is 100% accurate. Never be afraid to experiment and adjust to find out what will work best in your conditions. I hope this helps and next year look forward to your bloom pictures next year.

A lot of people say a lot of different things about growing plants, but few can explain just exactly why they hold a belief to be true. When you offer, "It's not so much what you use as how you use it" it encourages someone to go forward, trusting that a fertilizer that supplies almost 17X more P than the plant can/will use in relation to N won't be limiting ...... and there isn't any way that it can't be limiting in container culture without some serious adjusting of the amount of N & K being supplied, and that's just the macros. Also, if she doesn't go forward with the knowledge the potential for limitations is actually a certainty, a fertilizer with that much P can very quickly lead to some serious disappointment.

It doesn't matter to me what a person chooses to use, but I think it's important they have enough reliable information to decide for themselves. Perhaps you might share with PL how she can provide her plants an adequate amount of N and K without the EC/TDS of the soil solution being out of sight high because of all the excess P, and how she can prevent the high pH, and antagonistic deficiencies of Z, Mg, Cu, Ca, K, and Fe known to be caused by excess P (see a Mulder's chart for confirmation of the antagonisms)?

Al

plumerias-lover I personally don't use or like ones with P as high as BR61. I also don't use or like one where the N is the highest number. In Plumerias it creates soft, lanky growth and fewer blooms. I use Nutricote Total 13-13-13 180 Day on all of mine, in pots and in the ground. I use a reduced amount because I use other things too. With the time release I don't have to worry, they always have some food available since soils in my FL areas are pretty much void of nutrients. I also love Dr. Earth Flower Girl, Rocket Fuel, Worm castings, fish Emulsion and Seaweed Extract. I have around 275 plumerias in pots and in the ground. They are healthy, dark green and I have had blooms since February and will until late October or longer. I tried Foliage Pro last summer and all I got was soft, elongated growth, very few blooms( worst year ever). Foliage Pro is good for foliage plants and I do use it once in a while for plants that don't bloom, like palms if they need a fast uptake of food with micros. Also keep in mind that chemical foods like foliage pro petty much negate all the good effects of organics. Just my opinion and I have no stock in any of these companies nor do I try to push them on anyone. So for what it's worth, this is what I used this year and my Plumerias are extremely happy.

The only antagonizing that needs explaining is your post. Go troll someone else.