Recommended general fertilizer for house plants?

11 years ago

I have a few different green leafy things, random cuttings, and pothos, some potted and some in jars of water. Does anybody have recommendations for a good fertilizer for either application, or ideally one I could use for both? For instance, could I buy Jobe spikes and dissolve some in water to make a liquid version?

I'm wary of Miracle Gro - I have some pothos still recovering from a single accidental MG overdose a year ago, so I know I need to go easy. I realize that was my fault, but I've had poor results with a variety of their products. I see some people say not to fertilize pothos at all, but my vines (and other cuttings) sitting in pure water don't grow much, so I'd like to give those guys just a drop of help.

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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)

11 years ago

The gimmicky spikes create hot spots in the pot and generally work poorly as a delivery vehicle for nutrients. Fertilizers with 3:1:2 ratios (like Rina's MG 24-8-16 and also MG 12-4-8, as well as Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 [my 'go to' choice]). A fertilizer's 'ratio' is different, and more important, than its NPK %s, so keep that in mind when you choose. Fertilizers that supply nutrients at or very close to the same ratio at which a plant actually uses the nutrients offer a significant advantage over fertilizers with skewed ratios. If you're interested, read more by clicking this link.

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Comments (9)

tommyr_gw Zone 6
11 years ago
Miracle grow should be fine. Just use 1/4 of the recommend rate on the package. Jack's Classic is what I use mostly now.
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
11 years ago
I personally don't care for jobe spikes...Using MG 12-4-8 with micronutrients (has been recommended here), liquid.

FoliagePro is supposed to be very good (difficult to get it in Ontario, Canada).

Any fert one uses in excess will harm plants...rather fertigate "weakly weekly" than full strength at intervals...
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summersunlight
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
I use Dyna Gro fertilizers such as the Dyna Gro Foliage Pro formula that Al mentioned. The liquid form works well for me since I grow the vast majority of my houseplants in hydroculture. I am happy with the results I've seen from Dyna Gro and would recommend them to others.
User
11 years ago
I use Schulz All Purpose Plant Food:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BARNKVI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
11 years ago
With all respect, the Schultz 10-15-10 isn't a very good choice for houseplants. It supplies almost 4X as much P as plants can use (relative to N), and that's a problem. It derives its N from urea, and lacks several nutrients, namely 3 secondary macronutrients, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur; micronutrients missing include boron, chlorine, cobalt, copper, manganese and molybdenum. I'm with Summersunlight on this one, choosing Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 as my 'go to' fertilizer for houseplants. It has none of the inherent issues I just mentioned.

Al
robert567
last year
Curious what more serious indoor gardeners actually use, and what decent "organic" options are useable for potted plants. Most of the marketed "house plant" ferts in the US are either quite dubious or make exaggerated claims, and or extremely overpriced for what you get. I assume most of the industry basically uses broad artificial fertilizers, and I should just accept using diluted artificial fertilizers.
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
last year
You might find this post about Fertilizng Plants Grown in Containersto be of interest. It is much easier growing plants in pots when using synthetic fertilizers than when relying on organic soil amendments (aka organic fertilizers) as the source of your plant's supplementary nutrition. The primary reason is, you have near complete control over what your plant gets and when it gets it in terms o nutrition; whereas, nutrients locked in organic hydrocarbon chains must be acted upon by soil biota in order to reduce hydrocarbon molecules into lesser forms of matter capable of being absorbed and utilized by plants. Since populations of soil biota essential to reduction of hydrocarbon chains are in constant and wide degree of flux insofar as their numbers and activity level, the important parts of nutritional supplementation, 'when'/ 'which'/ 'how much', nutrient availability is highly variable.
tommyr_gw Zone 6
last year
This year I switched to Dyna grow foliage and Dyna grow bloom. Both work very well. Dyna grow was bought by the Superthrive company by the way. Hopefully they won't mess with the formulas of Dyna grow products. I'm not a fan of the Superthrive snake oil.