I would go by what is written on YOUR fertilizer bottle. If adding one gallon of water to your roses is enough just add the one tablespoon to that gallon of water.

If you feel you want to add 2 gallons of water to your roses then put 2 tablespoons of fertilizer into 2 gallons of water...

And so on.... same effect won't hurt nothing...

What brand of Fish Emulsion is it?

Hi sgtwarplg: I think 3 Table. per gallon is way too much. Fish emulsion is mighty stinky with such high dosage. My neighbor uses only 1 Tablespoon per gallon for the past decade ... Her plants in pots are healthy & vibrant, no brown leaves whatsoever. Fish emulsion has acid added, VERY ACIDIC, too much would burn plants.

Take a look at this fertilizing regimen and let me know what you think.

http://www.richmondrosesociety.com/rosecare.htm

the fertilizing regimen is halfway down the page. I was thinking of trying it

We are talking about in the ground roses? Right?

I'll let someone else answer because I'm not a big believer in pounding tons of fertilizer into soil that actually may not even need it...

Example- I got a soil test done here and it showed we have plenty of everything in the soil already and a PH 6.5-6.6... So I'm actually not even going to fertilize besides applying homemade compost once every 1-2 years...

But again I have no idea what your soil has or doesn't have to give you a honest correct answer to what regiment you should be using... Sorry

This article may interest you:

http://www.rose.org/phosphorus-fallacies-too-much-of-a-good-thing/

Hi stgwarpig: I read the link you provided, as well as the link Jim provided. With regard to the link of Richmond Rose Society, that's an over-kill of fertilizer, esp. 36-6-0 granular (urea) in the spring. That stuff is VERY SALTY, with salt-index over 90. The late rosarian Karl Bapst, zone 5a, with over 400 roses, warned of his mistake of too much nitrogen & salt in the spring time, thus kill the tiny roots. I have been growing roses for two decades. When I was younger, I followed the recommended schedule on chemical fertilizer (high in phosphorus), and burnt my roses.

Now I'm older, two decades later, and the best fertilizer approach I did was horse manure mixed with alfalfa meal every 2 months: early April, June, August. I put chicken manure (high in nitrogen) after the ground FREEZES for early spring growth. Organics take longer to break down, so instead of chemical nitrogen in spring, I do nitrogen (via chicken manure ) after the ground freezes (week after Thanksgiving) in my zone 5a.

The only thing that I agree with Richmond Rose Society is their quote: " Before you put the soil back in the hole, you will want to mix it with 50-percent organic matter to break up the clay and make it easier for the roots to penetrate the soil. You can mix in decayed leaves, compost, grass clippings, peat moss or clay cutter."

*** From Straw: With regard to the above. If you have sandy soil, peat moss is best to amend. If you have heavy clay like mine, big-particles like decayed leaves, grass clippings, alfalfa pellets, wood chips are best to mix in. If you have sandy soil that doesn't retain nutrients, then the heavy-dose of Richmond Rose Society might work. If you have heavy clay like mine ... heavy clay is fertile and retains salt very well, the Richmond Rose Society's approach would burn roses. There's a lady with clay soil who fertilized her roses every month with Mills Magic (organic) and killed over a dozen of her roses.

What is clay cutter?