I just applied some tea to my roses yesterday. 2cups alfalfa meal to 5 gallons of water and let brew for 5 days. I did this last year and from a non scientific point of view but also from an observant gardener, I think my roses definitely looked perkier.

If you bought it for horse food, check the container for salt, they come both ways, in the pellets for rabbit food also. I find its better to work into ground and water well. The tea works well, but why contend with the smelly stuff if you don't have to. I always dig it into the hole when I plant.

I've used it for years. Alfalfa contains a natural plant growth hormone which can be beneficial for many plants. We had pet bunnies for many years so their droppings - barely recycled alfalfa - were used to mulch certain plants (not enough to do everything!). Since the bunnies are long gone, I now use alfalfa meal. I also work it into the ground but try to avoid any direct contact with plant roots. Alfalfa meal breaks down very quickly and can be too strong for some plant roots. You can 'burn' plants with some organic amendments if not applied carefully:-)

I've tilled alfalfa pellets into the vegetable garden but I've never used it in my perennial beds. It was more to increase the organic matter in the soil than anything.

What gardengal says.

To add a few comments from my experience. I use alfalfa on my roses and clematis both as tea and pellets. I've started using pellets on the advice of a local master gardener and never regretted it. I then switched to the tea. It doesn't always smell badly and when it does, the smell is gone within a day or even less. I do something similar as cercis47, though I sometimes increase the strength to 3-4 cups per 5 gal. and usually add fish or seaweed fertilizer right before using it. Both clematis and roses responded so well that I am now using it for some perennials too.

Occasionally I apply alfalfa meal or pellets instead of tea, which need to be worked into the soil to disintegrate; otherwise, they sit on top of the soil, at least in my experience. We have bunnies in the neighborhood, which almost gave me a heart attack when I saw how much they feasted on most of my young roses this winter, but I've never seen them coming for alfalfa in the summer. My guess is that there is a lot of other foodstuff around for them to choose at that time.

I have used it (we call it lucerne) as a cover crop (green manure) at the allotment. Along with hungarian grazing rye, tares, mustard and clover, I sow it after the first crops are done (early potatoes, broad beans) and turn it into the soil next spring. This is the very best way for me to increase fertility (in my sandy soil) while not having access to trusted animal manure. Not that I am together enough to do this every year...but when I do, the soil is far more friable and water-retentive.

Hi folks,

that's great, thanks for your messages.

@Ken, I really like that picture of an effervescent retriever,, in a strictly cartoon kind of way.

you know, when I was little, my gran's neighbour had two halfgrown golden retriever pups, and I and my cousin were allowed to play with them. One was called Fidus which is Latin for true or loyal, and he was an escape master... is youd dog in doggy heaven or just outdoors?

I could lay hands on 100% Alfalfa, nothing added, after years of looking for the stuff in smaller quantaties than a ton.

so, yes, I will use it next spring for my roses and in smaller quantaties for my perennials.

I didn't know about the growth hormon ingredient but it sounds interesting or even fascinating.

I think I will go for a 2-4 daysTea approach and some part sprinkled onto the soil and worked in.

my alottment is within the city, so no bunnies. The wildest life we get is obese cats from the surrounding houses, mice and the ocasional hedgehog. We have a small hut, but I will take the alfalfa home, into a dry basement without mice...

if everything goes according to my long pondered plan, I redo two narrow perennial beds this fall. And the alfalfa could give them a good boost next spring

and my soil can still be developed and nurtured, I keep reading up on soil stuff, microbes and organic matter, and in a nutshell you can not have too much organic matter in the soil.

but I will go easy on the alfalfa to avoid burning roots

---

re dogs

perhaps I use some tea on Rhododendrons of a client of mine.

She has a lovely small poodle, in which case I should stick stricktly to tea, I guess. She is mollycoddeling that poor pooch anyway, and gives it a bath if it gets soil on its paws, so I guess Madame would have a fit if her lovely pooch startet to turn effervescent

and tomorrow I'm off to the garden for another mulching spree in order to keep last night's rain in the soil. I got about 120 pounds of mulch from the feed store, chopped flax and chopped straw, to play around with. And the temperatures will rise soon and stay up around 96F for August

so, have a good weekend,

bye, Lin