Hi,
A book I have, Success with Cactus by Franz Becherer, suggests that the last fertilzer before winter should be pure phosphorous to promote flowering the following season.
have any of you tried that? does it matter that I am in LA, and the winter is not really a winter as such?
Thanks Mike
Phosphorous fertilizer
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templegatejohn
- Posts: 1198
- Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 2:57 pm
- Location: Leeds, England
Hi Mike,
A difficult one. I will avoid your direct question to start with and take it from another angle:
In England and probably most other places too, the last thing you want to do at this time of year is feed your cacti or succulents. They are heading towards their winter rest and feeding them will only promote soft growth that would be attacked by the cold weather. As regards encouraging flowering, with most cacti particularly Rebutias, Turbinicarpus etc. it is the cool winter rest that help to promotes the flowering the following year.
I personally would not use a fertiliser that is 'pure' anything. Cacti/succulents need trace elements in their feeding programme. Having said all that you know your own growing conditions better than anybody else. It may well work, but I would not use it on anything that you would be upset to lose and certainly not on all of your plants.
I always understood that it was potassium that improved flowering and phosphorus improved disease resistance.
Cheers,
John
A difficult one. I will avoid your direct question to start with and take it from another angle:
In England and probably most other places too, the last thing you want to do at this time of year is feed your cacti or succulents. They are heading towards their winter rest and feeding them will only promote soft growth that would be attacked by the cold weather. As regards encouraging flowering, with most cacti particularly Rebutias, Turbinicarpus etc. it is the cool winter rest that help to promotes the flowering the following year.
I personally would not use a fertiliser that is 'pure' anything. Cacti/succulents need trace elements in their feeding programme. Having said all that you know your own growing conditions better than anybody else. It may well work, but I would not use it on anything that you would be upset to lose and certainly not on all of your plants.
I always understood that it was potassium that improved flowering and phosphorus improved disease resistance.
Cheers,
John
I'd agree with John on most of what he said. Since I have have moved to Arizona from Southern California I have changed my habits and strategies a little bit. We have a longer growing season here in AZ especially if you can keep your plants warm in a greenhouse setting. I am being told I can keep watering most of my plants, to a lesser degree though, that I wouldn't normally if it where cooler. However I am still being told to stop the fertilizing in the winter. I did give a lite dose a week ago but that should be it for the season. That's a bit later than I was doing in So Cal. There I stopped at the end of August. And stopped watering my winter resters at the end of Sept. In my new location I plant on stopping for those type by the end of November which is when we usually get our first temps near freezing at night. That's my two cents.
Andy
Andy