June 20, 2023 • 18 mins
See how to fertilize your hanging baslets like a pro! Jim and Mary walk listeners through how to fertilize their baskets low and slow - and how it can help keep flowering baskets blooming big all summer long!
There is little doubt about it - how, when and what you use to fertilize your hanging baskets can make a huge difference in just how well they bloom this year. And perhaps even more importantly - for just how long into summer or fall you can keep your baskets flowering big.
If there is one thing that gardeners struggle with, it's keeping their hanging baskets blooming all summer long. For many, although their baskets might start out strong and beautiful in the spring - by mid-summer, they begin to suddenly appear weak and feeble.
See how fertilziing your baskets with a simple one-two punch on a conisten basis can keep your baskets flowering big all season long.
There is little doubt about it - how, when and what you use to fertilize your hanging baskets can make a huge difference in just how well they bloom this year. And perhaps even more importantly - for just how long into summer or fall you can keep your baskets flowering big.
If there is one thing that gardeners struggle with, it's keeping their hanging baskets blooming all summer long. For many, although their baskets might start out strong and beautiful in the spring - by mid-summer, they begin to suddenly appear weak and feeble.
See how fertilziing your baskets with a simple one-two punch on a conisten basis can keep your baskets flowering big all season long.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competiti. Hello andwelcome everybody to the Simple Garden Life Podcast.
I am Jim Competti along with mywife Mary and Mary. Today we
are talking about fertilizing hanging baskets,or more importantly, how to keep your
(00:23):
baskets blooming. You know, hangingbaskets are one of the most popular ways
to add instant caller to any outdoorspace. They really can. They can
brighten up our patios. We usethem all the time. They bring life
to back in front, porches,you name it. They had a touch
of class and beauty, you know, to anywhere you want to put them
as long as they're blooming, absolutelyand keeping them looking great for an entire
summer can be a huge challenge.You can and that's exactly why fertilizing your
(00:46):
baskets and the best way possible canmake all the difference. We'll get into
today's topic in full in just aminute, but as always, we want
to take a moment to remind everyonethat you can always reach us via email
at the Farm at Owgarden dot com. And boy, right now it's the
heat of garden Sea and the emailsare flying in and we love it.
We do. We get to answera lot. It gives us a lot
of I guess content for our podcastand also for our websites. But boy,
(01:10):
you can always email us there atthe Farm at Owgarden dot com and
you can also sign up to followus at simple gardenlife dot com, follow
us on Facebook or your favorite podcastapp, and be sure to check out
our Old World Garden YouTube channel aswell. Hey, j before we get
started, I think we should telleveryone about how we are sharing a little
piece of the farm with some visitors. You know what, this is a
pretty big announcements front fighting Oh weare you know what. When we went
(01:33):
around the country and did all thestates and got to see gardens and everything,
experience everything, we use harvest Hostand harvest Host was really good to
us. You can stay at farmsand wineries, breweries, you name it,
golf courses and you know, youpay an annual fee and you can
stay at the place for free,and we really enjoyed it. So for
us, we decided, you know, we've built this farm and it's now
(01:53):
at the point where we can startto share it. So we became a
Harvest Host and if you have aself contained camper and you're passing through,
you can spend a night here ifyou're a Harvest Host member. That's right.
It's absolutely free as a Harvest Hostmember. Once you pay your membership
fee. You can look us upon the harvest a host app excuse me,
or website. And you know,I mean, it's it is fun.
I mean, we've already had Ithink we signed up last week.
(02:14):
We've already had four campers stay herealready. We pretty much you know,
have some bookings next few weeks.It's great. It's just a great way
for us to share the farm.We get to meet people, we can
do tours while you're here if youwant. But just a really cool way
to experience old world garden farm.Absolutely, you can even tour the gardens
and see what we have to offer. That's right. So now let's talk
about hanging baskets or more importantly,how to keep them blooming, you know,
(02:37):
strong and beautiful all summer long.And to kick it off, let's
get to the question of the week, because it really kind of sets the
stage for everything. We get thisquestion more than any other about hanging baskets,
especially this time of year. That'sright. So the question of the
week is from Linda Crowley from Eugene, Oregon. Her question, I get
so frustrated with my hanging baskets everyyear. I could never seem to keep
(02:58):
my baskets much later than the endof June, no matter what I do.
They start off so big and beautifulin full blooms, but seems like
as soon as summer rise, mybaskets just start to look awful. What
can I do to keep them flowering? Linda, you are not alone,
and there's a lot of things inyour statement that we're going to cover in
today's podcast, a lot of factorsthat complain to the baskets not lasting.
(03:19):
So let's kind of just cover themall. And I think, Linda,
by the end of this podcast,you're going to, I guess, have
a better understanding of why and howto keep those baskets. So for starters
you mentioned, you know, mybaskets are always so big in the early
spring. We talk about this allthe time. That is one thing you
kind of want to stay away from, right Those baskets that are already huge
(03:39):
in the spring, they're overgrown.And you know what, as much as
I love getting a hanging basket onMother's Day, you know those hanging baskets
are huge and beautiful, but they'regoing to be overgrown in a matter of
weeks. Yeah. And the reasonthat is is because a lot of these
growers early on they want those toyou catch the shopper's eye. They plant
those. I mean as far backsometime there's November and December, and they're
(04:00):
growing them in their greenhouses. Andit's great. I mean if you need
instant caller and you're hosting a Mother'sDay brunch or you're hosting, but understand,
those baskets, unless you replant theminto a very large basket later,
they are not going to last.The root structure is already too grown the
nutrients from the soil garden, andeven if you start fertilizings, we'll get
into a little bit their root boundand it's impossible to try to save them.
(04:23):
Right. And even if you plantyour own hanging baskets, you want
to make sure you don't overcrowd themand again use the larger basket sizes,
so a lot of times in storesyou're going to see these ten and twelve
inch baskets, and they can beat a bargain price. There's nothing wrong
with them, but understand when youbuy a ten or twelve inch basket,
it's not going to be able tolast the whole year. A lot of
times we've done this before. Wefind a great deal on some hanging baskets
(04:46):
and we'll bring them home. Wehave our own fourteen, sixteen and eighteen
inch baskets. That's really what youwant to say. I would say that
sixteen inch baskets are perfect ideal.Yeah, they can last all season long.
They have enough soil if you growyour planet slowly, that they're gonna
flower all year. But I mean, no matter how rich and furtive your
potting soil is, at the beginningof the growing season, your baskets are
eventually going to run out. Andeven if you plant them in larger baskets,
(05:10):
they're still going to take those nutrients. And when that happens, plants
quickly fade into a mass of wildedleaves, sparse blooms, and everybody's just
really upset when they start to seetheir baskets starts to fail. But how
when and what you fertilize flowing basketswith make a huge difference. Oh,
they're critical. I mean, they'recritical factors and keeping your plants blooming and
booming. And that is exactly whywe're gonna walk you through today's podcast.
(05:32):
So let's talk about the art offertilizing, because it's not as simple as
going out and just blasting your plantswith a lot of fertilizer. First of
all, it's gonna matter what you'reusing, as you said, Mary,
and it's gonna matter how often you'reusing. It's gonna matter the strength because
just saying I'm gonna fertilize my basketswith some giant, you know, huge
boost of fertilizer, We're going totalk about how that actually can really be
(05:56):
an issue later on. You're absolutelyright, Jem. To give long lasting
blooming power to your hanging baskets,you really need to provide nutrients in a
low and slow manner. Yeah,I mean, if you if you don't
fertilize your plants at all, they'regoing to run out of energy. But
if you give them too much,and this is usually the problem, If
you give them too much or toolarge of a dose or two, you
know, too often. That's right, your plant are gonna they're gonna spend
(06:19):
all of their energy on growing.So here's what happens. When a plant
gets a huge dose of energy allat once, or too much energy,
you know, consistently, they stoptrying to produce blooms. What they do
instead is they're like, I justwant to get bigger, and so that's
at the expense of blooms. Sothat's why just throwing a ton of fertilizer
on is not always the answer.No, and fertilizing is often as much
(06:42):
of a problem for plants as well. It really is. I mean,
it gives plants a few moments ofbig, blooming glory and then only to
have them become root bound and overgrownbecause of again, all that growth,
they just put it into it.So what should you give your planners?
You talked about it. It's lowand slow, and we're gonna get into
that. But what do you meanmean by low and slow. We'll get
to that after we take a veryquick break. We'll be back to talk
(07:03):
about how to feed them, theduration you should feed your plants, and
then also more importantly, how tominimize the nutrients you're giving them so they
don't grow too big, too fast. Okay, we are back and before
the break we talked about the importanceof fertilizing and hanging baskets low and slow.
But you know what do you fertilizewith to do that? For us,
(07:26):
we really use a one two fertilizingpunch, and I mean it's worked
for us. Mary, I'll tellyou what. We started probably doing this
I don't know eight nine years agoand fell in love with it because it
is a low and slow, buta consistent feeding that doesn't overpower plants we
talked about to make them go rootbound, but at the same time it
provides them just this perfect amount ofnutrients to keep those blooms coming on.
(07:49):
Exactly what we call is the onetwo punch. It's actually a combination of
two different types of fertilizers that reallymakes those hanging baskets look gorgeous. They
are. And so when she saystwo types, what she's talking about is
one is a dry approach and forus we use worm castings. They're they're
fantastic. And then the other isa liquid fertilizer and liquid fertilizers are gonna
(08:11):
be a little bit more effective,providing a faster energy boost to your plants.
They can still be low and slowdepending on what you use. But
you know, liquid absorbs through thefolier action the leaves, and it also
absorbs to the roots where the granularaction, the dry action we talk about,
absorbs only through the roots. Sowhat we do we use worm casting
(08:33):
surprise. Yeah, they're just fantastic. And the reason we like worm castings
for our hanging baskets is they won'toverpower. They don't provide too much nitrogen,
which nitrogen is just gonna promote growth. It's not going to help you
with this blooms as much. Butworm castings are fantastic. However, if
you don't have worm castings or don'twant to use worm castings or purchase them,
(08:54):
you can use a granular fertilizer andall purpose. But again, you
want to make it low. It'sgot to be like a neutral five five
five, a low base. Youdon't want the nitrogen number to be too
high. Before we get learning furthergent, let's talk about what the five
five five means. Yeah, sofive five five good call americ because sometimes
I just get so excited to starttalking. So we're talking about you know,
the mp K, which is youknow, nitrogen, phosphorus, and
(09:16):
potassium. So of those three numbers, that's what most fertilizers are made up
the majority of They have a lotof other trace nutrients, but the nitrogen
in that number is for greening up, okay, greening and growth. When
you think nitrogen, think of lawns. Lawn fertilizers use like thirty six and
then two two in their NPK makeupbecause they want to put a lot of
green growth. So nitrogen important.It's good, but too much of it
(09:41):
promotes too much growth in the rootsand we'll green your plan up, but
you won't have a lot of blooms. So what we're talking about with five
five five, it's it's just fivepercent, five percent and five percent.
It's not a genormous amount. Ilove that in term, but going back
to my elf dates there, butit's just going to give them a low
and slow every month. But forus it's worm castings. I mean,
(10:01):
you don't have to worry about thesenumbers. They're very low on all of
those, but they just provide anice, steady approach every time you water
those worm castings, they soak downin exactly, So how much should you
use per hanging basket? You knowwhat, that's a great question that a
lot of people always want to know. So for us, we use a
quarter to a half a cup ofcastings on the soil surface once a month.
(10:22):
Is that for a sixty inch basketten or twelve size? Matter?
Yeah, I mean we do asixteen inch basket, So I would say
we lean towards the half a cup. It's really about your plan. I
mean I like that. You know, if it's a smaller basket, I
would go a little bit smaller,maybe a quarter cup. It's again,
we always talked about this all thetime. Don't get so caught up in
that perfection. It's about providing thema set amount of nutrients. So somewhere
(10:43):
between a quarter and a half cup. I would say a half cup for
a sixteen to an eighteen inch basket. But work it in a bit.
This is something you do, youknow, put it on the top of
your soil. You can just usea screwdriver or anything, just kind of
scratch it in that surface soil justhelps it kind of get set. And
then when you start to water orif rains, if your baskets are out
working rain, they're gonna go in. I mean, that's the big thing
about worm casting, that's that slowpower that goes in. I mean,
(11:07):
they're incredible. We use them everywhereand every extra bit of power they give
to baskets and even on our containers. We do the same thing with our
container plants. It really is amazingand you can see the difference. And
I know we get this question alot also, jem is you know,
can I put the worm castings tooclose to the stem of the plants?
No, not with worm castings.You can with granular fertilizer. But worm
castings are not going to burn anything. That's what makes them so wonderful.
(11:30):
Again, we'll have a link.We've had it on a link on most
of our sites. You know what'sfunny, we don't even we have no
affiliation with worm castings. I'm justtelling you they work. They work for
us everywhere, and when it comesto containers and baskets, they really do.
So that's the first part of theone two punch. The second part
of that punch is liquid fertilizing,and we talked about it. Liquid fertilizing.
(11:50):
You know, it's it's amazing becauseit's going to give a boost of
nutrients. And for this fertilizer,you know, we talked about the NPK
ratios nitrogen, the phosphorus and thepotassium, but this is the one that
you're going to give your plants thathas very little nitrogen and it's going to
boost it a lot more in thephosphorus and the potassium to promote blooms.
(12:11):
And you're talking about commercial liquid fertilizersor like one compost T, worm casting
T what it. Yeah, Soif you're going all organic, and I
mean you can still get organic liquidfertilizers too. Worm casting T and composting
T are two of our favorites.You know, you don't have to worry
once again about the NPK. They'regonna power your plants, they're gonna power
blooms. You're not gonna have anissue. But if you're buying a commercial
(12:33):
product, even if it's organic,whatever it is, don't get one a
liquid fertilizer that has a higher nitrogennumber than your phosphorus or you know,
or your potassium, because those arewhat's responsible for blooms. And you want
to higher number there. So forus we fertilize you know, whether we're
using compost T worm casting T it'sa little bit different. You know,
(12:54):
it's once a month for every forthe dry materials the worm casting. But
for us with the liquid fertilizer,we like to do it, you know,
every seven to ten days, right. And when we talk about using
the liquid fertilizers, you know sometimesthe commercial bought ones, you don't want
to use them at full strength.No, no, So when you're using
worm casting tea or compost t makeyour tea, put it on every seven
(13:20):
to ten days in addition to thoseworm castings, and you're going to be
fantastic. But if you're using acommercial product where those numbers are higher,
you know, for instance, EasyGrow liquid concentrate, which we like.
It's it's a great it's a greatnatural way to do it. But it's
a ten thirty twenty So you're talkingabout ten parts nitrogen, thirty parts phosphorus,
and twenty parts potassium. That's strong. If you give your plants that
(13:41):
at full strength every seven to tendays, you're gonna end up at the
same problem. They're going to beroot bound. They might have a big
blast of blooms, but they're notlasting all season. So what we always
recommend, Mary, is if you'reusing commercial fertilizers and not compost t or
worm casting tea dilute, that that'sa huge key to keeping your flowers looking
great. You do. We're alltalking about low and slow fertilizing, you
know, we want those baskets tolast all summer long, So you really
(14:05):
have to take a low and slowapproach with both the worm castings and the
liquid fertilizer. Yeah, and ifyou're if it's if you see your plants
are overgrowing too much, cut itback to a third. You know,
it's a good rule of thumb.If you're looking at your plants and they're
blooming great, and they're green,and they don't show any signs of wear
and tear, you don't have togive them too much. You know,
keep keep up your regiment, evenback off a little if you think it's
(14:26):
growing too much. I really reallyprefer compost t as as my actual liquid
fertilizer. I think you do too. I think it's just the no danger
zone. You're never going to overyour power plants. You're you're not going
to overpower your plants too much.But that to be said, sometimes you
can't get composted to or you can'tmake it, or you don't have compostor
(14:46):
you can't purchase compost. And that'swhere a good organic liquid fertilizer can help.
But just don't put it on atfull strength. You read some of
those labels and they will tell you. You know, it's a pretty strong
dose, right. You know,when you go to purchase these, if
you are purchasing commercial liquid fertilizers,there are the numbers will be there.
The NPK numbers will be on thepackage, So take a peek at that
(15:07):
before you just pick up the cheapestone on the shelf or the most expensive
one on the shelf, thinking yourflowers are gonna be great. Yeah.
We talked about the Easy Grow whichis a ten thirty twenty and it's fantastic
and you can dilute that and it'sgoing to be great. But there are
some out there. I'm one ofmy favorites is Doctor Earth. They have
a button Bloom fertilizer and here's agreat one. It's a one to one
MPK you're talking compost t range.You can use that full strength every seven
(15:28):
to ten days and it's gonna dowonders. But when it comes to fertilizing
hanging basketball, I just can't stressthis enough that one two approach, having
some worm castings or a granular fertilizeronce a month to do the topical approach
and then seven to ten to fourteendays with your liquid and at a reduced
rate, or you're using a compostt or a worm caste that is already
(15:50):
reduced. That is the key.I mean, we have this goes on
all summer long. It does,and we have done this I don't know
since any of time for us,and it just people always ask us come
August, oh my gosh, howdo you keep your baskets looking so great?
And it's not us, it's justthat fact that we've not overpowered them.
(16:10):
We've purchased smaller baskets in the beginning. Even if you plant your own
baskets, don't fill it so muchwith plants. Allow them time to grow,
because then you get late in theseason and they just look so much
more. Promise they'll grow even ifyou plant just a few plants in there
and they'll be by the end ofsummer, they'll be huge. That's right.
So let's just kind of wrap thisup. I think we've hammered home
(16:30):
the fertilizing. You know, youstart with bigger containers. Don't buy overly
large plants. I mean, that'sa big key, more than anything else,
to getting into last all season.And then you fertilize regularly but with
a light feeding. Yeah, itkeeps plants blooming but not overgrowing. I
mean, you use a fertilizer witha bit more phosphorus and nitrogen when you're
getting into your liquids. And myfavorite as you use wormcastings once a month.
(16:52):
They work. Yeah, and thenlast but not least. I just
I just want to throw this inthere. So let's say you get to
right now or July, I August. We're sitting in mid June, right
now here as we do this podcast. But if you get to that point
and you realize your basket is overgrown, I mean you're pouring water on and
it's pouring. Yeah, but don'tthrow that plant away and don't put it
(17:15):
in the compass pole. A greatthing you can do. Okay, yes,
you can replant it. Replant itin a basket. That's probably you
know. Thirty three to fifty percentbigger, so you can make it last
a year. But sometimes you alreadyhave a big basket and you're like,
I can't find a container this big. Don't throw it away. Take it
out into a flower bed somewhere,dig down and plan it like an annual
plant, and fertilize a little bit. You will be amazed. We've done
(17:37):
this with petunia plants, marigold plantsthat have gotten overly large. Within weeks
they will be the biggest showstopper andyour flower beds around. Yeah, they're
absolutely beautiful. It's a great wayto repurpose the hanging baskets that they're just
totally overgrown. It really is.So we probably beat fertilizing into the ground
here, get it. But anyway, I think it's time Mary and remember
(18:00):
or whatever you do, find thefun and gardening and gross uply beautiful.
All right, until next week,everyone, happy gardening. We hope you've
enjoyed this episode. Subscribe to theSimple Garden podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, or most of your favoritepodcast apps. You can also head
over to simplegardenlife dot com, whereyou can listen and read all of the
show notes to every episode and ifyou have any questions, any ideas for
(18:22):
show topics, or if you wantto share your favorite garden tip, email
us at the Farm at owgarden dotcom. Until next time, Thanks everyone,
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competiti. Hello andwelcome everybody to the Simple Garden Life Podcast.
I am Jim Competti along with mywife Mary and Mary. Today we
are talking about fertilizing hanging baskets,or more importantly, how to keep your
(00:23):
baskets blooming. You know, hangingbaskets are one of the most popular ways
to add instant caller to any outdoorspace. They really can. They can
brighten up our patios. We usethem all the time. They bring life
to back in front, porches,you name it. They had a touch
of class and beauty, you know, to anywhere you want to put them
as long as they're blooming, absolutelyand keeping them looking great for an entire
summer can be a huge challenge.You can and that's exactly why fertilizing your
(00:46):
baskets and the best way possible canmake all the difference. We'll get into
today's topic in full in just aminute, but as always, we want
to take a moment to remind everyonethat you can always reach us via email
at the Farm at Owgarden dot com. And boy, right now it's the
heat of garden Sea and the emailsare flying in and we love it.
We do. We get to answera lot. It gives us a lot
of I guess content for our podcastand also for our websites. But boy,
(01:10):
you can always email us there atthe Farm at Owgarden dot com and
you can also sign up to followus at simple gardenlife dot com, follow
us on Facebook or your favorite podcastapp, and be sure to check out
our Old World Garden YouTube channel aswell. Hey, j before we get
started, I think we should telleveryone about how we are sharing a little
piece of the farm with some visitors. You know what, this is a
pretty big announcements front fighting Oh weare you know what. When we went
(01:33):
around the country and did all thestates and got to see gardens and everything,
experience everything, we use harvest Hostand harvest Host was really good to
us. You can stay at farmsand wineries, breweries, you name it,
golf courses and you know, youpay an annual fee and you can
stay at the place for free,and we really enjoyed it. So for
us, we decided, you know, we've built this farm and it's now
(01:53):
at the point where we can startto share it. So we became a
Harvest Host and if you have aself contained camper and you're passing through,
you can spend a night here ifyou're a Harvest Host member. That's right.
It's absolutely free as a Harvest Hostmember. Once you pay your membership
fee. You can look us upon the harvest a host app excuse me,
or website. And you know,I mean, it's it is fun.
I mean, we've already had Ithink we signed up last week.
(02:14):
We've already had four campers stay herealready. We pretty much you know,
have some bookings next few weeks.It's great. It's just a great way
for us to share the farm.We get to meet people, we can
do tours while you're here if youwant. But just a really cool way
to experience old world garden farm.Absolutely, you can even tour the gardens
and see what we have to offer. That's right. So now let's talk
about hanging baskets or more importantly,how to keep them blooming, you know,
(02:37):
strong and beautiful all summer long.And to kick it off, let's
get to the question of the week, because it really kind of sets the
stage for everything. We get thisquestion more than any other about hanging baskets,
especially this time of year. That'sright. So the question of the
week is from Linda Crowley from Eugene, Oregon. Her question, I get
so frustrated with my hanging baskets everyyear. I could never seem to keep
(02:58):
my baskets much later than the endof June, no matter what I do.
They start off so big and beautifulin full blooms, but seems like
as soon as summer rise, mybaskets just start to look awful. What
can I do to keep them flowering? Linda, you are not alone,
and there's a lot of things inyour statement that we're going to cover in
today's podcast, a lot of factorsthat complain to the baskets not lasting.
(03:19):
So let's kind of just cover themall. And I think, Linda,
by the end of this podcast,you're going to, I guess, have
a better understanding of why and howto keep those baskets. So for starters
you mentioned, you know, mybaskets are always so big in the early
spring. We talk about this allthe time. That is one thing you
kind of want to stay away from, right Those baskets that are already huge
(03:39):
in the spring, they're overgrown.And you know what, as much as
I love getting a hanging basket onMother's Day, you know those hanging baskets
are huge and beautiful, but they'regoing to be overgrown in a matter of
weeks. Yeah. And the reasonthat is is because a lot of these
growers early on they want those toyou catch the shopper's eye. They plant
those. I mean as far backsometime there's November and December, and they're
(04:00):
growing them in their greenhouses. Andit's great. I mean if you need
instant caller and you're hosting a Mother'sDay brunch or you're hosting, but understand,
those baskets, unless you replant theminto a very large basket later,
they are not going to last.The root structure is already too grown the
nutrients from the soil garden, andeven if you start fertilizings, we'll get
into a little bit their root boundand it's impossible to try to save them.
(04:23):
Right. And even if you plantyour own hanging baskets, you want
to make sure you don't overcrowd themand again use the larger basket sizes,
so a lot of times in storesyou're going to see these ten and twelve
inch baskets, and they can beat a bargain price. There's nothing wrong
with them, but understand when youbuy a ten or twelve inch basket,
it's not going to be able tolast the whole year. A lot of
times we've done this before. Wefind a great deal on some hanging baskets
(04:46):
and we'll bring them home. Wehave our own fourteen, sixteen and eighteen
inch baskets. That's really what youwant to say. I would say that
sixteen inch baskets are perfect ideal.Yeah, they can last all season long.
They have enough soil if you growyour planet slowly, that they're gonna
flower all year. But I mean, no matter how rich and furtive your
potting soil is, at the beginningof the growing season, your baskets are
eventually going to run out. Andeven if you plant them in larger baskets,
(05:10):
they're still going to take those nutrients. And when that happens, plants
quickly fade into a mass of wildedleaves, sparse blooms, and everybody's just
really upset when they start to seetheir baskets starts to fail. But how
when and what you fertilize flowing basketswith make a huge difference. Oh,
they're critical. I mean, they'recritical factors and keeping your plants blooming and
booming. And that is exactly whywe're gonna walk you through today's podcast.
(05:32):
So let's talk about the art offertilizing, because it's not as simple as
going out and just blasting your plantswith a lot of fertilizer. First of
all, it's gonna matter what you'reusing, as you said, Mary,
and it's gonna matter how often you'reusing. It's gonna matter the strength because
just saying I'm gonna fertilize my basketswith some giant, you know, huge
boost of fertilizer, We're going totalk about how that actually can really be
(05:56):
an issue later on. You're absolutelyright, Jem. To give long lasting
blooming power to your hanging baskets,you really need to provide nutrients in a
low and slow manner. Yeah,I mean, if you if you don't
fertilize your plants at all, they'regoing to run out of energy. But
if you give them too much,and this is usually the problem, If
you give them too much or toolarge of a dose or two, you
know, too often. That's right, your plant are gonna they're gonna spend
(06:19):
all of their energy on growing.So here's what happens. When a plant
gets a huge dose of energy allat once, or too much energy,
you know, consistently, they stoptrying to produce blooms. What they do
instead is they're like, I justwant to get bigger, and so that's
at the expense of blooms. Sothat's why just throwing a ton of fertilizer
on is not always the answer.No, and fertilizing is often as much
(06:42):
of a problem for plants as well. It really is. I mean,
it gives plants a few moments ofbig, blooming glory and then only to
have them become root bound and overgrownbecause of again, all that growth,
they just put it into it.So what should you give your planners?
You talked about it. It's lowand slow, and we're gonna get into
that. But what do you meanmean by low and slow. We'll get
to that after we take a veryquick break. We'll be back to talk
(07:03):
about how to feed them, theduration you should feed your plants, and
then also more importantly, how tominimize the nutrients you're giving them so they
don't grow too big, too fast. Okay, we are back and before
the break we talked about the importanceof fertilizing and hanging baskets low and slow.
But you know what do you fertilizewith to do that? For us,
(07:26):
we really use a one two fertilizingpunch, and I mean it's worked
for us. Mary, I'll tellyou what. We started probably doing this
I don't know eight nine years agoand fell in love with it because it
is a low and slow, buta consistent feeding that doesn't overpower plants we
talked about to make them go rootbound, but at the same time it
provides them just this perfect amount ofnutrients to keep those blooms coming on.
(07:49):
Exactly what we call is the onetwo punch. It's actually a combination of
two different types of fertilizers that reallymakes those hanging baskets look gorgeous. They
are. And so when she saystwo types, what she's talking about is
one is a dry approach and forus we use worm castings. They're they're
fantastic. And then the other isa liquid fertilizer and liquid fertilizers are gonna
(08:11):
be a little bit more effective,providing a faster energy boost to your plants.
They can still be low and slowdepending on what you use. But
you know, liquid absorbs through thefolier action the leaves, and it also
absorbs to the roots where the granularaction, the dry action we talk about,
absorbs only through the roots. Sowhat we do we use worm casting
(08:33):
surprise. Yeah, they're just fantastic. And the reason we like worm castings
for our hanging baskets is they won'toverpower. They don't provide too much nitrogen,
which nitrogen is just gonna promote growth. It's not going to help you
with this blooms as much. Butworm castings are fantastic. However, if
you don't have worm castings or don'twant to use worm castings or purchase them,
(08:54):
you can use a granular fertilizer andall purpose. But again, you
want to make it low. It'sgot to be like a neutral five five
five, a low base. Youdon't want the nitrogen number to be too
high. Before we get learning furthergent, let's talk about what the five
five five means. Yeah, sofive five five good call americ because sometimes
I just get so excited to starttalking. So we're talking about you know,
the mp K, which is youknow, nitrogen, phosphorus, and
(09:16):
potassium. So of those three numbers, that's what most fertilizers are made up
the majority of They have a lotof other trace nutrients, but the nitrogen
in that number is for greening up, okay, greening and growth. When
you think nitrogen, think of lawns. Lawn fertilizers use like thirty six and
then two two in their NPK makeupbecause they want to put a lot of
green growth. So nitrogen important.It's good, but too much of it
(09:41):
promotes too much growth in the rootsand we'll green your plan up, but
you won't have a lot of blooms. So what we're talking about with five
five five, it's it's just fivepercent, five percent and five percent.
It's not a genormous amount. Ilove that in term, but going back
to my elf dates there, butit's just going to give them a low
and slow every month. But forus it's worm castings. I mean,
(10:01):
you don't have to worry about thesenumbers. They're very low on all of
those, but they just provide anice, steady approach every time you water
those worm castings, they soak downin exactly, So how much should you
use per hanging basket? You knowwhat, that's a great question that a
lot of people always want to know. So for us, we use a
quarter to a half a cup ofcastings on the soil surface once a month.
(10:22):
Is that for a sixty inch basketten or twelve size? Matter?
Yeah, I mean we do asixteen inch basket, So I would say
we lean towards the half a cup. It's really about your plan. I
mean I like that. You know, if it's a smaller basket, I
would go a little bit smaller,maybe a quarter cup. It's again,
we always talked about this all thetime. Don't get so caught up in
that perfection. It's about providing thema set amount of nutrients. So somewhere
(10:43):
between a quarter and a half cup. I would say a half cup for
a sixteen to an eighteen inch basket. But work it in a bit.
This is something you do, youknow, put it on the top of
your soil. You can just usea screwdriver or anything, just kind of
scratch it in that surface soil justhelps it kind of get set. And
then when you start to water orif rains, if your baskets are out
working rain, they're gonna go in. I mean, that's the big thing
about worm casting, that's that slowpower that goes in. I mean,
(11:07):
they're incredible. We use them everywhereand every extra bit of power they give
to baskets and even on our containers. We do the same thing with our
container plants. It really is amazingand you can see the difference. And
I know we get this question alot also, jem is you know,
can I put the worm castings tooclose to the stem of the plants?
No, not with worm castings.You can with granular fertilizer. But worm
castings are not going to burn anything. That's what makes them so wonderful.
(11:30):
Again, we'll have a link.We've had it on a link on most
of our sites. You know what'sfunny, we don't even we have no
affiliation with worm castings. I'm justtelling you they work. They work for
us everywhere, and when it comesto containers and baskets, they really do.
So that's the first part of theone two punch. The second part
of that punch is liquid fertilizing,and we talked about it. Liquid fertilizing.
(11:50):
You know, it's it's amazing becauseit's going to give a boost of
nutrients. And for this fertilizer,you know, we talked about the NPK
ratios nitrogen, the phosphorus and thepotassium, but this is the one that
you're going to give your plants thathas very little nitrogen and it's going to
boost it a lot more in thephosphorus and the potassium to promote blooms.
(12:11):
And you're talking about commercial liquid fertilizersor like one compost T, worm casting
T what it. Yeah, Soif you're going all organic, and I
mean you can still get organic liquidfertilizers too. Worm casting T and composting
T are two of our favorites.You know, you don't have to worry
once again about the NPK. They'regonna power your plants, they're gonna power
blooms. You're not gonna have anissue. But if you're buying a commercial
(12:33):
product, even if it's organic,whatever it is, don't get one a
liquid fertilizer that has a higher nitrogennumber than your phosphorus or you know,
or your potassium, because those arewhat's responsible for blooms. And you want
to higher number there. So forus we fertilize you know, whether we're
using compost T worm casting T it'sa little bit different. You know,
(12:54):
it's once a month for every forthe dry materials the worm casting. But
for us with the liquid fertilizer,we like to do it, you know,
every seven to ten days, right. And when we talk about using
the liquid fertilizers, you know sometimesthe commercial bought ones, you don't want
to use them at full strength.No, no, So when you're using
worm casting tea or compost t makeyour tea, put it on every seven
(13:20):
to ten days in addition to thoseworm castings, and you're going to be
fantastic. But if you're using acommercial product where those numbers are higher,
you know, for instance, EasyGrow liquid concentrate, which we like.
It's it's a great it's a greatnatural way to do it. But it's
a ten thirty twenty So you're talkingabout ten parts nitrogen, thirty parts phosphorus,
and twenty parts potassium. That's strong. If you give your plants that
(13:41):
at full strength every seven to tendays, you're gonna end up at the
same problem. They're going to beroot bound. They might have a big
blast of blooms, but they're notlasting all season. So what we always
recommend, Mary, is if you'reusing commercial fertilizers and not compost t or
worm casting tea dilute, that that'sa huge key to keeping your flowers looking
great. You do. We're alltalking about low and slow fertilizing, you
know, we want those baskets tolast all summer long, So you really
(14:05):
have to take a low and slowapproach with both the worm castings and the
liquid fertilizer. Yeah, and ifyou're if it's if you see your plants
are overgrowing too much, cut itback to a third. You know,
it's a good rule of thumb.If you're looking at your plants and they're
blooming great, and they're green,and they don't show any signs of wear
and tear, you don't have togive them too much. You know,
keep keep up your regiment, evenback off a little if you think it's
(14:26):
growing too much. I really reallyprefer compost t as as my actual liquid
fertilizer. I think you do too. I think it's just the no danger
zone. You're never going to overyour power plants. You're you're not going
to overpower your plants too much.But that to be said, sometimes you
can't get composted to or you can'tmake it, or you don't have compostor
(14:46):
you can't purchase compost. And that'swhere a good organic liquid fertilizer can help.
But just don't put it on atfull strength. You read some of
those labels and they will tell you. You know, it's a pretty strong
dose, right. You know,when you go to purchase these, if
you are purchasing commercial liquid fertilizers,there are the numbers will be there.
The NPK numbers will be on thepackage, So take a peek at that
(15:07):
before you just pick up the cheapestone on the shelf or the most expensive
one on the shelf, thinking yourflowers are gonna be great. Yeah.
We talked about the Easy Grow whichis a ten thirty twenty and it's fantastic
and you can dilute that and it'sgoing to be great. But there are
some out there. I'm one ofmy favorites is Doctor Earth. They have
a button Bloom fertilizer and here's agreat one. It's a one to one
MPK you're talking compost t range.You can use that full strength every seven
(15:28):
to ten days and it's gonna dowonders. But when it comes to fertilizing
hanging basketball, I just can't stressthis enough that one two approach, having
some worm castings or a granular fertilizeronce a month to do the topical approach
and then seven to ten to fourteendays with your liquid and at a reduced
rate, or you're using a compostt or a worm caste that is already
(15:50):
reduced. That is the key.I mean, we have this goes on
all summer long. It does,and we have done this I don't know
since any of time for us,and it just people always ask us come
August, oh my gosh, howdo you keep your baskets looking so great?
And it's not us, it's justthat fact that we've not overpowered them.
(16:10):
We've purchased smaller baskets in the beginning. Even if you plant your own
baskets, don't fill it so muchwith plants. Allow them time to grow,
because then you get late in theseason and they just look so much
more. Promise they'll grow even ifyou plant just a few plants in there
and they'll be by the end ofsummer, they'll be huge. That's right.
So let's just kind of wrap thisup. I think we've hammered home
(16:30):
the fertilizing. You know, youstart with bigger containers. Don't buy overly
large plants. I mean, that'sa big key, more than anything else,
to getting into last all season.And then you fertilize regularly but with
a light feeding. Yeah, itkeeps plants blooming but not overgrowing. I
mean, you use a fertilizer witha bit more phosphorus and nitrogen when you're
getting into your liquids. And myfavorite as you use wormcastings once a month.
(16:52):
They work. Yeah, and thenlast but not least. I just
I just want to throw this inthere. So let's say you get to
right now or July, I August. We're sitting in mid June, right
now here as we do this podcast. But if you get to that point
and you realize your basket is overgrown, I mean you're pouring water on and
it's pouring. Yeah, but don'tthrow that plant away and don't put it
(17:15):
in the compass pole. A greatthing you can do. Okay, yes,
you can replant it. Replant itin a basket. That's probably you
know. Thirty three to fifty percentbigger, so you can make it last
a year. But sometimes you alreadyhave a big basket and you're like,
I can't find a container this big. Don't throw it away. Take it
out into a flower bed somewhere,dig down and plan it like an annual
plant, and fertilize a little bit. You will be amazed. We've done
(17:37):
this with petunia plants, marigold plantsthat have gotten overly large. Within weeks
they will be the biggest showstopper andyour flower beds around. Yeah, they're
absolutely beautiful. It's a great wayto repurpose the hanging baskets that they're just
totally overgrown. It really is.So we probably beat fertilizing into the ground
here, get it. But anyway, I think it's time Mary and remember
(18:00):
or whatever you do, find thefun and gardening and gross uply beautiful.
All right, until next week,everyone, happy gardening. We hope you've
enjoyed this episode. Subscribe to theSimple Garden podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, or most of your favoritepodcast apps. You can also head
over to simplegardenlife dot com, whereyou can listen and read all of the
show notes to every episode and ifyou have any questions, any ideas for
(18:22):
show topics, or if you wantto share your favorite garden tip, email
us at the Farm at owgarden dotcom. Until next time, Thanks everyone,
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