Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Some folks got the mistaken idea from my post that you should be out there just pouring fertilizer on your daffodils every couple of days!
As Joanna warned you all, you NEED TO GET A SOIL ANALYSIS done FIRST before you even think about putting out fertilizers or lime!
OK once you get the soil test results back LOOK to see what amounts of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium and lime they call for to get your soil to the CL or “Critical Level” as this is the minimum amount of nutrients that plants will need in order to grow adequately in YOUR soil test area!
You probably need to shoot for a PH of 6.2<6.8 for daffodils.
For example if your soil test shows you ONLY need 20 pounds of Potassium per acre this year and YOU wanted to “Constant feed” your plants then you would still ONLY use this 20 pounds of Potassium for the WHOLE year but break this up into say 10 different applications of just 2 pounds every two weeks for the 20 weeks of your main growing season.
You can get your soil test results in the USA for either a by the acre recommendations or by 1,000 square feet for smaller yards or flower beds.
Again I would get the trace elements checked also because MOST of these don’t migrate or wash away in the soil. Once you get your Boron, Manganese, Iron, Zinc or Magnesium ETC. levels up to the critical level you probably won’t need to keep adding them except as recommended by a NEW soil analysis!
There is also an EXCESSIVE level for all macro and micro nutrients on a soil test report. When you see this being exceeded you do NOT want to add any more of these!
MOST of the new houses and new yards are being built up on bull dozed land. Soils are hauled in after the houses are built and this soil will be different from the base soils that the yard or house was built up on. Again soil testing is CHEAP compared with adding a LOT of micro and macro nutrients that you might not actually need!
Phil was using “Green Sand” and I mentioned it would contain some of the trace minerals, BUT some of the Green Sand also contains Potassium and if you will notice there are not ANY sources of Nitrogen in Phil’s recipe for placement UNDER his daffodil bulbs.
“Green Sand” will contain different plant nutrients if it was mined in New Zealand, England or Maryland!
If you use organic mulches over your daffodils then nitrogen slowly gets released as this breaks down year to year. You also get all of the micro and macro nutrients that were in the plant cells of the mulch.
Again without a soil analysis of Phil’s growing fields then we are guessing at what type PH and what he actually was trying to provide the daffodils in his fields with.
Don’t forget when you send in a soil sample to be tested that you have to TELL the lab what you intend to grow from the soils being tested!
KK