Best plant feed for a Fushia in hanging basket

Munchie

I have a lovely fushia hanging basket and would like to know what is the best feed to give it so it keeps flowering for as long as possible.

I water it every day but I don't think that this will be enough.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Ruud

Any feed high in potash, ie tomato feed

ERICS_MUM

Rose or tomato food, both help produce flowers. General plant food would not be as effective as it's more likely to increase leaves.

peter_the_piper

Sorry, got to disagree. Tomato food would be better than nothing but you are best off with a balanced feed such as chempak, miracle grow etc.

ERICS_MUM

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Sorry, got to disagree. Tomato food would be better than nothing but you are best off with a balanced feed such as chempak, miracle grow etc.

OK.

Tom/rose food has always worked well for me.

peter_the_piper

Sorry, came across a bit sharper than I intended. Its just that so many people ask why their basket/container plants are not flowering well and inevitably they say they feed on tomato feed. Very few tomato feeds have the right nutrient balance and trace elements to enable a basket to flower to its full potential.

kim107

Yep I was going to say miracle gro. Just a thought - if you can get a fertiliser that is in slow-release granules it might be easier to sprinkle these on the surface rather than use a liquid feed as it is in a hanging basket.

peter_the_piper

Slow release granules are very clever things. They are made with a porous shell, the hole sizes determine the life they have (6, 12, 18month.) The holes get bigger with temperature and if there is enough moisture some fertiliser leaches out. If its dry nothing happens and if its below 55deg F then the holes will also stay shut so the plant does not get overdosed with fertiliser when the plant can't use it.

A._Badger

I wouldn't, personally, recommend Miracle Gro, which is curiously high in Nitrogen. Fuchsias need Potash and Phostrogen is my choice (for price). Chempak 4 would be a good alternative (maybe even slightly better) but it is more expensive.

Doingmybest2bgoodhurrah

I've got a couple of fuchsias in my hanging baskets this year. I've been feeding them with sachets of Phostrogen which I bought really cheap last year. They've been flowering very well, as have all the other plants, so I'm pleased with this. I don't know if Phostrogen is good specifically for fuchsias but it seems to be working for me so far.

A._Badger

Doingmybest2bgoodhurrah wrote: »

I've got a couple of fuchsias in my hanging baskets this year. I've been feeding them with sachets of Phostrogen which I bought really cheap last year. They've been flowering very well, as have all the other plants, so I'm pleased with this. I don't know if Phostrogen is good specifically for fuchsias but it seems to be working for me so far.

I've been using Phostrogen for over 30 years and can say that it's pretty good for almost anything that grows in a pot. I do tweak the NPK ratios now and then - going to high Nitrogen alternatives if it's a leafy subject (a pot of mixed salad leaves for example) or a specific feed for calcifuges like rhododendrons or blueberries but, by and large, I think Phostrogen is pretty much the best all-rounder for the price.

Back before it became yet another small British brand gobbled-up by a rapacious international argichemicals business, the makers used to publish a really good series of leaflets by specialists in a huge range of subjects - from cacti to potatoes - and it was clear that experts were using it for just about everything.

Sadly, it seems to me that Bayer (who bought it) are losing the hype wars with that other lot of space cadets, Scotts, who own Miracle Gro and who magically vanished Fisons and turned Levington and Humax into what they are today.

Phostrogen seems to be getting harder to find and I hope Bayer manage to fight back - not for their sake but for mine and other gardeners!