How to feed geranium: what fertilizer is better to choose for it in spring, yeast, sugar and other additives for a flowering houseplant at home

A beautiful plant that does not need a lot of care, which has taken a strong place among domestic plants is geranium. It would seem that nothing can overshadow the joy of admiring her, but if you take care of the flower incorrectly, then it can die.

Geranium is great for growing at home. The scientific name "pelargonium" in Greek means "stork" or "crane". The plant got this name because of the appearance of its fruits - they resemble a long bird's beak.

Geranium - annual meadow or perennial plant, the height of an adult plant is up to 60 cm., the leaves are covered with small hairs, soft to the touch, have palm-lobed or palm-dissected forms.

Quite large buds have 5 correctly arranged petals, usually collected in inflorescences. They can be both smooth and terry. Geraniums can be red, white, blue and purple. Also, some varieties of pelargonium are found in yellow, orange and pink colors.

Watering Rules

It is good to water the geranium, like all flowers, with defended tap water, melt or rain water.

In winter, you should reduce the frequency of watering by half, because the plants are at rest in winter (how to care for home geraniums in order to preserve it in winter can be found here). In the spring, it is worth watering more often, since the flower wakes up and begins to grow actively, it needs strength for further flowering.

The flower loves moisture, so frequent regular watering is required.

It is necessary to water slowly, and a little, very plentiful watering can do much harm.

Important: in a pot, water should not stagnate, nor should it fall on leaves.

What is top dressing and what is it for?

Top dressing is a kind of improved, additional nutrition for plants. Fertilizer provides a healthy state of flowers and their abundant flowering. Florists and florists have made great strides in favor of more lush empty flowers of ornamental plants to the detriment of fruiting.

Now, even for annual flowers, propagating by seeds is a rather rare occurrence. And some flower crops completely ceased to bear fruit. And all this is not without the help of correctly and timely applied specific fertilizers - so the flower does not run the risk of being depleted during lush flowering (about how to feed geranium for lush flowering, read here).

Due to living conditions, where plants are limited by the area of nutrition in the pot, domestic flowers need to be fed more often than we are used to or it may seem. Sometimes it seems that the pot is enough or even too big, but the flowering pet does not necessarily have the necessary minerals. In any case, the earth in the pot is greatly depleted, and therefore it is necessary to periodically replenish the useful properties of the soil (to find out what the soil composition should be for room geraniums and whether universal soil can be used here).

Top dressing is of the following types:

Continuous feeding according to the plan for changing the life cycle of plants and their nutrition.
Urgent dressingif the plant shows signs of starvation in one of the nutrients.

Types of top dressing:

folk remedies;
funds on sale.

On sale now you can find quite a few suitable for geranium fertilizers. There are those that are designed specifically for pelargonium, for example, the organic-mineral product "Stimovit", the crystalline fertilizer "Clean Leaf", and there are those that are suitable for all indoor plants, for example, "Fertilizer Stimulating Flowering", "FERTIMIX Basic Nutrition" and etc.

In general, geranium is not very demanding on complementary foods and is content with standard mineral fertilizers. They are brought in during the most rapid growth and flowering period, from March to September, twice a month.

You can also use specialized fertilizers specifically designed for geraniums. If you still want to pay constant attention to top dressing, you do not have to buy special fertilizers in the store, you can resort to the so-called. folk remedies.

As fertilizers of flowers at home, improvised means successfully use various products and substances. The most popular top dressings are banana peel, sugar, yeast, succinic acid, wood ash, and egg shells.

Dressing indoor flowers with a specific substance has its own characteristics and rules for use. Of course, when it comes to folk remedies, whose action is not always so obvious and different from each other, disputes arise about their effectiveness.

The opinions and justifications of professional gardeners can also differ greatly or even contradict each other.

A signal that you need to urgently start top dressing home flowers, are:

the flower slows down growth or ceases to grow at all;
sluggish stems;
sluggish, drooping, without brightly colored leaves;
your plant has stopped flowering;
the flower has an unhealthy appearance, discards leaves, turns yellow, spots appear.

General tips for caring for a flowering houseplant

In order for pelargonium to feel good, the following conditions must be observed:

the pot is medium-sized, you don’t need a big one - the root system grows large in a large one, as a result there will be many leaves, but few flowers (which pot is needed for geraniums and what size, read in our material);
earth saturated with important trace elements;
good drainage, because geraniums do not like when water stagnates;
sunny, bright place;
regular top dressing.

Read more about how to care for geraniums at home in order to bloom, read here, and from this article you will learn about the nuances of growing plants in open ground.

What and how best to fertilize?

Consider which fertilizers are best used for plants:

Iodine

When the time has come and the geranium is already fading, there is not a single peduncle on it, it is time to start feeding, repeating every two weeks. This is done so that in the future it bloomed profusely and brightly.

The solution is prepared very simply and is done as follows: dilute a couple of drops of iodine per liter of water. First, pour the earth in a pot with warm water so that it is wet and prepared for iodine fertilizer. Then, around the perimeter of the pot, closer to the edge, pour the resulting solution. Watering should be moderate, do not fill the plant.

Important! If you water the solution immediately, then we can burn the roots, and then the geranium will die.

Details on how to properly use iodine with hydrogen peroxide for feeding geraniums can be found here.

Manure

Well-known and very strong in its properties, it has many useful elements - magnesium, calcium, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, as well as manganese, copper, molybdenum and magnesium. Manure is usually used in growing garden plants, but it helps indoor plants no less.

In this case it is worth using cow or horse manure - to prepare the desired solution, it is necessary to mix in the proportions 1 part of manure 4 parts of water, let it brew for 3 to 5 days in a tightly closed container.

Use for watering. The only negative for this option is an unpleasant smell, which can interfere in the enclosed space of the apartment.

Vitamins

With the help of vitamins, you can influence the process of plant growth - to delay or enhance their growth, achieve more flowers, etc.

When buying vitamins, you need to read the instructions for use and make sure that they will suit your flower exactly.

Nitrogen

Nitrogen fertilizers - inorganic and organic substances containing nitrogen, which are introduced into the soil to increase flowering.

Mineral nitrogen fertilizers include amide, ammonia and nitrate.

Same nitrogen is found in banana peels, urea, saltpeter and pigeon droppings, you can use the tools at hand, if not possible to purchase. Before using a banana peel as a fertilizer, you need to wash it thoroughly. Then it is cut into small pieces and buried right in the ground next to the plant, but not too deep.

Important: with nitrogen, you must also be careful, from an oversupply, the plant may simply not bloom.

Improper use

When it comes to living plants, fertilizing and fertilizing should be taken seriously and the options, methods of their use, possible side effects or effects on different surfaces should be studied as much as possible.

Agree, it will be very disappointing if your favorite designer flower pot spoils from any vitamin spray.

Often the plant can simply be destroyed by applying fertilizers in the wrong or wrong amount. It is also worth remembering that fertilizers purchased in the store can be toxic if used improperly for humans and animals, and cause irritation to the mucous membranes and skin. Synthetic fertilizers, for example, may contain strong allergens.

When you decide to start a new hobby for yourself, or just buy a couple of indoor plants, sooner or later you will think about how to make their living environment as comfortable as possible, whether it is necessary to feed and fertilize them.

Our indoor plants in pots quickly deplete the supplies of the substances they need, as a result of which they begin to grow more slowly, wither and even die. Therefore, the conclusion remains one: if you want to enjoy your bright green, healthy and flowering plants, then you can not do without fertilizers.