Hi Gale!

To be sure, I woudn't just throw anything on the surface (top dressing
was just an expression, as opposed to using liquid fertilizer), but my
real question, which I haven't seen anyone come right out and
definitively say "yes" or "no" on, is this (I also have a second
question, below):

Once, the dry fertilizer goes into the soil (mind you, the pot is a
5-gallon pot, and the water only barely covers the drainage holes),
when it is watered in, the drainage water enters the pond, carrying
with it, small amounts of fertilizer. By adding this solid (e.g.
non-liquid) prouct to the soil in the pot, then periodically (1 x
week) watering the pot the plant is in (with fertilizer in it) will it
not over time release fertilizer and its by-product into the water in
quantities that will kill the fish, or can I stop beeing such a
worrywart?

Second question: If instead of using a solid fertilizer (which I'd
prefer for sake of convenience), I used a diluted liquid fertilizer:
e.g. I prepare a large bucket of the fertilizer dilution, soak the
plant rootball in the bucket for 15 minutes in the stuff, let it drain
then put the plant in the pond. Would be: a.) Better, b.) wrose, or
c.) No different than solid/granular fertilizer, for purposes of
releasing something that could kill or hurt the fish?

Thanks so much to everyone who's been so amazingly generous with info!

Dave



"Gale Pearce" wrote in message ...
Seed Lover - I would prefer getting the fertilizer into the dirt, rather
than top dressing the pots - maybe mixing it in the top layer of soil -or as
long as the pot isn't full to the brim you can get away with top dressing,
so it won't wash over the top in a heavy rain - personally, I have always
used tabs pushed in finger deep and buried, so I have never had this issue
Gale :~)

"seed lover" wrote in message
om...
Gale,

My plants in pots have potting mix in them --- no clay --- So do you
think I can fertilize these pots by applying a top dressing and
watering it in?

If not, how do I fertilize these plants?

Thanks!

D


"Gale Pearce" wrote in message
...
Clay in underwater pond plant containers "binds" the phosphate etc and
will
not release it into the pond as long as you are careful to cover the
hole
after you insert the pill or tab finger deep - if you have only stones
in
the baskets, I would use the mesh type or pots with holes to allow the
roots
to grow out through the baskets and get their nutrients from the pond
water - I would think the same would apply to plants with their 'toes'
in
the water
Gale :~)
"seed lover" wrote in message
om...
Now I know that it's a no-no to allow drainage from surrounding
landscape to contaminate a pond, due to the risk of accummulated
fertilizer and chemicals.

However, this is a different question:

I have plants in pots that come from a lake-margins environment and
which live in nature with their toes in the water, but nothing else.
In my pond, they sit in pots on a ledge in the pond that's about 2
inches under the normal water line. I water the plants occasionally,
and they seemed satisfied with the routine. I never fertilized for
fear of contaminating the pond w/ fert runoff.

Unfortunately, after a year of doing well in this location, the plants
are beginning to show signs of nutritional deficiencies --- namely
potassium and nitrogen (I am an experienced gardener and have had good
success addressing signs of such deficiencies before, so I feel fairly
confident in making this assessment).

I'd like to fertilize the pots with something like Potassium Nitrate,
but of course, that would gradually make its way into the pond, and
then ---yikes!

I know that water lilly fertilizer (in "pill" form) is used for
totally aquatic plants by burying it in the media, and that the pots
have no holes in the bottom, so the fert is more likely to stay in the
pots and around the roots . . . but the fish regularly mess with the
stones in the pots of the underwater plants and throw them about, so I
wonder whether this fertilizer gradually makes it into the general
pond environment.

So I'm confused: How can fertilizer for waterlilly pots be OK, yet
fertilizer for mostly-above-water plants not be OK?

Thanks!