you might also consider top dressing them with coffee grounds every few
weeks. they add a little bit of nitrogen and a little bit of acidity, but
are not too strong. I use them on a tropical fern I have indoors, and that
seems to be just fine.
"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
paghat wrote:

In article , zxcvbob
wrote:


I planted some Japanese painted ferns a week or 2 ago; 5" pots. They
are starting to grow, and I wonder how to feed them. 1/2 -strength
Miracle Gro, or full-strength fish emulsions, or what? How often do I
feed them?

Thanks, regards,
Bob


In soil that started out good & rich & which gets an annual topcoating
of
composted manure or leafmold, there should be no reason ever to
fertilize
most ferns at all. Evergreen ferns like deerferns or Japanese tassel
ferns
can be severely damaged by fertilizers; the deciduous ferns like your
painted ferns MIGHT benefit from a once-yearly (spring) half-strength
slow-release low-nitrogen fertilizer.

Fertilizers high in nitrogen cause them to look & do poorly. An autumn
topcoating of manure compost, or of leaves on moist soil which permits
the
leaves to break down into leafmold by spring, is frequently all a fern
requires.

In containers fertilizing needs will be higher (& trickier so as not to
overdo it) but in the outdoor garden, always think "less is best."

-paghat the ratgirl


Thanks. This was very poor soil until I mixed in a bunch of compost. I
don't know if it is decent soil now or not. It's next to a concrete
slab that's less than a year old, so I wonder if they'd like an
occasional tonic of quarter-strength acid-loving plant food until I can
get them mulched good with spruce needles.

Maybe the peat moss they came potted in will give them enough acid
buffer for a while.

Best regards,
Bob