higgledy wrote:
I bought a bag of bone meal to add to the soil when I transplant my
tulips. Why is bone meal a good fertilizer for flower bulbs and rose
bushes? Is any fertilizer high in phosphate just as good as bone meal?.


Phosphorus promotes flowers, fruits, and roots. The calcium in bone
meal also promotes roots.

Bone meal must be processed by soil bacteria to release the phosphorus
and calcium. I use bone meal in flower pots and other containers
because this processing is sufficiently slow that I don't worry about
roots getting burned.

In the ground, I generally use superphosphate, making sure there is a
layer of unenriched soil between the plant, bulb, etc and the enriched
soil. In this case, root burn is generally not a problem.

--

David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

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