Fertilizing established plants
 

Hi,

This is my first year attempting to grow some vegetables and I have a
question about fertilizing after the plants are already fairly mature.

We have pumpkin, watermelon, and cucumber growing in separate places in
our yard. So far no visible fruits although I see a couple of female
pumkin flowers again so hopefully one of these will start a pumpkin.
Plenty of bees around so polination is not a problem. Plenty of
sunlight, plenty of water from the hose although it has been very dry
so no rain to speak of.

So I figured maybe I need some fertilizer. Is it ok to sprinkle it on
the ground above the plants and let the water bring it to the roots?
That's what I'm trying but I wasn't really sure about it.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Steve

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,

This is my first year attempting to grow some vegetables and I have a
question about fertilizing after the plants are already fairly mature.

We have pumpkin, watermelon, and cucumber growing in separate places in
our yard. So far no visible fruits although I see a couple of female
pumkin flowers again so hopefully one of these will start a pumpkin.
Plenty of bees around so polination is not a problem. Plenty of
sunlight, plenty of water from the hose although it has been very dry
so no rain to speak of.

So I figured maybe I need some fertilizer. Is it ok to sprinkle it on
the ground above the plants and let the water bring it to the roots?
That's what I'm trying but I wasn't really sure about it.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Steve


I like to get some liquid fish emulsion or fish ferilizer and pour it on the
soil near the base of the plants. It's a nice balanced and low level
fertlizing method and seems to work for me. You could also try using it on
the leaves with a fine mist sprayer. It may attract a lot of bees this time
of year though if you use it as a spray.

On 18 Aug 2005 04:05:38 -0700, wrote:


So I figured maybe I need some fertilizer. Is it ok to sprinkle it on
the ground above the plants and let the water bring it to the roots?
That's what I'm trying but I wasn't really sure about it.

That's what I do for my tomato and pepper, and it seems to work fine.
If I see a specific problem that I think if nutritional, I use a
liquid fertilizer like kelp or fish emulsion for that plant.


Penelope