Rose fert. for lemon tree?

Discussion in 'Citrus' started by TipseyTara, Aug 25, 2008.

  1. TipseyTara

    TipseyTara Member

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    Hello everyone,
    My question is I have left over rose fert. (miracle grow) from my roses. I was wondering if I could use that for my lemon tree. I don't want to kill my little tree so i figured i'd asked before i tried it.
    I planted my lemon tree from seed this past May so it's about a foot tall now and i've repotted it twice. (Just repotted today).

    I don't care if it never gets lemons. I just love the little tree!

    Thanks in advance,
    Tara
    P.S. the box of rose fert. does say for anything that blooms.
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2008
  2. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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    The fertilizer that you have has a 18-24-16 NPK formulation. One with a ratio of 5-1-3 would be more appropriate for citrus. Miracle-Gro's All Purpose fertilizer (24-8-16) with a 3-1-2 ratio is a closer match. I use a 30-10-10 fertilizer containing micronutrients.
     
  3. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Generally, citrus trees are not all that fussy about fertilizer. However, citrus require very little phosphorus, and a lot of nitrogen and Potassium. If your not familiar with the NPK formula three number system get a fertilizer with a high 1st and 3rd number and a small middle number. If you rose fertilizer's formula is 18-24-16 the phosphorus content (middle number) is much to high for citrus. As Junglekeeper says, whatever fertilize you purchase be sure that it also contains trace minerals.- Millet

    Plow - Plant - Fertilize - Harvest - Repeat
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2008
  4. bjo

    bjo Active Member 10 Years

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    Hi,

    Obviously a special citrus fertilizer is best, but I do not think it will not do any harm to use up your rose fertilizer - -in fact I am sure it will be appreciated by your tree. My lemon tree is planted out in the soil - it gets whatever fertilizer I have to hand - usually just a general purpose fertilizer. I have a high pH soil which is certainly not ideal so sometimes I give it a little extra iron (eg for Christmas ). The optimum fertilizer requirements of trees in pots are going to be rather more specific.

    BrianO
     
  5. skeeterbug

    skeeterbug Active Member

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    The problem from using a fertilizer that is high in P for citrus is that the left over P will leave salt residues in the soil and cause problems from excess salt unless it is flushed out.
    Excess P will also irreversibly bind many of the minerals that your tree needs such as iron.
     
  6. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Following up on Skeeters post. The problem with using a fertilizer formula that is too high in phosphorus, is that phosphorus is not very water soluble. Because Nitrogen and potassium are highly water soluble they can easily be flushed from the container when they become out of balance, but because phosphorus is not water soluble it cannot be easily removed, it just builds up. It is one thing to feed various fertilizer formulas to in ground trees, and quite another thing to feed "what ever you have on hand" to a containerized citrus tree. Tara can treat her tree in any manner she wishes, but my suggestion is to grow her tree in the proper manner. If you treat your tree correctly, it will repay you with fruit for years to come. As with growing most anything, there are right ways, and there are wrong ways. The tree will be much healthier and happly provide years of return when the correct methods are followed. - Millet

    Plow - Plant - Fertilize - Harvest - Repeat
     

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