I don't mind a bit telling you about my feeding. l got most of this from Michele. She's a prince among us daylily lovers!!!
I get my local small nursery to order a fertilizer called Florikan. It's a 16-4-12 forumla with many minor nutrients. It was recommended to me to use a formula that is a 3-1-2 slow released based fertilizer such as 18-6-12 but I couldn't find one locally that was right on this number. In fact, I couldn't find any that even got close that I could just buy off the shelf that were slow released. So, I went to a local family owned nursery that does grow alot of their own plants for public sale and they could get the Florikan out of Florida for me. This is actually a brand that Michele had recommended or it could have been Fred, but it was one of them. It's expensive, $92 for 50#. I think it's well worth the cost. A little goes a long way and it is supposed to last 9 months. I figure I'll get a good 6 months out of it anyway.
I grow my plants in 3, 5 and 7 gallon pots. I use about 2 tablespoons in a 5 gallon pot. I also put about a quarter cup of alfalfa pellets and a tablespoon of lime in each pot. I use the lime because I grow my plants in a mixture of "Miracle Grow" garden soil and pine mulch, about 50-50. I read that with this much pine mulch I needed to add lime to replace what the mulch used to break down with. Don't ask me why, you'll need to ask the ones that know this type stuff, I get confused on the effects that lime has on the ph. By the way, the lime and the alfalfa are very cheap. The alfalfa is a natural stimulant that causes the daylilies to multiply and believe me, they grow like crazy and divide like a rabbit!! There has been several threads about this on here.
This spring, because of #%@!!! fungus gnats, I started a spray program every 8-10 days for bugs, rust and fertilize with liquid MG at the same time. So far, it's working really great. I have skipped the bug spray a couple of times after I got all of them under control.
It's very possible that just adding the alfalfa pellets would do a world of good and they are very inexpensive.
If you have any question, please ask, if I can't answer, I'm sure someone on here can. Blessings to all, Mona
