Top dressing of roses in autumn: when and what to fertilize before wintering

Of great importance in the autumn care of a wonderful flower of tenderness and beauty is its preparation for winter, aimed at restoring and replenishing the spent energy.

This article will help you get information about the need to feed roses in August and September, the rules and methods for applying specific autumn fertilizers.

Do I need to fertilize roses in the fall before wintering them

It is quite obvious that after abundant and prolonged flowering, rose bushes need to replenish their supply of nutrients.

Roses, like any other plants, need certain macro- and microelements for growth and development (flowering):

• Nitrogen - required for the active growth of powerful and strong shoots (a set of green mass).

Important! If you overfeed the roses with nitrogen fertilizers, the plant will begin to "fatten" - to give a huge amount of shoots and leaves, and the bloom will be faded and short-lived.

Especially, in no case should you use fertilizers with an increased amount of nitrogen in the autumn!

• Phosphorus - promotes lush, abundant (affects the size and number of flowers) and long-term flowering, and is also responsible for the root system of the plant.

A strong root system = your key to a successful rose winter.

• Potassium - very important in the budding and flowering phase (also promotes better flowering), in addition, it is simply necessary for laying future flower buds (i.e. in autumn) and successful wintering of roses (affects frost resistance and accelerates the ripening of shoots).

By the way! Potassium also increases the resistance of roses to a number of fungal diseases such as powdery mildew, rust, black spot.

• There are a lot of trace elements, and they are all responsible for different processes in plants. For example, from magnesium tying buds and the brightness of flowers largely depend. In the case of a lack of iron, the rose begins to develop chlorosis.

Thus, the purpose of the autumn feeding of roses is to prepare the plant for winter, which means that it should be phosphorus-potassium fertilizers that will strengthen the root system of the plant, allow the shoots to ripen, and again increase frost resistance and immunity to various kinds of diseases.

Of course, there are flower growers who never feed roses with anything, but they grow beautifully, bloom from May until the very frost. Actually, you can also conduct an experiment and see the difference (feed some roses, and others not).

Note! If, when planting roses, you have already applied fertilizers, then in the next 2 years the bushes do not need any additional feeding.

When to feed roses in autumn: optimal timing

The last feeding should be done when the soil is warm and the plant is still awake (the root system works fine), that is, before the onset of frost, at least 2-4 weeks.

As for the approximate dates, the autumn dressing of roses is done in late summer and early autumn, i.e. after re-flowering, somewhere in the second half of August (in Siberia), September (in the Central zone) -October (in the South of Russia).

How to properly feed roses in autumn

Basic recommendations for proper fertilization of roses:

• Before applying fertilizer, along the diameter of the bush (or better even a little more, at least by stepping back by 15-20 centimeters), you need to make an annular depression, so to speak, a groove (hole).

• Before feeding roses is first spill the bushes with plain watersince it is always recommended to fertilize on wet soil, especially with mineral fertilizers.

By the way! You can water it a day or 1-2 hours before applying liquid dressing.

• It is desirable to make top dressing in the morning or evening hours, but not at noon, when the sun is at its zenith.
• As for the method of fertilizing, then in the fallare usually produced exactly root dressing (at the same time, dry dressing is convenient to perform if the autumn is rainy, otherwise it will be much more effective to make a solution and carry out liquid dressing). And here foliar dressing (spraying on leaves) usually carried out in the summer.

Important! It is believed that foliar feeding is especially effective when the plant is in dire need of certain trace elements, for example, in the case of chlorosis.

It is worth understanding! Foliar dressing cannot completely replace root dressing.

• As for the dosages and timing of certain fertilizers, always follow the instructions on the packages, do not rely on memory.

Video: how to feed roses in September

How to fertilize roses in the fall: options for effective dressing

There are many options for fertilizing roses. Of course, it is always optimal to combine mineral (preferably complex) and organic fertilizers.

Important! All types of roses can and should be fed: ground cover, Floribunda, climbing (curly), hybrid tea and others.

Consider the main fertilizers for autumn feeding of roses:

You need to either prepare a solution from a combination of one potassium and one phosphorus fertilizer, or purchase a complex fertilizer.

Phosphate fertilizers

• Superphosphate - nitrogen 6-9%, phosphorus - 26-30% (10-20 grams per 10 liters of water or per 1 square meter).

Advice! Read more about the use of superphosphate in this article.

• Ammophos - 52% phosphorus and 12% nitrogen (15-20 grams per 1 square meter or dissolve in a bucket of water and pour).

Potash fertilizers

• Potassium sulfate (potassium sulfate) - 46-52% potassium (10-20 grams per 10 liters of water or per 1 square meter).

By the way! Instead of potassium sulfate (potassium sulfate), you can use potassium salt.

And it is also very convenient to use kalimagnesia, which, in addition to potassium, contains such an important trace element for the flowering of roses as magnesium.

Complex potash-phosphorus fertilizers

• Potassium monophosphate - 50% phosphorus and 33% potassium (10-20 grams per 10 liters or 1 m2).

Potassium monophosphate is the most effective phosphate-potassium fertilizer, because it dissolves very easily in water and is quickly absorbed by all plants. But it costs a lot ...

• Diammofoska - 10% nitrogen, 26% each phosphorus and potassium (20 grams per 10 liters of water).

Initially, it is better to dissolve Diammofosk in hot water (40-50 degrees).

• Also on sale you can find special fertilizers with dung "autumn" or simply "phosphorus-potassium".

Organic potassium phosphorus fertilizers

And if you proponent of organic farming (although feeding flowers with mineral fertilizers is not the same as edible crops), then maybee as a potassium supplement use wood ash, having prepared the following solution (or even better infusion-extract): 100-200 grams per 10 liters of water.

Concerning phosphorus, then it is in the same bone or fish meal (scatter 100-200 grams per 1 square meter of the garden).

By the way! In addition to phosphorus (up to 30%), bone meal contains very a lot of calcium (up to 45%).

A kind of "folk fertilizer" for roses are:

• yeast infusion;
• banana peel (contains potassium; you just need to scatter it around the trunk, but it is better to dig it up);
• eggshell (contains calcium).

However, their effectiveness in the fall is not very high.

Fertilizers for roses

If you do not want to bother (you are a "lazy" summer resident), then you can buy one of special complex fertilizers for roses, which already has all the macro- and microelements. For example (all apply according to the instructions on the packages):

• Fertika "Kristalon" for roses (liquid);

• Fertika "Garden and vegetable garden" for roses (organic-mineral dry mixture, more powerful and with humate);

• Particularly popular are special fertilizers of prolonged action (granular, it is desirable to apply dry in the holes along the diameter of the bushes, and then water). For example, "Gloria»From Fusco.

• Or "Roses»FromPokon (Pocon).

What to do with roses in autumn: we continue to prepare flowers for winter

Naturally, in addition to feeding, other measures for preparing roses for winter are included in the autumn care of roses:

• pinching of faded buds and young shoots (even in early autumn-late September);
• autumn pruning;

Note! The autumn pruning of roses is described in detail in this article.

• treatment for diseases and pests (as an option, a 3% solution of Bordeaux liquid);
• if you do not process, it is recommended to cover the cuts with garden varnish or special RanNet paste:

Advice! Before covering, if the leaves have not fallen off themselves (and the roses themselves rarely shed them), they must tear off gently with your hands... The fact is that under the shelter there is usually high humidity, because of which the leaves begin to gradually rot and rot, and behind them the bush itself can rot.

• shelter.

Note! About, how to properly cover roses for the winter, You can find out from this material.

By the way! General article on preparing roses for winter you can read here.

• Perhaps in the fall you need plant (divide) or just transplant roses to a new place.

About it (about the transfer) You can find out from this article.

• Propagated by cuttings.

The site also contains material about how to propagate roses by cuttings in autumn.

Video: preparing roses for winter

Thus, now you know how and how to fertilize roses in the fall, in order to properly prepare the plant for winter and next year again enjoy their incomparable aroma and gorgeous appearance.