Many amateur gardeners prefer peonies to all other colors. Their various shades, delicate smell, long flowering delight the owners every year. In one place, plants can be almost half a century without transplantation. So didn’t they deserve to be pampered with food? After all, when the necessary substances are introduced into the soil, peonies will grow strong and strong the next year, will give even more flowers.
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The nuances of autumn, spring feeding peonies
During the warm season, adult peonies feed three times. Below, we separately consider the question of what fertilizers should be applied to the soil during plant transplantation.
So, top dressing is used in spring, summer and autumn.
Spring application is carried out in several stages. For the first time, fertilizers are added as soon as the sprouts appear and get a little stronger. Depending on the climate zone, in Russia this occurs in late April or early May. The purpose of this feeding is to ensure that the bush grows actively.
After about 3 weeks, fertilizer is applied the next time. The second top dressing should provide future flowers with all the necessary substances.
The third top dressing is performed a couple of weeks after the peonies bloom. The plant must restore strength.
Please note that feeding is best done when the sun is setting, or when the day is cloudy. This way you can avoid leaf burns. Dry top dressing should be scattered on moist ground.
Is it really necessary?
Of course, peonies can not be fed. Even so, they will sprout and gather color every year.But for these spectacular plants to become a real decoration of the garden, and each bush literally drowned in flowers, it is worth the effort. Moreover, each amateur grower in stock usually has cow or chicken manure, complex inorganic fertilizers. Take the trouble - and the peonies will thank you.
How to feed peonies in autumn, spring?
Spring subcortex is one of the most important. It is advisable to add both organic and inorganic fertilizers to the soil.
For the 1st top dressing fit:
- manure;
- nitrophosk;
- wood ash.
They are scattered around the bush, and then the ground is dug shallow or just loosened and watered abundantly. This will allow the plant to grow green mass.
Many gardeners find it easier to get chicken manure than cow manure. Chicken is also great. About a half-liter can of manure is poured into a bucket of water, after a couple of weeks the infusion will be ready. It must be diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 3.
During this period, when the bush is just beginning to grow, the following fertilizer for peonies is justifying itself: a bag of dry yeast is dissolved in a 3-liter jar of water, a little sugar is added. After a day, the fermented liquid is mixed with 5-6 liters of water and the plants are watered.
During the 2nd feeding, peonies should receive:
- potassium;
- phosphorus.
Fertilizers are purchased in specialized stores. You can prepare the solution according to the instructions, but it is even better to dilute potassium and phosphorus (20 and 40 g, respectively) in a bucket where cow manure has already been infused. For 1 bush of peonies, 3 liters of this mixture will be enough.
During the 3rd feeding, also in a bucket of infusion of mullein bred:
- potassium sulfate;
- superphosphate.
Again, 3 liters for each peony will be enough.
Types of fertilizers and rules for their application
Peonies need both organic and inorganic fertilizers. It is important to keep on the farm not only manure, but also compost and peat.
In advance, before the start of the season, it is advisable to stock up with superphosphate. When choosing complex fertilizers in the store, give preference to Kemira. It can be applied up to 3 times during the warm season. During the 1st feeding, Kemira-Universal is introduced, the 2nd and 3rd time - Kemira-Combi.
In addition, such fertilizer as Baikal EM-1 is popular. It nourishes the plant, improves the structure of the soil. "Baikal" is better to give preference in the fall - to make it with compost, mulching the earth around the bush for the winter.
If you are using infusion of mullein or chicken manure, it is recommended to add a little wood ash to it - to enhance the effect.
Rules for feeding after flowering
Producing autumn top dressing of peonies, the florist will help the plant survive the winter, accumulate the necessary substances for flowering next spring. Again, potassium and phosphorus are required at this time. Use both dry fertilizers and their liquid solution. To do this, add 15 g of mineral fertilizers to 1 bucket of water.
When feeding, you need to try so that neither dry granules nor the solution get on the neck of the plant.
How and how to fertilize peonies in the summer?
In summer, adult peony bushes are fertilized, starting from 3-4 years after planting. Do this in the second half of June, after flowering has ended. During this period, complex mineral fertilizer is best suited, it can be added to the diluted cow manure infusion.
Soil requirements for growing plants
For all their undemanding nature, peonies still give preference to certain soils.
If the land on the site contains a lot of sand, then the foliage of the plant will develop well, but the peony will give few flowers.
Heavy clay soil? Peony will grow very slowly, although it will delight later with large beautiful flowers.
But loam, and even if fertilizers are properly applied to it, will enable the plant to express itself in all its glory.
The bush should receive a sufficient amount of moisture, as well as the period of growth and flowering, and after its end.At the same time, water should not stagnate so that root rot does not occur.
A moderately alkaline soil for peony is preferable to neutral and acidic soil.
Since transplanting a peony is a lot of work, it is best to immediately choose a permanent place for it. With appropriate nutrition, it can grow there for several decades. When preparing the site, they dig the land well. This is done especially carefully if the soil is clayey or just very caked. Plant roots need good drainage.
If you removed one of the peonies, it is preferable not to plant the other here, but to choose a different place for it. Depleted land, possibly contaminated with an infection, is not the best option to place a young peony in it.
In addition, there is a risk that you did not dig out all the roots of the "predecessor", so the 2 bushes will subsequently mix and interfere with each other.
It is best to do as they do in professional floriculture farms. It is necessary to dig a hole 60x60 cm. Put drainage at the bottom - gravel, fragments of brick and other materials will do.
Humus, peat, manure, 350-400 g of superphosphate, the same amount of bone meal, half as much potassium, and dolomite for acidic soils should be added to the removed soil layer. Well, if it is possible to put a little, up to 40 g, copper sulfate - this is very favorable for the roots.
Nutrient soil is poured into the pits a few weeks before peonies are planted in them. The optimal time for landing is the 2nd and 3rd decade of August.
If you take care of the peony throughout the season, observing all the rules and regularly feeding it, next year there will be as many flowers as never before.
