Ok, I am going to try this again. I typed this up two times already this morning. The first time I lost it because of something I did. The second time the internet quit working. I should save every few lines with my luck so far.
First, to respond to the latest posts about alfalfa, I just bought six 40lb. bags of alfalfa pellets from Tractor Supply for $13.99 plus tax per bag. For daylilies in the ground I spread about 1 cup of the pellets around the plant being careful to not let the pellets touch the crown. They will become soft and spread out when they get wet. When planting new daylilies, I dig the hole just a little deeper and pour the cup of alfalfa in the bottom of the hole and then pull enough soil on top to cover the alfalfa so the roots do not come in direct contact with it. I have read that the alfalfa puts off heat as it breaks down and the heat could burn the roots. Don't know but we have not had a problem doing it this way. While at Walmart I bought nine 4 lb.bags of Epsom salt in the pharmacy area. I think it was about $2.86 a bag. The daylilies like magnesium which is the Epsom salt.
David posted yesterday the different fertilizers that we use. He hauls in free composted horse manure and sometimes locates composted chicken litter. Some people have a problem with weeds/weed seeds in horse manure, but we have not had that problem. The daylilies love these organic fertilizers and we try now to always include one of these in new daylily beds or when redoing beds. The Nutricote that David mentioned is a slow release fertilizer. We use the 3-1-2 ratio and 180 day formula. Nutricote is heat and water activated. The soil temperature has to reach about 70 degrees before it will kick in, and that is late May here in Zone 7 NW GA. The Nutricote will continue to release fertilizer throughout the summer and fall. To kickstart the daylilies we start them out with the alfalfa pelllets, milorganite (iron), and Epsom salt.
I will begin putting out the fertilizers within the next couple of weeks. I would like to have all the fertilizers down before the end of March and then get the pinestraw mulch down before the daylily foliage starts growing. So far, March has been cold for us. The end of the week and this coming weekend will be warm (60's). If we continue to have these warmer temperatures, the foliage will start growing. I hope it will go back to being cold for a few more weeks. (Our local groundhog saw his shadow, so we were to have 6 more weeks of winter.) I like to get the mulch down before the foliage grows out because it takes longer to put the straw down when I have to pick up the foliage and push straw under it. We will only be putting a very light layer on, since we do not rake off the old straw instead letting it break down.
Back to fertilizers, I recommend having your soil tested if you have not done this or a long time ago. We had 10 areas tested last spring through our local extension office (different beds can have different readings) and got back some surprising results. There are soil testers that can be bought online that are low cost and supposed to be fairly reliable. We bought one last May that will test the Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium and ph. I will use it to keep a close watch on the readings in each daylily bed, especially the ph. We had never had our soil tested until last March. We learned that our ph was low which I suspected. Our daylilies no longer were the size that they once were. I knew that we were giving them the proper fertilizers and water and, therefore, the fans should have been increasing in size instead of getting smaller. I knew the answer had to be in the soil, and it was. We had to add dolomitic lime to all our daylily beds to bring the ph up. Our soil is naturally acidic here, plus we use lots of pinebark fines amendments in the daylily beds. The ideal ph range for daylilies is 6.2-6.8. If the ph is too high or too low, the daylily roots cannot take up the minerals that we have put in the soil through our fertilizers. Step One is make sure your ph level is correct before adding any fertilizers. Only a soil test can really tell you what is in the soil and what and how much needs to be added. Otherwise, we are blindly adding fertilizers that the daylilies may not need, and this is a waste of good money (could be spent on more daylilies
) A second revelation from the test results showed that our potassium levels were low despite adding potassium each spring. A third revelation showed that our calcium levels were off the chart. We added a well three Novembers ago for the sole purpose of watering the daylilies. We live on a limestone base so that explains the high calcium levels. I did some research online and learned that high calcium levels MAY deplete potassium. Apparently, this is what happened here. Now we anticipate needing to add additional potassium each spring. I want to add Potassium Nitrate to our fertilization regiment and spray the foliage starting in late April and maybe again in June. This will give the daylilies additional potassium and extra nitrogen that the daylilies like. David sprayed a liquid fertilizer a few time last summer and fall thanks to our Tink (Michele). We want to start this in April and spray every couple of weeks. David will probably do this. We have so many daylily beds that we will have to pick the beds to spray with the liquid fertilizer. I want to stress the importance of WATER. Water is more important than any fertilizer. Here is a link to an article that Dan Trimmer wrote about fertilization that I consider very helpful.
http://www.ctdaylily.com/trimm...
I will probably buy Milorganite tomorrow when I will have the truck. Last year it cost less than $15 for a 36 lb. bag at Lowe's and Home Depot. I use a 1/2 to 1 cup for each daylily in the ground and apply it the same way as the alfalfa pellets to old and new plantings. Tink revealed to us last summer that it is not good to apply Milorganite to the top of daylilies in pots during the summer. I agree. I have done it during the early spring when it was still cool with no problems but lost some during the hot summer that I added it to the soil surface of the daylily in a pot.
I hope I did not leave anything out from my two previous typings. Probably did but maybe nothing too vital.
Doris
