Best Fertilizer for Geraniums
Geraniums are shrubs from the family of cranesbills. These plants produce beautiful small flowers that come in various sizes and colors. The most popular are purple, orange, red, and pink.
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Do Geraniums Need Fertilizer?
Just like every other plant, geraniums need to be fed regularly to ensure they do not lack any nutrients essential for their growth.
If you plan on transplanting your shrubs, it is critical to prepare the new location thoroughly to ensure that the new habitat fulfills all the necessary conditions for the future growth of the plant.
To keep the plant transplanting shock at a minimum, it’s advisable to always use nutrient-rich soil or potting mix.
Additionally, geraniums need fertilizers to help them accelerate rooting or for a strong development of their root system, especially the young plants.
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My Geranium Fertilizer Selection
How Often Should I Fertilize Geraniums?
The frequency with which you fertilize your geranium highly depends on several factors.
Geraniums are generally heavy feeders, which means that the more they grow, the more fertilizer they will need.
Already grown geranium plants need to be fertilized at least every four weeks or so.
If you do not want to do a lot of work in regards to fertilizers, you can opt for those that last all season. These are released into the soil slowly and in few proportions.
While frequent fertilizing is essential, keep in mind that the kind of soil you use also plays a critical role in this aspect.
If you had incorporated quite a healthy amount of manure or compost into the soil, then you may have to delay applying the fertilizer for some time to allow the natural organisms to do their work.
Fertilizer For Outdoor Geraniums
So, you have chosen to keep your plant outside? Well, you have to pick the right fertilizer to help keep your plant healthy throughout the year.
Liquid fertilizers are considered by many to be the best since they are easily absorbed by the plants.
A 20-20-20 fertilizer (all-purpose fertilizer) will do just fine since it contains three of the essential nutrients that geraniums need: potassium, phosphorous, and nitrogen.
Such fertilizers, however, may lack other trace elements that are missing in your soil. Therefore, it is best to do a soil test first before getting any fertilizer.
When applying the fertilizer to an outdoor geranium, see to it that the work is done when it is cool since the chemical elements may dry up too quickly and end up killing the plant.
Fertilizers For Indoor Geraniums
Indoor plants usually do not need as much fertilizer because they are not exposed to harsh environments such as intense heat, which tends to evaporate the nutrients in the soil concomitantly with the water.
However, the potted plants, especially geraniums will run out of nutrients after a while if they are not properly fed.
Using a good compost or good potting mix should be the first concern for newly potted plants.
There’s no need to use store-bought fertilizers until the plant is fully established. As soon as that happens, feed your plant with fertilizer every two weeks or once a month.
Best Fertilizer Types For Geraniums
As mentioned above, liquid fertilizers are the best to use on geraniums. This is because of the quick absorbent rates that allow plants to take them in quickly.
Make sure you carefully read the instructions label of each product before using any fertilizer.
You can usually find the exact diluting portions and the periods when the manufacturer recommends applying the product.
Knowing exactly how and when to apply each fertilizer type will reduce the risk of over-fertilizing your plants.
It is essential to water down the fertilizer since you may end up burning your plant if you apply the concentrated matter as it is.
If you think the plant is planted in a low-nutrient soil, you can even opt for fertilizers that contain additional nutrients (like calcium, magnesium or sulfur), aside from the NPK trio (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium).
Final Take
Even though geraniums can grow in many cases in good soil, without any fertilizer, if you want to make your neighbors jealous with your beautiful and more blooming flowers, you should incline toward utilizing a fertilizer for geraniums.
It is clear that both indoors and outside geraniums can hugely benefit from a quality fertilizer.
Even though there are several types of fertilizer available on the market, it is advisable to use liquid fertilizers because these products give the plants an easy time when it comes to absorbing the nutrients.
Remember to test your soil first to discover the missing nutrients. This allows you to purchase a custom fertilizer for your plants depending on the kind of nutrients that are missing in the ground.
For additional tips on how to grow better geraniums, read this post.