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supagirl277
- Senior Member
- Posts: 109
- Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 7:08 pm
- Location: Utah Hardiness Zone: 6b
Canteloupe... Nitro feeding?
I heard that certain things were fed with nitro... like melons. What type of stuff would I get to ensure they got the right stuff. We're starting them from seed.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
All plants need nitrogen. Some including melons and tomatoes etc are known as heavy feeders, meaning they need highly fertile soils.
Personally I still think compost is the best fertilizer... it is balanced and provides everything the plant needs and they can take from it what they need.
But if you want to add more nitrogen, well composted manure is a good source. Blood meal and fish emulsion are high in nitrogen also.
But once the melon plant is well established, you don't want to over do nitrogen which will promote vine growth at the expense of fruiting. For fruiting you want high phosporus, which could include bone meal.
But again rather than trying to tinker around giving nitrogen high fertilizer at one point and phosphorous high fertilizer at another, makes more sense to me to keep giving them rich organic balanced compost. They want very loose rich well draining soil, and plenty of sun and water. If they have that, they will do fine and you don't need to tinker.
Personally I still think compost is the best fertilizer... it is balanced and provides everything the plant needs and they can take from it what they need.
But if you want to add more nitrogen, well composted manure is a good source. Blood meal and fish emulsion are high in nitrogen also.
But once the melon plant is well established, you don't want to over do nitrogen which will promote vine growth at the expense of fruiting. For fruiting you want high phosporus, which could include bone meal.
But again rather than trying to tinker around giving nitrogen high fertilizer at one point and phosphorous high fertilizer at another, makes more sense to me to keep giving them rich organic balanced compost. They want very loose rich well draining soil, and plenty of sun and water. If they have that, they will do fine and you don't need to tinker.