feeding roses in a rock garden

[monniemon]

Hello, I have 125 roses, they are in flower beds and they are growing with a couple layers of rocks ontop of them, the rocks are necessary to keep the critters out. But my question is, are the roses getting enough of the food by me using granules and raking the rocks to try a scratch the food into the soil, do you think I should use more food than advised because of the rocks, I know that there are liquids, but they are too expensive.

[luis_pr]

What kind of rocks and what size of rocks are we talking about, monniemon?

[RamonaGS]

Luis is right, it depends on whether or not the rocks are porous. If they are porous, then they could absorb some of the nutrients and water. That's what I'm dealing with under my loquat trees. Are you having problems with your roses, or is this a preemptive question to avoid potential problems? If you don't know what kind of rock is on the soil, I can help with that.

[monniemon]

I have decorative river/pond rocks, I was told by the quarry that they are non porous, iam not having any problems with the roses, they are doing great, what made me ask the question is that I switched from a liquid feeder(too many roses, too costly) to bayer 3 in 1 gradulues, I wanted a time release that wouldnt break my pockets and I would be able to rest for a month or so,lol. I figure I would just rake the rocks with the claw, to get the bayer into the soil

thanks

[monniemon]

they rocks are the large size luis, about the size of a medium to large potato

[RamonaGS]

Well, if the rocks aren't porous then they should not interrupt the watering or feeding of the roses. As they dissolve from watering they should just seep down to where the fertilizer needs to be. The roses should be fine.

[monniemon]

thank you ramona and everyone who took time to comment