Looking for a good fertilizer for your showy blooms? Still confused and wondering- is bone meal good for peonies? Well, here’s answering just that and more!
Read on to discover how you can use bone meal as a fertilizer for your peonies, some tips and tricks to do it the right way, and some other fertilizers you can consider teaming it up with.
Why Use Bone Meal?
If the colorful and gorgeous flowers are what attracted you to peonies, you’re not alone. That said, peonies can be unpredictable bloomers, especially if they aren’t fertilized properly.
While you can always rely on commercially available fertilizers, bone meal can actually be an excellent natural and organic fertilizer for your peonies.
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Is Bone Meal Good For Peonies?
You bet! Bone meal can be an excellent fertilizer, not just for peonies, but for many other plants. This grounded up concoction of animal bones and other waste packs in some powerful nutrients that help support the plant’s root development.
It is also a stable, long lasting source of nutrients that help you grow big and healthy flowers, fruit and vegetables.
This slow release fertilizer can also be teamed up with other commercially available fertilizers (which are often high in nitrogen), and can be used to balance out the nutrients, making the composition perfect for the plant.
How to Use Bone Meal as a Fertilizer
Applying bone meal fertilizer to peonies is a pretty straightforward process. All you need to do is sprinkle the granules or powdered fertilizer on the soil around the plant, making sure you don’t directly sprinkle it on the plant’s crown.
Remember to dress the soil with just a light sprinkle to begin with, and top it up with a little water afterwards to speed up the process of assimilation of the nutrients.
Also remember to work the bone meal fertilizer into the soil. Just leaving it on the soil will cause it to take much longer to break down, and chances are, it may eventually get washed away during rain or hose watering. You can do this using your own hands (after wearing gardening gloves) or using a handheld cultivator.
If your peonies have been mulched during the winters to keep them protected from cold, you will need to remove the layer of mulch before you start to apply the bone meal fertilizer.
When Should I Apply the Bone Meal Fertilizer?
Regardless of whether you’re using bone meal as a fertilizer, or using any other fertilizer for that matter, timing is of utmost importance.
In general, peonies don’t need to be fertilized until they are 3 years old, and can sometimes do well even until they are 5 years old.
If you are planning to use bone meal, make sure you apply it during the plant’s pre-bloom or post-bloom period for best results- which translates into early summer and late summer or early fall.
Other Fertilizers For Peonies
Apart from bone meal, you can also use any other organic fertilizer of your choice for your peonies. Your compost can be a great choice, but if you’re looking for commercially available options, you’ll find a lot of options to choose from.
Slow release organic fertilizers are great, and can be applied a month before the blooms are supposed to make their appearance.
Remember to choose a fertilizer that is low in nitrogen and high in phosphorus- this will ensure that the root system is well developed and strong.
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