Speaker 1: Welcome to the Simple Garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated
to keeping the art of gardening simple, fun and always rewarding.
Now Here are your hosts, Jim and Mary Competti.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome everybody to the Simple Garden Life Podcast.
Speaker 3: I'm Jim Competti.
Speaker 4: Along with Mary Competti.
Speaker 2: That's right, and we're here today to talk about hostas
and actually fertilizing hostas. More importantly, I guess, more to
the point, the best way to fertilize hostas, which most people,
as we'll get into it a little bit, Mary, don't
even know if they really need to fertilize their hostas
or not. But it's actually a very good idea.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, you know, hasa has come up in early spring
and people really don't know what to do with them.
They just let them grow, but it's really beneficial to
give them a little dose of fertilizer throughout the year.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: So before we get into that, we remind everybody that
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So let's get into this, Mary. Let's talk about what
we're here today for. And that's the best way to
fertilize host hostas. Excuse me, so you know, unlike most
perennials and annuals, hostas are almost always grown for their
foliage and not their flowers. They do flower, but that's
not why really.
Speaker 3: People grow them.
Speaker 4: No, they grow them for their nice, beautiful, different color leaves.
Speaker 2: Oh, massive leaves that can come in and variegated greens, whites, creams,
even the bluish green which we have a start out
here inside our garden to keep it protected from deer.
From my mom, there's just so many beautiful hostas, but
it's that leaf color and traditionally, obviously they're a shade plant,
so they like a lot of shade. But they can
really fill large spaces with those leaves and they're beautiful.
But people want to know, how can I keep those
leaves so beautiful? And one of the keys really does
come down to the foliage. A lot of people when
they talk about hostas, what's the thing they say they
hate that in the middle of summer, a lot of
those leaves start to just disappear.
Speaker 4: Right or brown off. And you know there's a certain
reason for that, and there's certain things you can do
to help prevent that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, sometimes it's due to deer taking them.
Speaker 4: Out, and deer do love hostas, that's right, and if that.
Speaker 2: Happens, just to let everyone know, even in the middle
of summer, at anytime, you can cut those right back
to the ground and they're going to produce new leaves,
especially if you've taken a little bit of time to
fertilize them up and make them you know, really have
the power they need. The key with hostas is you
don't want to give them the wrong kind of fertilizer
or too much. They really don't need a lot, but
a little goes a long way for.
Speaker 4: That, and the type of fertilizer you use really does matter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're not heavy feeders, I mean, but they do
really benefit greatly from that added boost of nutrients, especially
through those long summer months when the heat might get
to them, the pests get to them. And again remember
when hostas are unhealthy, they become more attractive for things
like mildew and pest to attack them and make them
even worse.
Speaker 4: So if your hosts have holes in them in the
middle of summer, you know, it's not the healthiest plant.
But fertilizing will help.
Speaker 3: Oh, it will definitely help keep them strong.
Speaker 2: We've done it for years here and makes it just
makes them look so much more lush and beautiful. Even
a light feeding hosta, which that's what people you know
sometimes think I don't have to do anything to it.
It really does make so let's talk about that. There
really is a couple of times you want to really
fertilize them. And we've used a one two punch the
very first time, which you know right now we're into.
Speaker 3: April almost May. Yeah, the last day of.
Speaker 2: April almost into May, and this is a great time
to apply that first dose of fertilizer when those hostas
first start to emerge from the ground.
Speaker 4: But what type of fertilizer do you use?
Speaker 2: Well, that's the key on this one. You want to
use something that's going to be slow release and give
them a slow amount of power all through the springtime
as they grow. And people ask us all the time,
but what if I divided my hostess last fall, or
what if my hostess were too big and I'm going
to divide them right now? You can still give them
a light dose. But if your hostas are just in
the ground and getting ready to come up, this is
where that granular fertilizer works. Why, Because they release that
energy slow and steady. It allows the hostas, you know,
just enough nutrients and energy to really put it into
that leaf growth, but not so much that it just
overgrows them and can be harmful to them.
Speaker 4: So granular fertilizer is the best. But what amounts of
NPK should you look for?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I like personally with hostas and most perennials that are
you know, lower feeders. I like to lean towards the
five five five when we talk about that nitrogen potassium
and calci or nitrogen potassium makes marry off.
Speaker 4: Nitrogen phosphate and potassium.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're going to be number seven next term.
Speaker 2: I realize I don't know what MPK stands for, but no,
I like the five to five to five because that
first number it keeps the nitrogen lower. Nitrogen is super
important for leaf growth, so you do want an equal
amount when it comes to the other two. However, ten
ten can you can work. You just have to do
a lighter feeding, a little bit less. It just the
five five five alike, because it's not going to overpower
the hostile.
Speaker 4: Right and for the new gardener, we probably should explain
what those and we know it's nitrogen phosphate and potassium,
But where where can you find that on the product
that you're looking at at the store?
Speaker 2: To be uplisted on every type of fertilizer there is,
That's the one thing they go to.
Speaker 3: They want to show those three numbers.
Speaker 2: And the reason you want that a lot of times
when you're talking about annual flowers or vegetables, nitrogen is
important for that early growth. But then you get into
the phosphors and you know that's a huge part of
the blooms and all that.
Speaker 3: Well, we're not so.
Speaker 2: Much worried about that with the most tastas, or even
perennials for that matter, because they have a short bloom period.
So that balanced ratio of all three, the nitrogen, phosphorus
in the potassium, it's ideal to help get them off
to a fast start.
Speaker 3: You know that nitrogen is key for the.
Speaker 2: Strong foot foliage and stem growth, but also those other
two when you're talking about phosphorus and potassium, those are
really good for the health of the plant, not just blooming,
but the health of the plant.
Speaker 3: So together all three really help hostas well.
Speaker 4: Let's get to the details down. So how when and
how do you fertilize with the granule fertilizer.
Speaker 3: Yes, so for the spring. When you know when putting
down green.
Speaker 2: And fertilizer, it's always important you have to remember this,
either to do it earlier or towards the.
Speaker 3: End of the day.
Speaker 2: Don't do it on a really hot day where you
might be on the leaf and it could burn the
plant a little bit. We just it's just never a
good idea. But there's also another important thing to do.
You know, you always want to water in GRAINI and fertilizer.
So often people go out and they spread those granules
around and they walk inside and they forget about it. Well,
if you don't get rain for four or five days,
those don't break down very fast and you're not going
to get but.
Speaker 3: A little bit of water, and you don't have to
water hard.
Speaker 2: You just want to set that into the soil is
going to go a long way. And another thing is
people say, well should I move my mulch back?
Speaker 3: Should I do this? They're going to break down and
get through it.
Speaker 2: But we do like to move the mulch back a
little bit so it's not so thick right there when
you're putting.
Speaker 3: Those granules in.
Speaker 4: It's important to put the mulch right back on.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, so five five, five, ten, ten ten. We
always tell.
Speaker 2: People to make sure hey follow along with what you
know is on the bag for perennials or for plants,
it'll tell you often, but if you really I mean,
for us, I would say we use a quarter less
than a core, probably an eighth of a cup per
hostile plant, and sprinkled.
Speaker 3: Around the edges.
Speaker 2: I don't like to go to the core of the plant.
I don't like to put it anywhere near the leaf.
I like to do it on the root zone. And
a root zone is nothing more than where those leaves
come out. That's that circle around the main clump of
your plant of where you can put the fertilizer. So
you know, granular fertilizers are great for that. But as
we'll talk about after our break, it really comes down
to the next time you fertilize them, you want to
give them a quicker punch. Remember we talked about the
low and slow of the granular works. But in the summer,
as you'll see in a second, you want to go
to liquid. So we right back after this break. Okay,
we are back talking about fertilizing hostas, which is hostas
are probably one of the most popular perennials that are
almost in everyone's bed, especially when you have a shady
part of your yard. But as we talked about, a
lot of people. As you get into summer, hostas can
kind of tend to look bad. So we're going to
talk about fertilizing, but I want to cover a couple
of quick things really quickly. There are two things that
really take their toll on hostas in the summer. One,
we've already covered pests. They tend to find a way
to get to them. If your pest have been chewed
up by a ton of slugs, rabbits, everything else and
they just have holes everywhere and it's July, don't let
them look like that the rest of the year.
Speaker 3: We take a pair of shears, Mary, We take them
right to the ground.
Speaker 4: Right and they are going to regrow.
Speaker 2: They're going to regrow fast, especially if you give them
a little dose of this liquid.
Speaker 3: Fertilizers we're talking about.
Speaker 2: But we always tell people if that's the case, if
you've had a bad season or it was overly wet
or overly dry, and they look bad, cut them down.
You've got plenty of time for that foliage to grow
back and be beautiful, and it's far better than trying
to cover up your flower beds the rest of the
summer while they look bad. The other thing that hurts
hostas and their foliage is the bloom. Just think about
any bloom on any plant. It takes power to produce
those blooms. Well, let's face it, hostile blooms, I mean,
if you love them, fantastic, we actually leave a fair
amount of We have a couple of varieties that really
bloom somewhat pretty.
Speaker 3: And we see a lot of the hummingbirds.
Speaker 4: Right, hommybirds and honeybees.
Speaker 2: But if you're growing them solely for that foliage and
to look great and the leaves and you want them
to look beautiful when those shoots come up in the
middle of summer for that bloom, cut them r at
the base. Don't even let it bloom. It's going to
put all that power back into the leaves of the
plant and look much more better. Again, it's a personal choice.
Speaker 3: We tend. I would say we opt more to leave
our balloons come up.
Speaker 2: I really like the butterflies, and you know all the
birds that come in, the hummingbirds especially to do it.
Speaker 3: But if you really are doing it for the leaves,
cut them off.
Speaker 2: They'll do this in a lot of gardens where they
want to look beautiful, cut them back when they try
to make so don't allow them to blame.
Speaker 4: Right, And when they do flower, if you'd like to
let them flower, there is a point where you do
need to cut them back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as soon as they're done flowering, cut those back
because that again Mary's right, they're going to start working
on forming seed heads everything else that's going to take
power from that plant. So once they're done, clip them
back all the way to the bottom and I'm talking
about the bloom stein and then that's going to help
your plan.
Speaker 4: Right, Just don't take the dead flowers off. You've got
to cut it down at the bottom of the stem
exactly exactly.
Speaker 2: And it also makes your plant look a heck of
a lot short. Okay, So now we're talking about that fertilizing.
So just went off on a little tangent there, but
it's important to talk about those things.
Speaker 3: So now we're back to what do we do. So
now we're not going.
Speaker 2: To use green because it's going to be too slow
to help these plants really stay strong ego to a
liquid fertilizer. And liquid is so important because it's fast acting.
Liquid absorbs not just through the ground when you're springing it,
but also through the leaves. Of a plant, and you know,
it can really give a lot of a quick boost
of power versus the granular. I mean, I think Mary,
we have never really used green in the summer because
of that very thing. Liquid fertilizers just work so much faster.
Speaker 4: So why is it important to switch?
Speaker 2: Yeah, again, as I said, it's gonna because the amount
of fertilizer gets to the plant quicker.
Speaker 3: That liquid is instantaneous.
Speaker 4: It's not the slow and low relation, no, No, it's
it's really fast.
Speaker 2: And in addition, if you use the granular, it's it's
gonna still keep feeding.
Speaker 3: Them so late into the season. You want that power
to be right then and there.
Speaker 2: And so that's why liquid fertilizer really comes to the
forefront once you get to the summer.
Speaker 3: And I think that's the way. I mean, we kind
of do that with all of our perennials.
Speaker 2: If we want to give a little boost when summer comes,
we tend to use grainers in the early spring.
Speaker 3: And then switch to the liquid. So now it all
comes down to.
Speaker 4: What's the best what's the best liquid fur lineser do
you use?
Speaker 2: So you can really do a lot of things here.
A lot of people like to use compost t or
worm casting tea that they can make at home. And
I'm gonna tell you right now, that is fantastic. It works,
It's great, let's face it. Though not everyone has the
time to do that or they don't want to mess
with it.
Speaker 3: So what can I use again? We're gonna go back
to that NPK.
Speaker 2: We talked about those three big keys, and we're looking
for a five to five to five to a.
Speaker 4: Ten ten ten, so pretty much the same ratio as
the granular for license it is.
Speaker 2: And this is where I become a little bit weird.
I like in the summer going a little bit stronger
with the liquid dose. I like the ten ten tents
because I think it gives it that quick boost. But
five to five to five again is great. I still
do this, though I don't. I don't do it as
strong as they recommend, no matter what it is. So
if it's on the back and it says, you know,
use one teaspoon for every half gallon of water, I
use one tea spoon for the whole gallon of water.
Speaker 3: I want to almost dilute it in half. And why
is that?
Speaker 2: Because I don't want to fertilize this. You know every
eight weeks. I want to do it a little bit
more often. We like, what three to four weeks is
really our key.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we furtilize every three to four weeks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, when late June hits to July,
we'll hit our plants again. Do not fertilize in the
middle of the day with a liquid fertilizer and put
the majority of it on the ground around the plant.
But it's okay to hit the leaves a little bit
because it's going to absorb through there and give them power.
Speaker 4: Early morning is always best.
Speaker 2: I like early morning way better than the late in
the evening because late in the evening, if you get
cool nights, it tends to now you can start to
have mildew and other things. Mold can come into plants,
especially hostas a big leaf plant that's going to be
very susceptive that. So I think the big key is
to fertilize. But we like to do that every three
to four weeks. So for us here in Ohio, that's
the end of June, the end of July, the end
of August that.
Speaker 3: We're pretty much done.
Speaker 2: At that point, all all perennials stop fertilizing in the fall,
because it just causes a lot of danger for plants.
It can cause them to overgrow with some tender foliage,
but not just ten of funch. It's a roots you
really worry about, and those can easily then be susceptible
to freezing off in the winter times.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've pretty much stuff fertilizing in August.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it promotes too much late season growth and it
just has a lot of issues. So the other thing
about hostas, people always ask us all the time is, well,
O Kate, when is the true best time to cut
them back and divide them? And there are you know,
hostas and dailers are two plants for me that I
will tell you almost any time.
Speaker 3: Unless the grounds, you know you're in the middle of winter.
Speaker 2: Fall is ideal because if you can cut you see
how big the plant grew, you can divide it back
to where you want it to, you can transplant them,
the roots can get set and they're ready to go
the next spring.
Speaker 3: But if you're sitting there in spring.
Speaker 2: Right now and you realize you have this hosta that
every year is just way too thick, it's okay, dig
it up.
Speaker 3: Even if those leaves have started to come through. Quarter it,
put it in eights.
Speaker 2: Whatever you need to do to make your small plants,
put them back in the ground, put a little fertilizer
around them, and you know what you're gonna be.
Speaker 3: About what three weeks behind, right, and that foliage is
gonna come right through.
Speaker 4: And keeping your flower beds full of plants perennials is
key because less mulch, less risk for disease.
Speaker 2: You know, we just spent a lot of time here
splitting grasses, ornamental grasses in the springtime and in the fall,
we split a lot of our plants and put them
into holding beds. Mary is absolutely right when people always
ask us how do I keep weeds out of my flowerbed?
Then obviously mulch is number one, but number two is
grown more plants than mulch. When you pack your flowerbeds
full of plants, weed seeds can't find a home.
Speaker 3: And hostas are a great.
Speaker 2: Example of that that the broad leafs of a hosta
can cover a lot of area. You're going to use
less mulch, you're gonna have less weeds. It's going to
look prettier and you can divide them and it's free.
I mean, once you get this plants.
Speaker 3: It's free.
Speaker 4: So after summer's done, fall comes, the plants leave start
to die off. What do you do.
Speaker 3: That's the only thing you have to do with that point.
Speaker 2: If you're gonna dig them up and you're gonna divide them, great,
And if you're not, you're gonna cut those leaves off.
You're gonna make sure it's down to the ground. You're
gonna put a little bit of multi around it. You're
gonna forget about. You're not gonna fertilize. You're gonna wait
till spring, and you're gonna start the whole process over again.
Speaker 4: And in the spring, those shoots of the hostage are
gonna come right through that mulch that you put on
top of it.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, and that's gonna keep them good. So there
it is.
Speaker 2: It is important to fertilize your hostage a little bit
if you really want maximum growth. They are a low
plant or a low nutrient plant, that doesn't mean they
don't benefit from a little a little bit of fertilizer.
The one thing you can do in the fall. Sometimes
people will put a little compost around and that's not
gonna give them that massive energy, but it's gonna help
them for the spring. But other than that, to try
your hand out this year, give your hostage a little
bit of extra TLC, a little bit of you know
power in the spring with you know, a granule, and
then a little bit of liquid power in the summer,
and you'll be kind of amazed.
Speaker 3: At the result of what your hostis look like. So well, Mary,
I think that does it for this week's episode, and
we better get back out in the garden out of
let's get work, I know, all right. Thanks everyone for
listening and happy garden, Happy gardening.
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Speaker 4: And if you have any questions, any ideas for show topics,
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Speaker 5: Until next time, Thanks everyone,