Re: Irises and Alfalfa

On Tue, 19 Mar 1996, Jay Morrow wrote:

> I have read with great interest the mail on using alfalfa pellets for Iris.
> In fact, at lunch I went to the farm store and bought a 50# bag!.
> 
> Question - when can this be applied?  Do I need to wait until after blooming
> season?  I do know that some high-nitrogen fertilizers will make great foliage
> and no blooms.  What about this?
> 
Chris Hollinshead replies:

The two articles that I posted yesterday to this group should provide 
almost all the info you require. If you missed them I can, upon request, 
e-mail them to you privately so that we are not being redundant here.
Anyway, to answer your question, you can apply the alfalfa at any time 
during the growing season without any negative effects. I have applied it 
approx every six weeks as a top dressing around the iris clumps and dug 
it in slightly with wonderful results. It is not nitrogen "heavy", and 
will not "burn" the plants no matter how much you apply. growth and 
foliage is noticably better with no negative effect on amount of bloom 
produced. I have used alfalfa for about 4 years now.
Hope this helps. 

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Chris Hollinshead e-mail: bu336@torfree.net
Mississauga, Ontario Canada
Director, Canadian Iris Society
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