Over-pampering





Valerie Lowery@ZEON
05/27/99 02:58 PM

Question to all:


Has anyone ever given any thought to the results of over-pampering a plant?
I remember reading a passage in "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden" about
this topic.  The author says that one of the biggest mistakes that
gardeners make is to "overfertilize" their gardens.

This made me stop and re-read.

It went so much against the grain of conventional wisdom that it made me
think.  I've read so much about the importance of fertilizing your
perennials, top-dressing them every year (sometimes twice a year), and also
foliar feedings.  I'm thinking that I'm leaning towards her side of the
story lately.  Her reasoning goes something like this:  over-fertilizing
plants leads to rampant growth which in the short-term seems like a
wonderful thing.  However, this will eventually lead to plants that are
overstimulated and thus unable to cope with the ravages of fungal attacks,
drought conditions, heat, etc.  Think of it as the same condition that your
plants would be in if you didn't give them any fertilizer at all:  spindly,
little plants with no energy to combat anything.  However, I can't remember
whether she went into details about what was TOO MUCH.  She says that she
top dresses with compost about every 2-3 years and that was it.

Does anyone else have any comments about this theory?


Val in KY
zone 6a


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