FoxFarm Blog

Wake Up!

Have you noticed that all your perennials are leafing out and getting ready to bloom?  Lilacs, apple trees, hydrangeas, roses—everything’s waking up and enjoying the longer days and warmer temps.  Give your mature, established garden plants the boost they need with a top-dressing of fertilizer and soil conditioner. 

 

Here’s what we like to do.  Clear the ground of weeds, then sprinkle on your choice of our Happy Frog organic all-purpose fertilizer, or, for a time-release option, choose Marine Cuisine for evergreens, acid-loving plants, and vegetables, or American Pride for roses, flowering trees, and shrubs.  Apply according to package directions, water well, then mulch with 3-4 inches of Happy Frog Soil Conditioner to add nutrients, smother weeds, and hold in moisture.  Then stand back and watch the garden bloom! American Pride and Marine Cuisine have staying power. Marine Cuisine can be used 1-2 times per year and American Pride 2-3 times per year. It really is that simple.

 

Have you envied your neighbor’s breathtaking roses? Well, American Pride is the best rose fertilizer you will ever use. It encourages healthy root growth, provides feeding for dark green foliage, and has a perfect balance of nutrition for award winning blossoms. In fact, we know many members of the American Rose Society that swear by it.

The Joys of Big Bloom

We were thrilled to open up the Sunset Western Garden Book and see that our Big Bloom fertilizer was featured in their section on organic fertilizers. While the Big Bloom name implies that it's a great fertilizer for flowering plants --- and it is -- we found so many more uses for it in our gardens and greenhouses over the years.

 

As an organic, low NPK fertilizer, it won't burn plants or overload the soil with unnecessary nutrients. For this reason, we use it on young seedlings after two or three sets of leaves have emerged, and we also use it as a drench on stressed plants that have been impacted by adverse weather, pests or disease, or other problems. We have also found that it is indispensable during transplanting -- adding a little Big Bloom to that first watering after new plants go on the ground can really help get them off to a great start.

 

And remember, Big Bloom is about so much more than NPK.  It’s a live culture of vitamins, amino acids, natural growth hormones, enzymes, and beneficial organic microbes. We add earthworm castings, bat guano and other delicious organic ingredients like Norwegian kelp for nutrient uptake and higher yields, plus rock phosphate, which helps transfer energy from one part of the plant to another, delivering bigger buds and more fragrant flowers. 

 

Use Big Bloom on every plant you own, every time you water. It is actually the only fertilizer that can be used over its recommended dosage. In fact, we say the more the merrier. Your plants will love you for it! Give it a try this spring and watch your garden thrive.

Indoor Flowering

If you’re lucky enough to have plants that are ready to bloom indoors this month, it’s time to think about their soil and fertilizer needs.  Here’s what we do to keep plants blooming:

 

• Carefully monitor moisture levels.  If plant roots are waterlogged, their oxygen supply has been cut off.  And if they’re not getting enough water, they can’t take up the nutrients in the soil.  While you can buy a moisture meter to measure moisture levels in your plants, it’s also easy to check yourself. Just make sure soil is about as damp as a wrung-out sponge.

 

• If you haven’t re-potted indoor plants in a while, carefully lifting them out of their pots, brushing off old potting soil without disturbing the root ball, and repotting with our premium Ocean Forest Potting Soil will help replenish depleted soil.  While you have the plant out of the pot, make sure drainage holes are clear.

 

And of course, use a flowering fertilizer like Tiger Bloom or Big Bloom.  The phosphorus in flowering fertilizers encourages the development of buds and flowers. 

Kelp Meal

What does seaweed have to do with your garden? Have you ever noticed how a free-floating piece of kelp can regrow in the ocean? Powerful plant growth regulators and hormones give kelp the ability to flourish and regenerate. 

One of the not-so-secret ingredients in many of our products Norwegian kelp meal. Organic gardeners know that kelp meal is packed with plant growth regulators, minerals, enzymes, and amino acids that help plants flourish. Best of all, kelp meal is a long-term, slow-release fertilizer that feeds plants all season long. By adding it to products like our Grow Big liquid fertilizer and our Fox Farm Original Planting Mix, we make sure that your garden reaps the extraordinary benefits of this seafaring plant.

Flowering Annuals--let Them Bloom!

It is impossible to resist those flowering annuals at the garden center this time of year—and why should you? Buy annuals early in the year so you can enjoy them all season long. Here are a few tips:

Choose annuals that are not yet in full bloom. Those colorful flowers may lure you into the nursery, but you want young plants with plenty of life still ahead.

Pinch off some blooms to encourage more green growth. This way, you’ll get larger, fuller plants and more flowers later on.

Carefully slide one or two plants out of their pots to check the root system. If the roots are wrapped in a tight, dense ball, the plant is potbound and may not grow much beyond its current size. Look for sturdy, healthy roots that can easily spread out into the surrounding soil.

Use a premium planting mix like Fox Farm Original Planting Mix or, in the case of containers, Ocean Forest Potting Soil. Flowering annuals need the very best soil in order to keep looking good all season long.

 

Start with our Peace of Mind Starter or Happy Frog Jump Start fertilizer, working into the soil according to package directions when you plant. Continue with Peace of Mind Fruit & Flower throughout the growing season, scratching it into the soil and watering well about once a month. If you’d rather use a liquid fertilizer, try our fabulous organic Big Bloom.

Throughout the growing season, continue to pinch off spent blooms to encourage more flowering, and make sure container plants get plenty of sun on hot summer days.

It’s Bulb Season, Baby!

Daffodils and tulips and hyacinths, oh my! If you planted them in the fall, you’re going to start reaping your rewards any day now. Support healthy flowering with Peace of Mind or Happy Frog Bulb Food by scratching it into the soil according to package directions as soon as foliage appears.

After your flowers have bloomed, be sure to feed them again! As soon as a bulb finishes blooming, it starts working on next year’s flower. A healthy dose of fertilizer now will promote bigger blooms next year. And don’t forget to leave the foliage on—it helps feed the roots throughout the summer!

Revitalize Your Indoor Garden

There may not be much going on outside, but indoor plants can really use a lift in the middle of winter. Pick a mild-weather day, haul your houseplants outside, and give them the FoxFarm Makeover:

Clean. Start by blasting foliage with the hose to remove dust and debris. Let dry and yellowing leaves fall to the ground. Your plants do a better job of purifying the air and adding oxygen to your home if the leaves are clean.

Feed the foliage. Once the leaves are clean, give them a taste of 100% Organic Liquid Big Bloom. Try to get both sides of the leaves. A foliar feed like this is hard to do indoors, so take this opportunity to give the leaves a healthy, revitalizing treatment that will encourage the plant to grow and bloom.

Repot or replenish the soil. Plants in smaller pots should be repotted once a year. Toss the old soil on the compost pile, shake out the roots, and repot with Ocean Forest or Happy Frog Potting Soil. Remember to water well and let the soil settle before bringing inside; you may find that you need to add extra soil once you’ve watered the first time.

For larger plants that can’t easily be repotted, simply scrape off as much soil as possible from the top and sides of the pot, and fill in the gaps with Ocean Forest or Happy Frog.

That’s it! Bring the plants inside, and bask in their reflected glory. Feed every other watering with Liquid Big Bloom and Grow Big to maintain leafy-green foliage, healthy roots, and beautiful blooms.

New Years Resolutions

What are your New Years resolutions for the garden? We asked around at the office, and here’s what the gardeners around here are planning for 2008:

Feed the soil. We have a couple of new homeowners in our office, and both of them are stuck with compacted fill dirt so typical of new housing developments. Working in a good soil conditioner like Happy Frog will make all the difference.

Heal the sick. Some of us have trees damaged by the wind, shrubs in tatters from the dry, cold nights, and diseased plants that just never seem to get well.  We’ve had surprisingly good results with Big Bloom Liquid Plant Food—a weekly root drench and foliar feed can really help them bounce back.

Start early. The only way to get the interesting, unusual flower and veggie varieties you crave are to grow them yourself. Get seeds started two months before plants should go in the ground, and you’ll have a healthy, robust, home-grown garden when spring rolls around. Start with Light Warrior, feed with Big Bloom, and follow our custom feeding schedules for best results.

Transplanting

If you live in a mild climate, you’ll keep gardening in November and December. This is the perfect time of year to transplant and divide perennials.  There are only two things you need to know:

FoxFarm Planting Mix:  Don’t transplant without it. When you dig a plant up and move it to a new spot, you have a great opportunity to improve the soil.  Work in some planting mix and you’ll add important nutrients that will help the plants succeed in their new location.

Big Bloom: You might think of Big Bloom as a fertilizer for your flower bed, but the fact is that Big Bloom has proven to be the perfect formula for transplants, divisions, and any plant that’s under stress.  After you’ve finished moving plants around, give everything a good root drench with Big Bloom. 

Last Call for Bulbs!

Still got bulbs sitting around? Now is the time to get those spring bulbs in the ground.  Garden centers have a great selection of daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, lilies, and other spring favorites. Just remember:

Many bulbs need rich, well drained soil.  Work in a generous amount of Happy Frog Planting Mix when you plant.  Typically, bulbs need to be planted at a depth equal to three to four times their size, so be sure to amend the soil to that depth.

Bulb food is absolutely essential.  Use one to two tablespoons of Happy Frog Bulb Food for every bulb you plant, and feed existing plantings of bulbs according to package directions.  Our Happy Frog fertilizers come in a water resistant resealable pouch, so you can save your leftover fertilizer for a second feeding in the spring, as soon as the bulbs begin to emerge.

Don’t forget about containers.  Most bulbs grow beautifully in pots, and you can layer smaller bulbs among and above larger bulbs for a display that lasts longer.  Use a high quality potting soil like Ocean Forest, and don’t forget the bulb food.  This is especially important for premium bulbs that you want to grow indoors during the winter, like amaryllis.