Roses are the queens of the garden and the favorite of many gardeners. These delightful, lushly flowering plants adorn most suburban areas and cottages. How nice to watch the buds open with petals of a wide variety of colors and shapes, exuding a pleasant delicate aroma.
In order for the flowers to please their incredible beauty in the new season, it is necessary to fertilize and prune roses in the fall. These are mandatory procedures among a complex of measures for preparing a flower garden for winter.
Why feed roses?
Fertilizers contain food for plants, in addition, they enhance the extraction by roots of useful nutrients found in the soil. In addition, top dressing regulates the growth and development of bushes, increase their resistance to various diseases, pests and negative environmental influences. Roses are quite demanding on the introduction of fertilizers, because as a result of the growth of young shoots and flowering, especially repeated, the plants greatly consume nutrients that should be replenished.
Spring nitrogen-containing fertilizing helps rose bushes to grow green mass faster and stimulate the formation of buds. In the summer and autumn, fertilizers contribute to the development of shoots and the maintenance of flowering, help ripen the wood and then overwinter safely.
The lack of one of the nutrients will certainly affect the health and appearance of the plant. The rose bush begins to hurt, weaken and may even die.
Feeding roses in the fall
The abundant flowering of rose bushes is a joy for the gardener and at the same time stress for the plants. Before considering how to feed roses in autumn, it is important to know which chemical elements are part of fertilizers and what is the principle of their action.
Nutrients
The substances vital to roses for good development and lush flowering are divided into three types:
- basic;
- additional;
- trace elements.
Essential Nutrients
For a plant such as a rose, the main substances (macroelements) are needed in large quantities:
- Nitrogen is the building material for the whole plant, contributing to the growth of green mass - shoots and leaves.
- Phosphorus is necessary for the normal development of bushes and the growth of the root system. In addition, feeding roses with this macrocell accelerates the ripening of shoots.
- Potassium increases the resistance of plants to diseases, adverse environmental influences, is involved in the formation of buds.
Additional Nutrients
These substances are necessary for roses in limited quantities. These include:
- Magnesium is a vital element for roses. With its deficiency, reddish spots form on the leaves between the veins, and excess can lead to poor absorption of potash fertilizers.
- Calcium is necessary for rose bushes for the development of their aboveground and underground parts. With its deficiency, the development of the root system stops, the buds fall off, and the top of the young shoots dries up.
- Sulfur is necessary for the delivery of nutrients from the soil, in addition, it takes part in the redox process.
Trace elements
These substances must be present in fertilizers in very small doses. These include:
- iron;
- manganese;
- boron;
- copper;
- zinc;
- sulfur;
- molybdenum.
Despite the fact that the content of trace elements is scanty, they are vital for roses. Their absence leads to a loss of decorative shrubs, plants begin to hurt, and sometimes even die.
What fertilizing is necessary for roses in the fall?
The main purpose of fertilizing roses in autumn with fertilizers is to prepare them for the winter period. It is necessary that the bushes grow stronger and mature as many shoots as possible. If, before starting the dormant period, nitrogen-based fertilizers stimulating growth are used, this will only hinder the plants. The green mass will begin further development, instead of throwing all its forces into the ripening of existing shoots.
Fertilizing roses with potassium phosphate fertilizers is best suited in the fall. During this period, bushes need these very elements. Potassium will help plants better survive the cold and strengthen their immunity, and phosphorus will strengthen the shoots and help ripen the wood.
Fertilization rules in the fall
Many experienced gardeners fertilize roses in the fall twice. The first - in late summer or early September, when the bushes bloom, the second - in October. If there is no financial opportunity or time, fertilizers must be applied at least once.
The first autumn top dressing
This top dressing of roses in autumn can be carried out both in liquid form and in granules. Today in retail chains you can buy special autumn fertilizers designed for all types of plants and not containing nitrogen. True, their cost is much higher than universal. If finances allow, you can take the top dressing for roses, as a result of which the flower will receive all the necessary substances.
If for some reason you can’t buy a special fertilizer, you can fertilize roses in the fall with potassium monophosphate. It is suitable for autumn care of almost all plants. This drug quickly dissolves in water, and in large areas it can be used by sprinkling on moist soil before watering or rain.
Granular autumn fertilizers are usually poorly soluble in water. They need to be embedded in moist soil under the bushes.
You can also spend autumn feeding roses with ash. It contains a lot of calcium and potassium, a little phosphorus, but nitrogen is practically absent. The burned remains of vegetation is an invaluable source of trace elements and excellent protection of bushes from many diseases. For foliar feeding, 200 g of ash are dissolved in 10 l of water.
Second autumn top dressing
In warm time, roses are fed in the fall with phosphorus-potassium preparations (liquid or granular). They are delivered to the roots by planting in the soil or with watering.
If feeding roses in the fall will be carried out immediately before the onset of frost and sheltering bushes, then you can use one of the methods:
- Close hard-soluble granules of phosphorus preparations into the soil and scatter one glass of ash around the rose.
- Mulch the soil around the bush with rotted manure. Add a glass of wood ash and one or two tablespoons of double superphosphate under the rose. Fertilizer must be spread on top of the roots, without being embedded in the soil. The mulching compost layer is an excellent protection against freezing of the root system. During decomposition, all nutrients slowly enter the soil and are gradually absorbed by the roots.
It is very good to use kalimagnesia in granules for feeding roses in autumn. It can be spread over the surface of the soil before sheltering the bushes for the winter.
Autumn care for roses includes not only fertilizing, but also pruning bushes.
Why is autumn pruning necessary?
Autumn pruning of plants for the winter is necessary directly to strengthen the rose bush itself. If the purpose of spring pruning is the formation and refinement of a beautiful bush, then the autumn procedure is mainly aimed at:
- provide access to the buds and stems of the plant to the light;
- provide good ventilation of the crown;
- increase winter hardiness of the bush.
In addition, pruning of old branches in the fall contributes to the laying of new buds, from which beautiful large flowers will bloom in the future, and the formation of stronger new shoots.
Not only roses that adorned the flower garden for several years, but also young seedlings planted this year are subject to autumn pruning. Among the main recommendations, it is necessary to highlight the need to remove all blooming flowers and unripe buds, as well as cutting weak and diseased stems.
Unripened shoots left for the winter at the shelter begin to decay. Which often leads to damage by fungi and disease of the whole plant. After pruning, only powerful lignified shoots with a small number of sleeping buds should remain on the plant.
Also, old shoots should be removed in a timely manner. These include three-year-old stems, which have many lateral branches, and branches covered with dried bark.
Tips for cropping properly
In order for the autumn pruning of the rose to bring only a positive result, it is necessary to adhere to several important rules:
- Trim only with sharpened pruning shears. A dull tool makes the cuts torn and damages the bark, which then heals for a very long time or completely dies from the penetration of infections. Thicker stems with a diameter of 1.5-2 cm are best removed with a hacksaw. In order to prevent infection of the plant with infections and fungi, it is recommended to disinfect all tools with a potassium permanganate solution before pruning. After trimming, all places of cuts on the stems should be treated with garden var.
- The place for cutting should be chosen above the swollen bud, which has not yet had time to germinate, at a distance of about 0.5-1 cm. The shoot is cut to healthy white wood.
- Slice must be done at an angle. This is done so that the area of the cut does not become a place of accumulation of moisture and the development of infections.
- The most successful time for cutting roses for the winter is a windless sunny day. As a rule, rose bushes are pruned towards the end of October.
- And, perhaps, the most basic rule that must be followed during the autumn pruning of roses is not to overdo it. Since the root system of a rose, like any other plant, must be proportional to its aerial part, it is very important to prune it carefully and competently so that the nutrition system is not disturbed, which can lead to disease and even death of roses.
So, do not forget to feed and fertilize roses in the fall. Not only the health of the bushes, but also the quality of flowering in the next season depends on this.