Bee Balm

I have some bright lavender bee balm that I love. Should it be fertilized? With what?

I have 5 or six varieties of bee balm, never have fertilized them, bought some white bee balm last year, went out and checked it this morning, little babies coming up all over the place, about a l3 in circle full of babies, last year there was 2 plants. they spread like crazy from year to year, And like I said I've never fertilized.

hope this helps.

if you have poor soil and their not spreading fast from year to year, you might want to try miracle grow, chicken liter, horse litter. any of those would work, but your chicken litter needs to be 6 months old before you put it on any flower or veggie beds, it's way too strong to use it fresh.

I used steer manure in the soil with them and they grew over 4 1/2 ft. tall - they were gorgeous! :)

Thank you both so much for your help. Our soil is very poor in Phosphorus so I added bone meal but I held off on the Black Kow until I got your reply. Back to the store tomorrow for a couple more bags.....

I never fertilize mine. They get mulched with compost in early spring and that's it. I have to dig and divide them every couple of years because they spread out and get woody in the center.

I started some from seed last year. Kept them in pots 'cause I'm not sure where I want to keep them. Problem is they got powdery mildew quite badly. Is the humidity in my area going to be an ongoing problem?

kathyann I just noticed that you are in AR, so your humidity is probably worse than mine. Any suggestions?

They are very prone to powdery mildew. I bought some floral dust to help prevent that (happens to my lupins, too!).

I do have a big problem with powder mildew for the ones that grow in the shade, the ones in full sun have no trouble, I have an old fashioned remedy for powdery mildew, straight whole goat or cow milk, something in the unpasturized, un homogenized milk if the powder mildew is bad, it takes a couple or 3 sprayings, but it kills the powder mildew dead and it works better than anything else i've tried, I gave some goatmilk to a friend for that purpose and she couldn't believe how that fixed the problem.

kathy

There are cultivars that are resistant to powder mildew but any of the seed grown strains will be more susceptible. Powder mildew depends a lot of the weather here. In years of drought it seems to be worse.

They say that lots of "air" (to breathe) helps them as well. So keep them thinned out.

Oh my, I personally would not fertilize bee balm after pulling up what seems like millions of baby plants. kathy_ann is right on with her milk remedy for powdery mildew, works great along with keeping the bed thinned out. If you have mildew already on some plants, the milk will stop it but not get rid of it, I usually try to spray before the mildew arrives or at least when there is only a small bit of it. Some species of bee balm are native to NC so I just figured I didn't need to fertilize it much, ok so laziness got hold of me ;)

I don't have a problem with fertilizing, as long as I pull the babies up like weeds. I guess I have too much time on my hands out there, and don't mind doing it.

If you had a huge area you were worried about, then, NO, don't fertilize it that way. But if you do want a 4 to 5 footer, then yes. It's amazing. here is an example:

hmmmmm - that didn't work for blowing up the image, let me try something else..........

Thanks, guys for your helpful suggestions. The goat milk won't be a problem to get, and I'll just spread them out.

I just saw this post. WS, in our zone, this stuff is extremely invasive. I'm afraid if you feed it, it will be like kudzu. I started with one plant and have given tons away every year and still have it all through the garden. I think Mondarda LOVES NC :-)

Wanna know what I found out? Cut off flowers right before they die. then chop that plant down to 1 inch. I have never seen it again. Weird. Just be sure not to let to seeds scatter. Chop it before they do.'

Because you are absolutely 100% correct - it can be envasive if you allow the blossoms to seed. But if you want good results, do fertilize - but you must maintain.

Karrie20x, I've never had a problem with the seeds dropping as far as propagation is concerned, my bee balm seems to spread by the root/runner system...the only way I've been able to get rid of it in areas is to pull it up by the roots being careful not to leave little bits in the soil.

Hmmmm vic, kudzu, good to eat, pretty to look at, but heck to get rid of ;)

Karen

I was interested to see what Kudzu looked like and went to the PDB and there is no picture. So I went looking out in the wide world web and found an interesting website.

http://www.alabamatv.org/kudzu/

LimeyLisa Kay

I'd been wanting to try bee balm, and finally got some in trade last fall. It's now full of powdery mildew ... In full sun with plenty of 'air'. =(

Now I know why I don't see this plant much around here.

Cheri'

Kudzu is gorgeous.
So far I've not been able to convince Karen to give me any though. :-(

Some pesky thing like being illegal! LOL

I've got one color of bee balm.... and I think I planted it in the wrong place! I didn't realize it would or could get that big!

Melissa, it's growing all over the place down here. Didn't even know what it was when I lived up north. It's really deadly though. Kills everything in its path. The blooms are beautiful and fragrant, but very deadly....

I'd love to have some in a container, I really would!

I guess I'd probably feel the same way if someone asked me to send them multi flora rose or Osage Orange (Hedge Apple)

Kudzu=Death to anything in its path!!! No Melissa, I STILL won't send you any LOL That kudzu would not last in a container, the roots are reported to be as large as a man, so try finding a container to hold that.

The blooms make the most fantastic jelly ever, smells like a cross between a grape soda and musky flowers, hard to describe.

Bee Balm I don't have as much a problem with because some varieties are native to NC. Sure is hard to eradicate it though, kinda like mums.
Karen

We had hedge apple trees all along our driveway in OH. Messy!