Organic Fertilizer for African Violets inside....

Could anyone recommend a good food to feed my little African Violet. I found it for 99 cents, and don't know how to feed it. Is a basic organic food sufficient?

Thank you,

Mel

hiya TxMel,

This is a difficult one in that many organic fertilizers have an inherent 'odor..lol' yet there are some vegetable based meals that might be worth an experiment or two on your less precious plants. Cottonseed meal, Soybean meal and Alfalfa meal come to mind. But use with caution and only very small amounts. I would think that a blend of these would provide a fairly balanced diet and after calculating the N-P-K of these three ingredients, the analysis of said blend would be around 6%N, 2.5%P, 1.3%K with good trace minerals except for Iron and Zinc unless the Alfalfa was grown on good soil. Small amounts of Kelp meal could be added to increase K if the genus Saintpaulia requires more potassium. I would suggest that a quarter tsp of the blended meals would be sufficient nutrition for a plant in a 4 inch pot. But what I would suggest is that you experiment with different application rates. All of these materials are available at feed stores or local nurseries with a conscience. I'd be very interested in hearing about your results in that there are few if any organic house plant foods out there and you could have a small cottage industry on your hands.

There is a pretty decent book that is easy to read that details a lot of organic fertilizer materials individually.

Here is a link to the book. I have a copy and it is so abused from use.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1561707163/qid=1117638166/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-0084804-4830544?v=glance&s=books

Thank you. In the mean time, I have been watering with my Maxicrop solution in water. No mess, no smell. I will report should blooms reappear. I know that my indoor plants are happy with it, and the pond water that I supplement with. Thanks for the input.

melanie