Gardening for Dummies....

Ohhhh Wrightie!!! Would you please post your recipe for Alfafa brew and remind me what plants like the stuff?

To anyone who can answer...I use the Holly Tone on my Gardenias - apparently good for all acid loving plants. So can someone tell me names of other "acid loving plants" - I'm not sure what else to put it on...duh, I know but well - YOU are my gurus...so I'm asking you. LOL ^_^

Azaleas, rhododendrons, hollies. A lot of the woodland plants are acid lovers. But do you need it? I think most of northern Virginia has pretty acid soil. The Epoma fertilizers are so gentle, though, I don't think it would hurt anything.

Maybe more to the point is what NOT to use holly-tone on. All I can think of off-hand is Helleborus and Clematis.

Gardenias too.

I thought Clematis, like Lilac, appreciated sweet soil and gave mine a bit of lime...uh oh.

Just to be clear, I think Helleborus like lime / pH > 7, not acid soils. And I add lime to my Clematis to make their spot neutral pH (hopefully).

Garden books used to tell you clematis needed an alkaline soil but they really don't absolutely have to have that. I don't know how well they do in very acid soil but somewhat acid to somewhere in the alkaline range should be fine.

Hollytone includes garden sulphur, which will raise the ph of your soil. It's what I use to keep my lone azalea alive here. But I don't think it would hurt any of your plants unless they're real acid soil haters and your soil is already acid. All of the Espoma fertilizers are pretty gentle.

I agree -- Wrightie, can you remind me about alfalfa tea? And what about compost tea? Are these functionally interchangeable?