It sounds as if you're saying you use a liquid feed for all the plants in your garden in the ground, is that the case? Rather than just using the liquid feed for plants in pots?

If you are saying you use it all over the garden, what plants are you growing? The only plants that need feeding on a regular basis are things like summer bedding in pots - the rest of the garden will do perfectly well with something like Growmore granules raked into the top inch of soil in April, with maybe a second application 6 weeks later, although most permanent plantings like shrubs and perennials don't even need that second dose unless you have light, sandy soil and/or lots of frequent rain.

An even better option would be to apply a 1-2 inch layer of composted material to the soil every spring (your own garden compost or composted manure or soil conditioning compost from the garden centre) then, other than plants with particular needs which might need something special, no fertilizer at all would really be necessary.

Cut down your Delphiniums and Foxgloves only once the greenery has dried up & turned brown/yellow. Hold off on fertilizer now as your garden is winding down and goes dormant. Just let it rest now. Reconsider the idea of fertilizer in the spring and if you really need it.

There are many better options available than 'Miracle Grow', including nothing at all. That stuff is junk - it breaks down too quickly and turns to salt. Better to go organic like composting those fallen leaves you have to rake up & grass clippings. Mulch them and add them back to the planting beds. Now you talking! Don't waste money on MiracleGrow or drag around heavy bags of fertilizer.

Sound advice - but in honesty I have to add that when my daffodils stopped flowering well I did spray the whole bank with it just once and it did the trick -they have been fine since. There was no alternative as the bank is too steep for me to safely climb. Circumstances sometimes alter cases. I've also used it as an emergency boost when things in poor soil needed help - not always possible to make enough compost for everywhere every year!

If you do want to use a potash feed you might try using sulphate of potash which you buy as a white powder. I know its soluble so it might be useful in a spray hose but you'd have to experiment. But you can also sprinkle it dry round anything you feel needs it. I feed my gooseberries like that every February and the rain washed it in. But if your plants are ornamentals that are flowering well there's no need.
Bamboo's advice is always right...

My advice was for general garden care; not how to trick your daffodils into blooming because you can't climb the hill. There are many reasons why daffodils fail to bloom, Lack of MiracleGrow isn't one of them. Also Stera, your very last sentence above is a misnomer. It's just plain inaccurate and unrealistic. I've been on this site for a while now.

Gordon bennet! desite quantum theory telling me there are alternate dimensions, I didn't think some of us were in one and the rest in another, but the last comment has made me laugh out loud though, so thanks for that;-)) Summat's been 'lost in translation' somewhere in this thread, that's for sure...

If you want to give more info for more tailored advice on fertilizing, Valatwell, please ask... and I see I did not answer the part about the delphiniums and foxlgoves - if you haven't cut out the flowered stems yet, do so, but you can leave the rest to die back on their own if you like, or just cut the lot down now. Dont cut back the basal leaves of Foxgloves though - if they're going to flower again next year, those will be present all over winter and next year.

Thank you all for your very good advice. Obviously I will not be feeding any plants until next spring, I only asked about alternative feed to MiracleGro because I had just asked the question regarding my very bushy Penstemon that didn't flower well, and it was because of the feed I had been using. I will know better for next year. The sort of plants in the borders and raised beds that I feed are day lilies, penstemon, phlox, roses (I use rose food and rose clear) hibiscus, delphiniums, foxgloves, large daisy varieties, gyp, hydrangeas (ericaceous feed) campanulas, japanese anemone, peonies, verbena bonariensis, poppies, and a few other varieties of dahlia and cottage garden plants. Would you all say that none of them need feeding on a regular basis through the summer.

Lol Bathgate. I never thought of feeding plants as tricking them into flowering! It worked anyway. I rarely feed perennials but I do value my daffodil bank

Roses benefit from a specialist rose food such as Toprose twice year (April and 6 weeks later usually), though they'll grow and flower okay with nothing at all, so what you're doing with those already is fine. All the others will be fine with just a bit of Growmore in spring (including the hydrangea) and a mulch as a bonus, but if your hydrangea is blue, and that's why you're using ericaceous feed, use sequestrene iron tonic instead if it starts to turn pinkish - its not a feed, just an acidifier. It does need mixing up in a can though, but not into a large amount of water.

Stera - I always had to flush out my plants because of salt build up - that white crusty stuff you sometimes see around the outside of the flower pot. It's a miracle I didn't lose any of them. I bet your daffodil bank is spectacular! lol

Yes the daffs bank is spectacular in March - bit of a mess the rest of the year as its too steep even for OH to strim more than once a year. Pity it faces the road so we have to make an effort to see it!

No need to worry about the efflorescence hurting the plants. It doesn't. It only appears on pots that were fired at the lower temperatures and you can see the same effect on some brickwork . If it does include any of the salts from the compost they will only be from the normal plant foods in the compost or from the water. None of them are harmful to the plants and there is no need to refrain from feeding them. I did a long translation about it once for the heavy clay division of the RA where I worked, but sadly have forgotten most of what I learned from it. I hope this puts your mind at rest!

White crusty stuff round plastic pots is limescale in the UK, also sometimes on the inside rim of terracotta/metal containers, not salts as such, but,Steragram,the water's different in the States, they use different chemicals, most notably chloramine instead of chlorine and other stuff that we don't use here, so salts build up might be an issue in some areas over there, more because of the tapwater than anything else. Plus I've become aware from another site I belong to that Americans use far more fertilizers on a frequent basis than we do here.

...plus cheap fertilizer like Miracle Grow converts to salt.

Americans use a lot of fertilizer because we grow more food than you do and we have to feed the world. I've been to the UK and believe me, your food isn't anything id ever want to eat again. You have an obsession with butter and fat...and the water is awful. New York has the best water in the world. It comes down from the Catskill Mountains. The water is state regulated. Please get your facts straight before tooting your horn...again!

That possibly explains it then. I've never had a problem with Miracle Grow here. Maybe the consituents are different in the US.

That wasn't for you Stera...happy gardening!

Hmmm..... someone needs to read 'How to Make Friends and Influence People'. Or Aesop's The North Wind and the Sun... no prizes for guessing who... and people who don't like the food and water in the UK don't have to come back either.

Different strokes for different folks.

Thank you Thorneyside. Let it go...

Sorry Bath, i can't unread it again at this stage....

LOL!

I'm extremely curious as to what is meant by Miracle Gro turning to 'salts', a statement made more than once in this thread. I think we'd all like a detailed explanation as to precisely what that means, because as far as I know, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Miracle Gro - this business of it 'turning to salts' needs clarification - does it mean 'salts' as a term used by chemists, or does it mean 'salt' as in sodium chloride?

I was going to bow out from this one but for my own interest I looked up the following link so will share it as it might help to clarify matters.

http://www.gardenmyths.com/salts-dont-kill-plants-or-microbes/

Brilliant Steragram, thanks, an interesting and informative read - so MIracle Gro is just fine, along with other fertilizers, because the term 'salt' for fertilizer does not refer to sodium chloride or ordinary salt, so any 'salts' are therefore not harmful.

Not that a 'salt' issue was why you were originally advised it wasn't the right fertilizer Valatwell, that was to do with its high nitrogen/low potash content and reduced flowering.

WOW, I wasn't expecting all this controversy but one thing is sure, and only because of the high nitrogen content and low potash, I won't be using Miracle Grow again, even though it makes life so much easier for myself. I'll go the Growmore route next year, with my usual twice yearly Toprose and ericaceous for my pots of rhodies. Thank you all.

No one likes the controversy, Valatwell - but at least you got the advice you needed,and I got to read an absolutely fascinating article and learn something I've often wondered about!

Val - I'm not interested in controversy. I was only trying to give you information based on my own experience & research. I wasn't expecting the blowback I've gotten from certain members on this site or I should read certain books and the misnomers (what arrogance).

I have loads of friends on this site which is obvious from looking at my blogs & posting which you are free to do so.

I've also read many interesting articles of the harmful effects of synthetic fertilizers on the environment and human health which other members conveniently omit in a very nice way. Such as:

Synthetic fertilizers kill beneficial microorganisms in the soil that convert dead human and plant remains into nutrient-rich organic matter. Nitrogen- and phosphate-based synthetic fertilizers leach into groundwater and increase its toxicity, causing water pollution.

and,

These harmful nitrites react with the hemoglobin in the blood stream to cause methaeglobinaemia, which damages the vascular and respiratory systems, causing suffocation and even death in extreme cases (when blood methaemoglobin level is 80 percent or more).

You can read the article for yourself.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/effects-synthetic-fertilizers-45466.html