I have a number of seedlings that were germinated and grown in seed raising mix in boxes that were not fertilised (to avoid fertilizing emerging plants).
They did poorly and though some bloomed there was not one that had any intensity in colour.
I eventually potted everything up and started to fertilize and since then around 80% have had strong colour (in contrast to their earlier efforts)
I realize this is only my impression but am interested to know if anyone else thinks that seedling colour is distorted by lack of nutrition.
Russ.
Yes, nutrition does affect bloom color–as you have discovered. Inadequate nitrogen will leave the color rather dull.
Lighting will also affect the color–sometimes the color that develops in sunlight is not the same as the color under lights. Under sunlight the color is usually more intense.
I thought that potash would be the likely cause and have since raised the K levels in my liquid fert which could be risky.
I am surprised that you name nitrogen as the main factor as I thought it was mainly involved in leaf and soft growth
Russ
All nutrients are needed for best results. Soils are less likely to be deficient in K than N. Usually P is present but sometimes not available if tied up with metals. If you were growing in a soilless mix early on, you may have had several deficiencies. Often iron is limiting, sometimes magnesium which is why epsom salts are used to induce bottom breaks in HTs.
Russ, if you’ve seen other signs of potassium deficiency, maybe that deficiency is a problem. But nitrogen deficiency is much more common, especially in soilless potting mixes. Under those conditions you may well have other deficiencies too. It’s best to maintain a regular schedule of feeding with very dilute complete fertilizers when you’re using soilless media since those contain almost no nutrients except what you add. Most of them have only about enough nutrients in them for 3-4 weeks (and that may be stretching it somewhat).
Also, I’d read somewhere that nitrogen deficiency would cause flowers to be smaller and less brightly colored, so that is another reason I responded as I did. Typically you’ll also see other signs of a nitrogen deficiency, such as slower growth, smaller leaves, etc.
Rosecare.com, the Texas A&M horticulture site (aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu), and other reference sites discuss nutritional deficiencies in plants.
Not only will it affect bloom color but also saturation and substance will be largely affected by nutrition. Cell h20 levels equally affect these traits.
Russ, you did really well just to get those plants to enough maturity to bloom, if you were using a soil less medium. I have noticed that in high fertility (organic) soil, the seeds emerge pretty well even with somewhat high levels of nutrients. This past year I applied a slow release(Dynamite time release with micro-nutrients) which worked really well since it only releases a limited amount of nutrients, rather than dumping all those salts at once, and over a much longer time. This worked well for me, since I have always waited too long between fertilizing-not good for the general health of the plant. And I did not have to ‘fret’ about over or under feeding. The stuff is supposed to last 9 Months, but it didn’t, probably a result of all that watering in small pots. Some of this is a steep learning curve, but if you try enough variations, more than one path gets you there.