Fertilizing Hybrid Tea Roses Up Until Frost

Tom in Massillon asks, “My hybrid tea roses aren’t doing well, and aren’t blooming well this year. Would it help to put the Jack’s Bloom Booster on every couple days instead of once a week?”

You can definitely do that. We are starting to slow down a little bit, so they will be starting to go dormant. For sure you can do that until frost.

Once we have that first 38, well, it won’t be the first 38-degree night because the ground is going to radiate some heat. But eventually we’re going to get cold and we’re going to have a frost that sets in on the grass. When you see that, do not fertilize.

You don’t want to push new growth, because the plant is getting ready to naturally go dormant. But up until that point, and we don’t know, I mean, that could be November. It could be next week or the week after. We don’t know. So it’s okay to use that type of fertilizer because it only lasts for about five days. So you can definitely hit it twice a week.

Would that help to do it more often? Yes, roses are heavy feeders. They’re like my lab, he’s always hungry. They use a lot of phosphorus. That would definitely help.

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