One of the most important aspects of growing a hanging basket is proper fertilization.
They need to be fed regularly,
so here is what we recommend …
Frequent light fertilization is much better than a weekly or bi weekly big dose.
Water soluble fertilizers work great on baskets but generally the instructions call for a large dose every week or two.
When you fertilize once every week or two the additional water you apply on almost a daily basis will start leaching all of the fertilizer out of the soil leading to hungry plants.
Example of nutrient starved hanging basket petunias.
By cutting down the rate, you can keep a light amount of fertilizer in the soil for the plants to take up.
Generally the rate we recommend for constant feeding is 1 teaspoon per gallon of water.
Be sure to water the basket until water is coming out of the drain hole at the bottom of the basket.
In our retail section, we fertilize our baskets every day using the above rate and once a week use clear water to give them a quick flush and then start again with the constant feed.
Another option is to add the fertilizer “Osmocote” to the basket. Osmocote is a time release fertilizer that is a coated pellet that releases just a small amount with each watering.