Lavender seedlings keep dying1/23/2024 ![]() ![]() It does not tolerate shade and will throw a fit when it doesn’t get at least 6-8 hours of direct sunshine per day. All plants need sunshine to photosynthesize, but this shrub is especially picky about its light requirements. Lavender’s Mediterranean home is known for the heat and bright sunshine. Not Enough Sunlight Make sure to plant in a location with plenty of sunlight. Depending on your climate, spring is usually the best time to transplant seedlings and they may send up some flowers by summer. Patience is a virtue! Check your calendar to see when you planted. However, this initial flowering may not be as abundant as the second and third-year displays. Yes, many varieties can bloom in the first year. Most varieties take 1 to 3 years to fully mature. If newly planted from cuttings or even from seeds, it has to get firmly rooted and established in its new home. Just like humans, lavender has to reach a mature phase before it can reproduce. Some gardeners panic about the absence of flowers without realizing that their plants are just too young to bloom. The Plant is Too Young Lavender takes 1 to 3 years to mature and start flowering. Focus on the perimeter of the root zone and be sure you don’t disrupt the root ball. You can also dilute the fertility by adding sand or peat moss into the soil. You can do this by mixing in a small amount of bone meal, blood meal, or kelp into the soil at the base. If you already fertilized, you will need to adjust the ratio of nitrogen to potassium and other minerals to promote flowering. If you recently transplanted lavender or are growing it in a pot, the only form of nutrients it should receive is a little bit of aged compost with low nitrate content. Avoid synthetic fertilizers and manure at all costs. We recommend not adding any fertilizer to your lavender beds at all. A flush of synthetic nitrogen can even cause weakened stems, infestations of sap-sucking pests like aphids, or death of the plant. If it does send up flowers, they are often low-fragrance due to too much nitrate availability. The loamy, fertile soils of some gardens can actually send the plant into leaf growth “overdrive” and prevent it from blooming. This adaptation has led the plant to prefer nutrient-poor soil that is gravelly or sandy in nature. Lavender is native to the Mediterranean where it grows wild on gravelly exposed slopes with very little soil fertility. The result is leggy, elongated stem growth with an abundance of leaves and little to no flowers. In particular, too much nitrogen promotes an excessive amount of foliage growth. Too much fertilizer can be detrimental to the plant’s flowering cycle. ![]() This perennial herb actually thrives without added fertilizer. When it comes to fertility, lavender is almost the opposite of most garden plants. Too Much Nitrogen Avoid over-fertilization as too much nitrogen encourages foliage overgrowth. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |