Many large flowers of bright colors against the background of lush greenery, climbing the fences, descending from the balconies, climbing the trellises and supports - this is how clematis bushes look at the height of flowering. They relate to those ornamental plants that landscape art professionals are happy to use in their art, and amateur gardeners to decorate a personal plot.
How to feed clematis
The abundance of flowering and fruiting of a plant of any variety depends on how much nutrition it receives from the soil and air. In green organisms, the vital processes of generative organs (flowers, fruits) are provided by powerful roots that can penetrate deep into the soil and take moisture and necessary substances from there. They actively absorb water in which ions of mineral salts are dissolved, products of the vital processes of soil microorganisms, substances entering the soil during the decomposition of organic residues.
Curly Clematis on an Arch
The roots of clematis (Clématis), in Russia more commonly known as clematis, do not penetrate deeper than 1 m into the soil, the radius of the root zone also does not exceed 100 cm. In this volume, even the most fertile soil is not enough to obtain a natural amount of macro- and trace elements to feed a richly flowering plant. Therefore, in order for the clematis bushes to receive the required number of batteries and water, flower growers are forced to regularly feed the clematis.
Wild clematis flowers
Organic Fertilizer Application
Vines of some clematis can rise above the ground to a level of 5-8 m. But most varieties have stems 2-4 m long. Many varieties of clematis form numerous shoots. Timely dressing of clematis allows plants to show all their varietal characteristics and provides dense shoots and many inflorescences, which can be small-flowered - up to 8 cm in diameter, and large-flowered (Ø 8-25 cm).
For gardeners who use organic fertilizers, the question of why clematis does not grow does not exist. The stimulating effect of plant and animal residues, which, when decomposed, are separated into minerals, allows plants to form new shoots, increase leaf mass, and lay a large number of flower buds. A large selection of organic substances, which include manure, compost, ash, peat, humus, bird droppings, makes you think about how to feed clematis.
Important! Perennial clematis prefer a slightly alkaline soil with an acidity index of pH 7.5-8.
Natural substances that increase the acidity of the soil are not suitable for use in nutritional formulations. Ash refers to fertilizers that do not increase the acidity of the soil. Its aqueous solution is suitable when it is not clear what to do, when clematis grows poorly.
Clematis perennial large-flowered
Use a 1 liter jar of dry wood ash, pour the powder with boiling water, insist for a day, filter. The drained liquid is diluted in 2 buckets of standing water. Watered around the roots at a distance of 30 cm from the central stem. The larger and older the plant, the greater the amount of solution to be used. Under one young plant, they pour about a glass of diluted fertilizer.
Ash contains a small amount of nitrogen. Therefore, if top dressing is carried out after determining why the clematis has pale green leaves and conclude that the main reason is the lack of macrocells, which include nitrogen, then fermented herbal infusions are used as fertilizer.
Terry Clematis Flowering
Classic recipes for this fertilizer include weed, lawn grass, and dry foliage. They are placed in a barrel at 1/3 of its height, a little rotten manure is added, 2/3 of the water is poured. After 2 weeks, after a sharp characteristic odor appears, liquid fertilizer is used as intended: the concentrate is additionally diluted in water in a proportion of 1:10.
Important! All liquid fertilizer solutions are applied after the main watering of the root zone of the flowers with clean water.
Yeast Clematis
A feature of Clématis (which most beginner growers are very concerned about) is their weak budding in the first three years after planting a seedling in a permanent place in the garden. When wondering why clematis does not bloom, many do not take into account the fact that in the first years all the forces of the plant go to rooting, growing additional roots and forming the ground part of the bushes. Clematis may not bloom at all unless the plants add strength.
Yeast top dressing can help bloom young bushes. Yeast is not only a source of trace elements, vitamins and beneficial microflora, but also a root stimulant. Fertilizing with yeast can lead to lush flowering of plants of any age and prevent early wilting of the green parts of clematis.
Clematis small-flowered
Yeast is used as top dressing for spraying on the sheet 2-3 times during the spring-summer season. The first foliar top dressing is carried out before the start of budding. The solution is prepared from 100 g of live yeast, which is dissolved in 1 liter of warm water. Insist for 5-6 hours. Add another 14 liters of clean water, filter and spray the stems and leaves.
Note! Yeast can be used to root cuttings. To do this, they are kept in a yeast solution for a day.
Mineral Feeding
Inorganic mineral fertilizers are used at all stages of plant care. Nitrogen is used in May, at the beginning of the growing season - with the growth of stems and leaves. They are also needed during the period when clematis are planted in the open ground in spring. Due to the fact that these flowers require alkaline soils, it is necessary to feed them with the nitrate form of nitrogen fertilizers, which are alkaline in nature. These include sodium and calcium nitrate.
Phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are used in early summer, at the budding stage and in summer, during flowering and the formation of fruit bolls. But these elements acidify the soil, so after their application, plants can begin to wither, turn yellow. Plant physiology requires these macronutrients to fall into them. It is impossible to stop using the entire complex of dressings.
In the case of a lack of phosphorus and potassium, pedicels blacken, the buds do not open. The way out is liming the soil in the flower beds.
Clematis nutrition in spring with milk of lime
To reduce the acidity of the soil, a lime solution is prepared: 200 g of chalk or lime is dissolved in a bucket of water. Dolomite flour may be used. Such an amount of milk of lime is necessary for processing 1 m2 of flower garden. Work is carried out in the spring, after removing shelters from plants and carrying out the first organic top dressing. Usually for normal flowering of young clematis it is enough to liming 1 time in 2 years.
Note! As the bushes grow and fertilizer grows, spring liming is carried out every year.
Clematis dressing with ammonia
This method of feeding is unproductive, because during the use of ammonia the rapid weathering of the nitrogen component of the substance occurs. Although some gardeners argue that 1 tablespoon of pharmaceutical ammonia, diluted in 10 liters of water, will help flower bushes grow many stems and leaves.
What external signs may indicate that clematis lacks fertilizer
The causes of changes in the appearance of flowers, stems, leaves, short flowering times, poor bud setting, flower stalks falling are diseases, plant pests and lack of nutrients. The last factor reduces the resistance of clematis bushes to pathogens, slows down the growth of vegetative organs, and reduces the generative capabilities of plants.
Signs of a lack of certain components:
- The lack of potassium is indicated by the browned edges of the deciduous plates, the pale color of the petals, the blackening of the pedicels, and the buds are falling.
- Weak development of the vegetative organs, the curvature of the stems indicates a lack of calcium.
- Pale yellow stems and leaves - about a lack of nitrogen.
- A yellow mosaic pattern on green leaves indicates a deficiency of magnesium.
- Necrotic dark brown spots on the stems and leaves emphasize that the plant needs boron.
- Reddish-pink leaf veins are a sign of a lack of phosphorus.
Pink veins on leaves indicate a lack of phosphorus in the soil
Why clematis does not bloom
The splendor of their flowering largely depends on the proper care of clematis. Gardeners arranging flower beds from clematis in their gardens must take into account the variety and the crop group to which the plant belongs. Varieties that need to be cut every year without this procedure will not be able to grow young shoots. And it is on them that these plants tie flower buds.
There are species of clematis that are not pruned for the winter. They go into hibernation with those stems that have grown over the summer. In the spring on these bushes, selective cutting of damaged or unnecessary stems is carried out. And the flowers will bloom on the shoots of last year. Then young shoots will appear, in the second half of summer they will also bloom. The ability to form buds in these plants largely depends on the conditions in which they spend the cold season.
Additional Information! In the southern regions, shelter of frost-resistant plants is not carried out. In the suburbs, all types of clematis are thoroughly insulated for the winter.
Rules for Correct Clematis Trimming
Pruning is carried out during the entire period of plant development. Such care for clematis in the summer makes it possible to control the growth of bushes, the formation of shoots and, as a result, budding and flowering. All young bushes, regardless of variety, are pruned in the first spring after the first wintering of the bush in the open ground - this is necessary to strengthen the strength of the plant.
Clematis early flowering, which produce buds in spring on last year's shoots, is cut off after flowering in June, the stems are reduced by a third of their length. Very thick bushes are thinned out - some of the oldest stems are completely removed.
Lomonos blooming twice a year (in early summer and autumn) are completely cut off selectively - only weak, drying shoots. The remaining branches are shortened. Slices are made over the nearest axillary kidney.
Clematis, blooming all summer, pruned significantly - leave the old lower branches up to 50 cm tall, young stems should be no higher than 20 cm. Bushes growing near the supports keep stems up to 10 cm high.
Clematis pruning
Why does clematis have pale green leaves
Pale color of clematis leaves is observed in some plant varieties. But this will become known to the grower immediately during the acquisition of planting material. But the change in the color of leaves in the second and next years of plant life speaks of changes that have occurred in the soil. It began to lack the trace elements responsible for the formation of chlorophyll in the leaves.
Important! Most often, pale leaves indicate a lack of iron.
It is possible to determine exactly which elements are missing only after conducting laboratory tests. In any case, it is necessary to fertilize with universal fertilizers for flowering plants or use iron in a chelated form.
Pale leaves are a sign of iron deficiency
Clematis grows poorly: what to do
Just planting a beautiful flowering bush in your garden - this is sometimes enough to take root, form several shoots and release a couple of buds. Without proper care: watering, fertilizing, cutting, loosening and mulching the soil, shelter for the winter - the plant will stop its growth, or even die.
Additional Information! The basis for the active growth of clematis will be the right planting site and soil quality. The balanced composition of the soil around the roots of clematis will give it strength for growth, and the bush will decorate the place chosen for it by the gardener.
When to start fertilizing clematis
After planting a seedling in alkaline soil, into which all the elements necessary for rooting and further development were introduced, the plants do not feed the entire first year of life. If these conditions were not met, then top dressing is carried out in the fall, when preparing the bushes for wintering. Ash and rotted compost are used, which are mixed and laid out on the surface of the soil around the bush. Sprinkle with a thin layer of sand or turf soil.
Blooming Clematis Vines
Further, clematis is fed at least 4 times during spring-summer-autumn at all stages of plant development. Spring fertilizing will ensure the growth of new shoots, summer - will accelerate the formation of buds and lush flowering. Autumn will help the bushes to prepare for wintering, and then successfully wake up in the spring with the onset of heat.
Clematis fertilizers in spring and summer
Spring top dressing should provide the plant with nitrogen in nitrate form. The roots of clematis must assimilate it, so they use mineral fertilizers of the appropriate formulas. If it is impossible to use them, they turn to organics - bird droppings or manure. These substances are used with caution so as not to acidify the soil, not to burn out the roots of flowers, to prevent the plant from drying out.
Summer top dressing consists in the introduction of potassium and phosphorus into the soil. There is no need to ask a question how to feed clematis in June, but to use potassium sulfate and superphosphate. Before applying these formulations, soil pH is measured. At high acidity, alkalization of the soil is carried out using liming.
Foliar spring top dressing
Foliar top dressing is carried out against the background of abundant preliminary watering of plants in the root zone. Plants are sprayed with devices with fine dispersion of water. Humidification should take place either early in the morning or in the evening in calm weather. The compositions that are used for sheet treatments are prepared on the basis of spring, rain or settled water.
Additional Information! In spring, plants need nitrogen and calcium. Calcium nitrate can adequately provide plants with these substances.
Clematis fertilizer in June for lush and plentiful flowering
All the owners of these plants look forward to the summer flowering of clematis. It was at this time that the clematis show themselves from the best side, forming many inflorescences. At the same time, the roots of luxurious bushes carry a huge amount of nutrients from the soil. And if in the spring a limited amount of mineral substances was introduced into the soil, then in June, the owners will wonder why clematis does not bloom and think what to do.
June dressing consists in the use of complex mineral fertilizers, which include nitrogen, and potassium, and phosphorus. In addition to these elements, plants need boron, molybdenum, iron, manganese, and sulfur. Indeed, at this time, the deciduous part of plants continues to grow and at the same time inflorescences are formed.
Manufacturers of modern fertilizers took into account all these nuances and now special formulations of BIOHYPER EXTRA “For Clematis” (Biohiper Extra) ТМ “AGRO-X”, fertilizer for clematis Agrecol have been created. These drugs are used not only to increase the timing and abundance of flowering, but also protect plants from pests and diseases.
Lush flowering clematis
Are fertilizers needed for clematis, which is planting in a new place
A new place for the central root of a seedling will become a habitat for many years. But very soon, under normal conditions of development, the side shoots will give growth, the root zone of the bush will expand. The shoots will be transplanted to a new place, which should have the same soil composition as the parent plant. Therefore, when planting plants in a new place, all substances that will give impetus to the development of plants are necessarily introduced into the planting pit.
Fertilizing clematis - this means responsibly caring for green living organisms that live next to people. Indeed, without air, water and nutrition, neither a person nor a plant can survive.
