How and when to fertilize Mandevilla plant
Mandevilla or as it is also known Dipladenia is a perennial vine highly sought after especially for its beautiful flowers. These flowers have a striking trumpet shape and change color depending on the species (white, red, pink). It has its origin in the tropical zone of South America, where it can grow up to 10 m in height. Specifically, in this post we will analyze everything that refers to how to use fertilizer for Mandevilla or Dipladenia, how and when to apply it, in what doses and other useful tips.
Table of Contents
1. How to care Mandevilla plant?
Like any garden plant, it needs certain care to grow healthy and strong. As from this website we want to make sure that you give the best to your Mandevilla is that we will begin this post with the most important cares that you must carry out.
There will be time in the other sections to develop everything related to the fertilization of your Dipladenia.
- Location: Being native to jungle areas, it likes to be in areas with good lighting, but without direct sunlight. If you grow it indoors, it should be well lit but at the same time not undergo sudden changes in temperature.
- Soil: although it adapts to a large number of soils, it prefers them somewhat sandy, and with good drainage. Make sure to plant it in a place with access to an item where it can climb (a tree, a pergola, etc.).
- Pruning: it will be your fundamental ally to control growth, especially if you grow it indoors where you don’t have much space. It can be done throughout the growing season (spring and summer).
- Irrigation: it always goes hand in hand with the rains if it is planted outdoors. It is good to keep the soil moist, but never cause waterlogging. If the rains are not abundant, it can be watered 3 times a week in summer. In autumn and winter, two or three monthly irrigations are enough.
- Pests: it is attacked by very common pests such as the cochineal or the red spider. They will appear in summer, so it is a time when you will have to be very attentive. If the attack is not very big, you can solve it by cleaning the leaves with water and white soap.
- Fertilization: we will analyze in depth in the following sections, but I can tell you that it is essential to fertilize your Mandevillas to help them survive the winter.
2. What do the three numbers on a fertilizer packet mean?
If you ever had to go buy a fertilizer in a nursery and you don’t have much experience, you may have been confused when choosing between one package or another. Perhaps the only notable variation that existed between one package and another was three numbers separated by a hyphen.
If you didn’t ask the seller what exactly those three numbers are, you may still have doubts. Well it’s your lucky day, here we will answer that question.
The three numbers in a fertilizer package are what are known as NPK values, and each letter represents one of the three most important micronutrients for plant development.
- N: represents nitrogen, which is the most important nutrient for leaf development, and is also the main chemical involved in photosynthesis.
- P: represents phosphorus, being responsible for the development of roots, stems, flowers and fruits in a more vigorous plant.
- K: this last letter represents potassium, nutrient responsible for giving more strength to the plant. Contributing to a better initial growth, giving greater resistance to diseases, reducing possible stress and improving the quality of the fruits.
So these NPK numbers represent the percentage of the total of each nutrient. Explaining in one example, in a 1 kg fertilizer package of a 10-5-15 mix, 10% is nitrogen (i.e. 100 g of the total), 5% is occupied by phosphorus (50 g) and the 15% potassium (150 g)
As you may have noticed, it is a fairly simple concept. With this already learned, we can continue with our article on Mandevilla plant.
If you are reading this post, you will probably be interested in learning about fertilizing these other plants.
3. Best fertilizer for Mandevilla or Dipladenia
In the jungle areas where the mandevilla is native, the soils are rich in nutrients and are constantly renewed with the organic matter that falls every day. This does not happen in your garden or in the pot where you have planted this vine. That is why it is necessary to use fertilizers for better development.
In general, the fertilizer that is best suited to dipladenias is one with a balance of nutrients. Since we have already studied what NPK values are, you can imagine that a balanced fertilizer is quel with three equal numbers. In this case, the ones that work best are 20-20-20, 15-15-15 or 12-12-12. Depending on which one you use, the dosages will vary.
On the other hand, and since flowering is a key point in this plant, we can help in this process by applying a fertilizer rich in phosphorus. In case you see that the flowering is somewhat poor, in size and / or quantity, you can use 7-9-5 or 6-10-4 fertilizers.
4. Fertilizing Mandevilla plant
We have already seen some of the most important cares, we also analyze what are the NPK values and what are the best fertilizers for a Mandevilla. Time to see how and when to fertilize.
You will see that the process is quick and easy, so it would have taken you more time to read this post than to apply the fertilizer for Mandevilla.
4.1 When to fertilize
As with most plants in your garden, they begin to wake up from winter in the early days of spring. These days the temperatures begin to rise and the days lengthen, these conditions are ideal for new shoots to begin to appear.
Early spring is the ideal time for fertilization to begin. To determine when to stop fertilizing, keep in mind that mandevilla is very susceptible to frost, new shoots will die at any temperature below zero. Knowing this, and if you know the date of the first frosts in the place where you live, you should stop fertilizing about 8 weeks before this happens.
In summary, the fertilizer for mandevilla should be applied from the first days of spring until about 8 weeks before the first frosts. It’s pretty easy to remember and is often the fertilization period for many other garden plants.
4. How to fertilize
Once you have bought the fertilizer for Dipladenias, the first thing you should do is read the instructions for use. Any good fertilizer has clear instructions for use, there you will see what dose to apply.
It is best to use balanced liquid fertilizers and apply them together with good watering, thus preventing the roots from burning due to excess nutrients. The regularity with which you should apply the fertilizers is every two weeks.
When the flowering period begins, you can replace some of the balanced fertilizer applications with one with a higher concentration of phosphorus. This can aid in better flowering. Do this in case the previous blooms have been somewhat poor.
If you want to decrease the regularity of fertilizing Mandevillas, you can replace the liquid fertilizer with a slow-release granular one. Since the nutrients last longer in the soil, you can fertilize once a month.
We are talking about fertilization so you must also know the dangers that an excess of it entails. Being able to burn the foliage, fall of the leaves and flowers, etc. Remember that when you fertilize less is more, be careful when applying any fertilizer. Better to go short on dosage than to overdo it.
5. Video about best organic fertilizer for Dipladenia Plant
As is usual in this blog, we like to end each article with a video. In this case we have taken it from the Fahmida’s Gardening channel, in it you can see everything about the best organic fertilizer for Mandevilla or Dipladenia (whatever you want to call them). You will see that it will be very useful to deepen something more on the subject.
If you are reading this post, you will probably be interested in learning about fertilizing these other plants.
With this we have already reached the end of this article, I hope it is clear how to use fertilizer for Mandevilla or Dipladenia. And well, in case you forget how to do it, you can visit our website again whenever you want. 🙂
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