Anything to do to encourage hearty plants this Spring?

[mamattorney]

I am new to Hostas. I bought around 10 plants from Chris last year to populate a slim bed surrounding our patio. I think they did fairly well, but we had a bad drought, so I don't know for sure. I used several bags of Miracle Grow soil when adding soil to the bed, but am not sure what to do about fertilizer this year. There is also a thinnish layer of mulch on the bed right now if that matters.

They are all still underground and I am hopeful that they will all come back this year. I know they are relatively care free plants, but if there's anything I should be doing, please let me know.

Also - and this is a long shot, but I thought I would mention it. My kids acquired a pair of guinea pigs over the winter and we keep them on fleece instead of regular bedding. What that means is that I have a garbage can outside that I shake out the thousands of guinea pig poops into on a twice daily basis. They are 100% vegetarian, like rabbits. I've read online that it's possible to utilize the poops as fertilizer directly (no composting) in the bed - or turn it into a "tea" my mixing 1 part poop with 2 parts water and letting it dissolve and then pouring the solution into the soil. Do you think I could use this with hostas?

[jerryshenk]

I'll be watching this thread too to see what the experts at this recommend.

[kaylyred]

I'm no expert, but my yearly ritual seems to work for me.

In early spring, before anything starts coming up, I broadcast Sluggo. (And then again about six weeks or so later.) I've never had a slug problem, and I don't want one. If the hostas had a rough season the previous year (as with last year's drought), I might give them an extra boost by broadcasting a balanced (10-10-10, or thereabout) granular fertilizer. If they seem to need a little more help as they're putting out their second flush of leaves, I have occasionally used a spray-on folliar fertilizer (in my case, a fish-based one) to give them a nudge. Generally, though, I got light on the fertilizers. I prefer compost top dressing to anything else, and I usually avoid chemical fertilizers unless I really feel I need them.

Alfalfa pellets (the kind animals like Guinea pigs eat!) are great for hostas, so I'm sure the poop would be just fine as well. My instinct says it might need to be composted for a while, but I'm not sure.

[thy]

Water, water and water
Then a layer of good compost to hold the water and fertilize the plants.
Add alfalfa - pure alfalfa if you want to give them a boost.

There is a link about alfalfa on one of the other new posts. Just look for it
Pia

[kHT]

Since ours are up under some huge pine trees, it was remove 5 inched of needles, then I tossed out some lime and some Epson salt. I will be adding Alfalfa pellets this next week as they start to grow plus treat for slugs. It really all depends on one's soil, ours is heavy clay with a thin layer of mulch. The clay is really acidy here so I'll also have to treat with borax before long.

[ViolaAnn]

If you've got white margined hostas, I wouldn't water or fertilize too early in the season as you could get some drawstring effect happening when the green centre of the leaf grows faster than the white margin. some varieties are affected worse than others, but waiting until the leaves are unfurled can help.

I will give mine an early soaking with ammonia-water 1:10 to help reduce slugs. And I'm also planning to water with a weak Hydrogen peroxide mixture to help reduce (I hope) foliar nematodes. Later in the summer is when I tend to use alfalfa tea.

[kHT]

Ann, the white margined hostas here are unfurled already, these are early openers out here.

[ViolaAnn]

Lucky you, having them open already. I hope not to see mine poking up at all for a few weeks. If they come up earlier than that, the risk of frost damage is too great.

[Aud]

Not an expert. But my ritual is......Spread epsom salt, unused coffee grounds, miracle gro acidic fert. Because it is our rainy season I just spread these things dry through the garden. Top all that off with leaf mold that I gathered from last fall.