Dear Sir
Rose being a perennial crop, it requires regular nutrient feeding through manures and fertilizers at the time of pruning, plant growth and at the end of flowering, besides during land preparation and planting of new bushes. The clay and sandy soils require more manures than the loam soil. The nutritional requirement of rose plants vary with the type and fertility of soil, cultivar and age, size and vigour of plant.
Farmyard manure, compost and cowdung manure are commonly used manures and are applied before planting new bushes and at the time of pruning. After pruning, the soil in the bed is dug up with a fork with due care to avoid any damage to the roots. About 8–10kg or 6–8kg of well-rotten cowdung manure should be applied to each plant depending upon its age and size, and type of soil followed by copious watering of plants.
Oil cakes, preferably neem cake or castor cake @ 50g/plant or 15kg/ 100m2 is applied at the end of the first flush of flowering. Poultry manure or sheep/goat droppings, can be applied @ of one litre/plant. The oil cakes are quick acting organic manures, as their N becomes available to plants within a week of their incorporation in the soil. Farmyard manure or cowdung manure may be used if oil cake is not available.
Though it is not possible to follow any common fertilizer mixture in all regions, there are some fertilizer combinations suitable for many areas. A few fertilizer mixtures are commercially available in the market. However, fertilizer mixture having 1 part of urea, 3 parts of superphosphate and 2 parts of potassium sulphate is ideal. About 40g of this mixture may be applied as topdressing to each plant 3 times at 15 days intervals after pruning. The fertilizer mixture should not be stored for a long time. It is better to prepare it at the time of application. A topdressing of the fertilizer mixture may be given again in January–February after the end of the first flush of flowering in northern plains, similarly in other milder areas fertilizer application may be practised after each flush of flowering.
Fertilizers can also be applied through foliar spraying. It is quite effective in roses. About a month after pruning, foliar spraying may be taken up and repeated at 7–10 days intervals. It should be stopped when the flower buds start opening. It must not be done in hot weather. A foliar spraying of urea (1.25g) and potassium dihydrogen phosphate (1.25g) mixed in one litre of water is recommended for roses. To add a spreader like surf or any other detergent soap is obvious. Foliar application of urea alone (0.2–0.3%) in water is also useful. It can be applied mixed along with an insecticide like Malathion or Rogor.
Foliar application of micronutrients, eg. iron, magnesium and manganese corrects the deficiency of these elements. The spray solutions may be prepared by adding ferrous sulphate (2g) and slaked lime (1g) in one litre of water, magnesium sulphate (2–3g) in one litre of water and manganese sulphate (2g) and slaked lime (1g) in one litre of water. These foliar solutions may be sprayed separately for correcting deficiencies of iron, magnesium and manganese. A mixture of manganese sulphate (15g), magnesium sulphate (20g), chelated iron (10g) and borax (5g) added to 25 litres of water (concentration 2g/litre) is also effective.
