Can You Use Rose Food On Other Plants? 

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Last Updated on July 30, 2022 by Griselda M.

Can you use rose food on other plants like vegetables, flowers, and other plants or can you only use it on rose plants?

What Is Rose Food?

Rose food is just a specially formulated fertilizer for roses. There is nothing particularly special about it, it just caters to the nutritional needs of a rose plant. Because a lot of people grow roses, various companies formulate fertilizers specifically for this market segment.

If we look at fertilizers we get the ones that provide NPK – Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (Latin for Potassium os Kalium so its symbol is K because😀science). Typically with such a fertilizer, we then look at the NPK value, which will be given as something like 2:3:3 – this means 2% Nitrogen, 3% Phosphorous, and 3% Potassium. The rest of the fertilizer you buy tends to be a carrier material. 

Then you get micronutrient solutions – these provide all the other micronutrients that a plant needs such as Iron (Fe), Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), and many more.

There are a lot of companies that have realized they can put something in a bottle and call it “Rose Food” and it will sell. You tend to find there are “chemical” fertilizers – mixtures of pure chemicals that provide NPK and then you get “organic” chemicals that consist of “natural” sources of NPK. Hence a chemical fertilizer may contain Diammonium (N) phosphate (P) and Potassium chloride (K).

A natural or organic fertilizer may contain bone meal (N and P mainly) and Pot Ash (Potassium get it) for K. When you burn wood, one of the main residues in the white ash that is left is Potassium. I have a wood stove and many wood fires and these are vital to the provision of my natural Potassium for my garden.

So can you use rose food on other plants?

Can You Use Rose Food On Other Plants?

Yes, you can use Rose food on other plants. The rose food does well in the greenhouse and also the garden. It is very good for growing cut flowers such as roses, carnations, iris, dahlias, and others. It is also good for growing vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and others.

You can also use rose food to grow herbs such as mint, basil, thyme, and others. Follow the dosing instructions on the box or bottle and your plants should survive. If you overdose on fertilizers you will kill your plants.  Rose food is very beneficial to all types of plants. It helps to keep your plants healthy and gives them a better look. In addition to that, it can help in controlling pests such as aphids and other insects. The main thing to keep in mind is that you are buying a “premium” fertilizer. You could probably get the same results with a “vegetable” fertilizer that will be cheaper.

How To Use Rose Food On Other Plants?

There are so many different “rose food” formulations that it is rather hard to give general advice. Just use the fertilizer as per the instructions on the container.

Make sure that the soil is moist.  Do not over fertilize – many rose food formulations can be quite strong. If we look at a mixture such as this it appears to be a 6:7:6 ratio, whereas this one that is from natural sources is a 4:8:4 fertilizer. You can see that the percentages of the various components vary greatly – but if the Nitrogen number is high, you can burn your plants easily of you add too much fertilizer.

Benefits Of Using Rose Food On Plants

• Rose foods are just fertilizers. As with any fertilizer it improves plant growth, root development, resistance to diseases, and increases the yield. I prefer natural feeds, as these build the soil. Natural rose foods will help here.
• It helps to increase the fruit size and also increases the yield for certain plants. I have used it on tomatoes.
• It helps to produce healthy and strong plants, also it helps to improve the taste of fruits in some cases.
• It helps to improve the quality and quantity of the fruit.

In Summary – Can You Use Rose Food On Other Plants?

Can you use rose food on other plants?  Rose food is just a specially formulated and marketed fertilizer. If you are adding a 4:8:4 rose food fertilizer, you could also add a 4:8:4 “vegetable” fertilizer and probably pay half the price. Generally, if a fertilizer is formulated for use on food crops there will probably be some testing that is important for heavy metal contamination, and the result is that, a “vegetable” fertilizer probably exposes you to less risk.

With any fertilizer, including rose food, be careful to not add too much – follow the instructions – too much fertilizer will turn your plant bright yellow, its leaves will fall off and it can die. I have done this. It is embarrassing.

Generally, plants require a good amount of nutrients, and when provided with the right ones they thrive.  The rose plant food is one of the best nutrients for plants and can serve a good amount of different plants. If you’re looking for affordable plant food that you can use in your vegetables or flowers rose food is probably not the best choice!

It is an expensive product marketed for rose producers. This is much like any product – you can use racing fuel in your car, but it costs more. And your car is probably not a race car, so using this fuel is just silly.

Read more about Can You Plant Pothos And Philodendron Together?

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