Anthurium Fertilizing Frequency
Pink Amnicola Anthurium
A common question that comes up when discussing anthurium care is: how often should you fertilize your anthurium flowers? The correct answer is that it depends. It depends on the type of soil that you are growing your anthuriums in, the location where you are growing your plant and the type of fertilizer that you are using.
Anthuriums come from the jungles of South America. In their jungle home no one goes around fertilizing them. They obtain all the nutrients that they need from nature and so do not require any artificial fertilizer. So if you are growing them outside, under a shade tree that drops a fair amount of leaves, you probably don’t need to fertilize them at all, as long as you allow the leaves from the tree to decompose around your plants.
If you are growing your plants in pots, whether in doors or outdoors, they will require fertilizer. But the frequency that you fertilize depends on the type of fertilizer that you use.
Slow release fertilizer has a special coating that does exactly what its name implies. It releases nutrients slowly, over a period of time. Each time you water your plant, a little bit of the coating dissolves and this allows nutrients to escape and reach the roots of your plant. It is best to apply slow release fertilizer twice a year.
With liquid fertilizer, the nutrients are released to your plant immediately, so you have to apply it much more often. In general, you should apply it once per week, when you are watering your plant. But you have to make sure that it is diluted to roughly 10% of the strength indicated on the label. Anthuriums don’t need a lot of nutrients and high doses of fertilizer can harm them. It is always better to apply too little fertilizer rather than too much.