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I am trying to grow rosemary from starters.

I am based in In California, San Francisco Bay Area.

I dug up an area about what people are recommending on the other rosemary answers here. 30cm x 30cm wide + 30cm down, and combined the area for 6 of them. The soil had some clay about 20cm down or so, but this didn't seem to get in the way too much when I checked the other day. I sprinkled a few quarts of Kellogg organic Amend (.3% Nitrogen, mostly insoluble; .1% potash, .1% phosphor something; 1% calcium. w/gypsum, poultry manure, and compost) and mixed it in pretty well, then planted the starters like a foot apart. It's been about a week, and the rosemary seems to be slowly burning or drying, despite lots of watering.

Did I burn them with too much nitrogen in the additive? Or maybe I didn't break up the root clusters sufficiently and water is just bouncing off them? Could the compost be too old/dried up? We used half of it a couple years ago, and though it's been out of the sun, either in the garage mostly, it does warm up. It was never really moist, but what do I know.

Toby Allen
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NOTjust -- user4304
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I'm wondering where you are in the world for one thing, but Rosemary is a mediterranean plant used to growing on dry, impoverished soils. It's not too keen on over fertilised environments, so that might well be the cause of the problem. I note you mention poulty manure - if this was pelleted or neat, it needs to be 'slacked' before use if you're applying to planted areas - young plants particularly are prone to root burn if this material is in close contact. If you're in the Northern hemisphere, adding feed when planting at this time of year isn't something you'd do, but perhaps you're in the southern hemisphere anyway.

UPDATED RESPONSE: I'd leave them alone for now and see what happens. If you wait six to eight weeks, most of the fertilizers will have dissipated anyway, and if the plants haven't recovered, plant new then.

Bamboo
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  • The "Amend" basicallly looks like 3cm pine needles. I don't know "where" the manure actually is. But this sounds right. I guess I burnt it! SO the cure then is to dig it all up and just add some "dirt" from somewhere else in the yard? – NOTjust -- user4304 Nov 08 '13 at 21:12