Blood meal seems like one thing out of a horror film involving zombies and vampires. However your backyard bulbs have to be followers of the macabre as a result of they love the stuff.

Give them some blood meal on the proper time, and so they’ll be rising higher than ever.

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No, your bulbs aren’t secretly vampires. They don’t want blood to outlive, however they do want sure vitamins, significantly nitrogen, to permit them to keep up shops of the nutrient to assist the plant all yr lengthy.

Blood meal is available in a powder kind you could apply to the soil to offer your bulbs with the nitrogen they craves.

Coming proper up, we’re going to debate when, why, and methods to apply this fertilizer successfully to make your bulbs develop their finest. Right here’s what’s on the menu:

What Is Blood Meal?

For those who’re squeamish perhaps skip this part.

Blood meal is dried blood that’s made right into a powder and offered as a fertilizer. This powder is utilized to the soil to be able to present vitamins.

Usually, it comes from leftovers from the livestock and meat-processing manufacturing trade.

As an alternative of discarding the blood that’s produced throughout meat manufacturing of animals like hen, pigs, cattle, and lamb, it’s collected and processed by dehydration.

The blood may be dried utilizing chemical compounds, or it could be heated in a dehydrator, kiln, or oven. It will also be dehydrated by way of photo voltaic drying.

By the best way, feather and bone meal are additionally created out of slaughterhouse waste. Bone meal is an effective supply of phosphorus and protein, whereas feather meal gives nitrogen as effectively.

What Does It Do?

Blood meal is an environment friendly, bioavailable supply of nitrogen for bulbs. It comprises 10 to fifteen p.c nitrogen, plus smaller quantities of iron, phosphorus, and potassium.

It’s primarily composed of hemoglobin, which is an iron-containing protein present in crimson blood cells. Within the human physique, hemoglobin helps to hold oxygen. Within the soil, it provides vitamins that the plant can take in.

By comparability, feather meal and seabird guano each have 12 p.c nitrogen.

Fish powder, one other less-commonly used ingredient, has about 13 p.c, but it surely’s costly to supply, so it’s much less common than the opposite choices.

Any of those elements could be added to fertilizers to offer nitrogen to a extra full feed, or they could be used independently.

Advantages

There are numerous advantages to utilizing this icky-sounding product. Blood meal is appropriate in natural farming practices.

So in case you’re rising garlic, lilies, or tulips on an natural farm, don’t fear. Utilizing this fertilizer gained’t negate that designation.

It’s water soluble so it may be delivered by way of the soil and into the roots, making it extra out there to the bulbs. It additionally continues feeding for as much as six weeks after utility.

Whereas it’s not as efficient of a deterrent as merchandise formulated particularly for the aim, blood meal may also help to deter deer.

It additionally will increase useful microbes like good fungi and micro organism within the soil. You wouldn’t select this product solely to enhance soil microbes or deter deer, however these are an added bonus.

We all know that this product helps with bulb progress particularly, because of analysis performed on vegetation like onions.

One examine, revealed within the Bangladesh Journal of Scientific and Industrial Analysis in 2021 famous that the applying of blood meal elevated bulb yields by over 32 p.c in industrial onion farms.

Drawbacks

Whereas blood meal could deter some animals, it will probably entice others. Raccoons and possums may come searching for that great odor and find yourself digging up your backyard.

The household canine may additionally be enticed, significantly when you’ve got a Labrador retriever – and consuming it might give Fido some intestinal points.

There may be some proof to counsel that the nitrogen in blood meal is too available to vegetation and so it isn’t essentially one of the best supply.

I do know that being out there seems like a great factor, and it’s, to a sure diploma. However when vitamins are too available, they might be absorbed too shortly and might trigger fertilizer burn or must be replenished steadily.

It additionally will increase acidity in soil, so in case you use it frequently in massive quantities, you’ll want to watch your soil pH and amend it accordingly to maintain it inside vary. That is very true in case you’re rising vegetation which might be delicate to the improper pH.

Most gardeners solely use this fertilizer a few times a season when rising bulbs, so the above shouldn’t be an excessive amount of of a priority.

The place to Purchase

Blood meal is mostly straightforward to search out at massive field shops and backyard facilities. Many on-line distributors carry it together with different fertilizers.

Blood Meal

For example, Arbico Organics carries Right down to Earth’s wonderful product in eight-ounce, four-, 20-, and 50-pound packages.

Apply

For bulbs you plant within the fall that flower in spring, feed them within the fall at planting time.

People who go within the floor within the spring that may flower both straight away or later within the yr, fertilize as you plant them.

In different phrases, the rule of thumb is to use blood meal at planting time. Don’t add this fertilizer to the opening when planting, at all times add it to the highest of the soil across the plant.

For perennial bulbs that keep within the floor and flower in spring, like tulips and daffodils, feed within the fall earlier than the bottom freezes to provide them the vitality they should construct up the nutrient shops.

You may also add one other dose in spring, because the shoots begin to seem.

Earlier than you add any meals, it’s good to check your soil. After doing a soil check, you may discover that your soil has loads of potassium and phosphorus, so that you don’t want a balanced fertilizer.

You may solely want nitrogen, which is simply what blood meal is nice for.

If after a soil check you discover that nitrogen is the one requirement, add a teaspoon for every bulb, on the highest of the soil.

You’ll be able to both combine it with water after which add it to the soil or you may merely sprinkle it on the soil and water it in.

For those who additionally want some phosphorus, add a teaspoon of bone meal. For potassium, add a half teaspoon of langbeinite.

Greater Higher Bulbs

Most bulb vegetation are nitrogen-hungry, and blood meal is an effective supply of this nutrient. It’s a match made in heaven!

What sort of bulbs are you rising? Tell us your setup within the feedback part under.

Did this information assist you determine methods to put this highly effective product to work in your backyard? I hope so!

For those who’d like some extra details about caring to your flowering bulbs, we’ve got a number of different guides that you simply could be excited about, together with: