Need help with planting & fertilising?

Learn about planting techniques and avoid common mistakes like making planting holes either too shallow or too deep, adding compost or manure to the base of the planting hole, putting fertiliser in the base of the planting hole or not watering the soil around the new plant as well as the plant itself.

Know your plants.

What do you want to do? Ways to achieve your goal How Scotts® can help

Prepare a planting hole.

  • Dig a dish-shaped planting hole no deeper than the root ball of the plant but three times as wide.
  • Mix fertiliser and organic material (about 5%) with the backfill.

Mix an Osmocote® controlled release fertiliser into the top two-thirds of the backfill.

Choose a suitable product from the Osmocote range.

Plant bare-rooted plants including roses.

  • Make a mound in the centre of a wide dish shaped hole.
  • Drape the roots of the plants on either side of the mound.
  • Mix fertiliser and organic material (about 5%) with the backfill.

Mix Osmocote Roses, Gardenias, Azaleas & Camellias to the top two-thirds of the backfill.

Set up an efficient watering program.

  • Water immediately after planting and then regularly for the first 3 months - do this for drought tolerant plants also.
  • Always water before and after fertilising.
  • Water when the top two centimetres of the soil or potting mix are dry.
  • Use a wetting agent.

Use a wetting agent to help water soak into the soil evenly.

Most Scotts® products contain a professional grade wetting agent. Choose the one that best suits your purpose.

Choose a good fertiliser for your garden.

  • Use a controlled release fertiliser every 6 months for a steady release of a complete fertiliser.
  • Use a water soluble fertiliser every 7-14 days to give rapid results.
  • Combine your controlled release fertiliser with a soluble fertiliser occasionally to give your plants an extra boost.

 

Use Osmocote Total All Purpose controlled release fertiliser or choose a specific-purpose fertiliser from the Osmocote® range.

Miracle-Gro® MaxFeed Plant Food products are water soluble fertilisers that can be used alone or in combination with Osmocote fertilisers.

Fertilise effectively.

  • Fertilise throughout spring, early summer and autumn - don't feed in winter when plants are not actively growing.
  • Water before and after fertilising.
  • Apply fertiliser at the dripline and outwards. (The dripline is an imaginary line drawn from the outer edge of the canopy of leaves to the ground.)
  • Don't over-fertilise. Use fertiliser at the recommended rate.

Osmocote controlled release fertilisers are designed to prevent over-fertilisation.

Find out how Osmocote works.