Yesterday I cleaned my fish bowl - a day that always makes "Fish" happy.  And my African violets, too.  My violets get to drink Fish's old water and they love it.  That waste water is packed full of nutrients.  Fish water isn't the only fertilizer I give them to keep them blooming over the dark Winter months, but it does give a nice little boost.

Yesterday I talked about the need to feed amaryllis.  All blooming plants are hungry.  But, what kind of fertilizer to use? 

A multi-purpose fertilizer contains three essential "macronutrients" - nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), thus the "N-P-K" you see on the label.  N feeds lush green foliage; P feeds a good, sturdy root system; K promotes healthy blooms.  A balanced fertilizer, such as 10-10-10, contains equal amounts each of  N, P, and K. 

To foster strong blooms, you'll want to use a fertilizer that is a little heavier on the K, such as 10-10-17.  If you fertilize each time you water, you will want to dilute the fertilizer to approximately half of the recommended strength.  If you only fertilize once or twice a month, your plants will usually do just fine with a full strength solution.

Back to the fish bowl - that fish waste water is high in all three components.  Some of you might be saying, "peee-ew - that fish water is smelly".  You might notice a very slight odor when you first pour the fish water into the pot but as soon as all the water is absorbed into the soil, your nose will no longer detect it.  One word of warning, though.  Even though your nose doesn't detect any odor, if you have kitties around your plants, they will smell it long after you can't and they might find eau de' fish irresistable.  Keep them out of your plants by setting them in a room where kitty doesn't have access for a day or so or cover the top of the soil with crumpled aluminum foil - kitty usually doesn't like the feel of the foil and won't dig through it to get to the soil.