Hanging Basket Plant Food
Hanging Basket fertilizer that encourages vibrant blooms and healthy growth. Frequent feeding is what keeps baskets full to the edges.
Simply mix it with water as directed for an easy way to provide consistent nutrition throughout the growing season.
Why You'll Love It
- Steady Growth Frequent feeding is what keeps a basket full to the edges.
- Bloom Support Supports vibrant blooms in containers that run out of nutrients fast.
- Easy to Use Mixes into the watering a basket already needs constantly.
Made by growers
More than a bottle on a shelf.
- Talk to real plant people. The team that mixes the formula answers your email.
- Made in-house, in the USA. Every bottle mixed and filled by us, not a third party.
- We're growers, not resellers. We use this on our own plants before it ships.
- Bundle savings only here. Pair any two TPS formulas — your order ships free.
Hanging Basket fertilizer that encourages vibrant blooms and healthy growth. Frequent feeding is what keeps baskets full to the edges.
How to Use Hanging Basket Plant Food
| Method | Amount | How Often |
|---|---|---|
| Watering can — small plants (under 6") | 1 Tbs (15mL) per gallon of water | Feed once weekly through the growing season |
| Watering can — large plants (over 6") | 2 Tbs (30mL) per gallon of water | Feed once weekly through the growing season |
| Hose end sprayer | Set dial to the above feed rates | Feed once weekly through the growing season |
| Leaf misting (optional) | 1 tsp per quart (32 oz) of water | Spray on leaves every 1-2 weeks |
Mix into your normal watering — no separate feeding routine needed. Water until it runs from the bottom of the basket so the whole root ball gets fed, not just the top few inches.
What's Inside
A 3-3.6-5.1 ratio for plants grown to flower in a confined root space. Potassium leads at 5.1%, managing the water pressure that keeps petals firm on a plant that swings between soaked and dry every day, and moving sugars into blooms. Phosphate at 3.6% feeds continuous bud formation, which is the whole job of a basket. Nitrogen stays at 3%, all nitrate — absorbed directly by roots, fast-acting with low burn risk — enough for healthy foliage without pushing the leafy overgrowth that turns a flowering basket into a green one.
Beyond NPK: sea kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum) for natural growth compounds, plus calcium at an unusually high 2.1% and 0.75% magnesium, with iron, manganese, zinc, boron, and copper. Magnesium and iron are the first to disappear from a basket — every deep watering carries some out the drainage holes, and by midsummer the shortage reads as yellowing between the veins on older leaves while the plant tries to keep flowering on top.
Made For
Flowering hanging baskets and window boxes — petunias and calibrachoa, million bells, lobelia, bacopa, verbena, ivy geraniums, fuchsia, begonias, and mixed combination planters — plus trailing foliage baskets and porch containers in sun or part shade.
Problems It Solves
- Baskets that bloom hard in spring and quit by midsummer
- Yellowing lower leaves while the tips keep flowering
- Bare, leggy centers with flowers only at the trailing ends
- Store-bought baskets that decline a few weeks after purchase
FAQs
How often should I feed hanging baskets?
Feed once weekly through the growing season: 1 Tbs (15mL) per gallon of water for plants under 6", 2 Tbs (30mL) for larger ones. Weekly matters more for baskets than for beds — daily summer watering flushes nutrients out the bottom continuously. Water until it drains from the base so the entire root ball is fed, not just the surface.
Why do my hanging baskets stop blooming in July?
Almost always a combination of exhausted potting mix and unpruned growth. Nursery baskets come loaded with slow-release fertilizer that runs out in six to eight weeks, right at midsummer. Weekly feeding replaces it. Pair that with a hard trim — cutting trailing stems back by a third — and deadheading, since many annuals stop flowering once they set seed. Both are needed; feeding alone won't fix a leggy basket.
Why are the lower leaves yellow while the ends still flower?
That's the classic basket pattern: the plant is pulling mobile nutrients out of older leaves to keep new growth and blooms going. Magnesium and iron are usually the ones running out, flushed away by daily watering. This formula supplies both. If yellow leaves are also mushy, check drainage instead — a basket sitting in a saucer of water yellows for the opposite reason.
Should I cut back a leggy hanging basket?
Yes, and most people wait too long. Trimming trailing stems back by about a third mid-season looks drastic for a week or two, then produces a fuller, better-flowering basket for the rest of summer — the plant branches from where you cut. Do it while the plant is still healthy rather than after it's declined, and feed regularly afterward so it has what it needs to rebuild.
Can I use this on foliage baskets and mixed containers?
Yes. The bloom-weighted ratio suits flowering baskets best, but the 3% nitrogen keeps trailing foliage plants — ivy, ferns, sweet potato vine — in good shape too, and mixed containers of both do fine on one feed at the label rate. It also works for window boxes and any pot with the same problem: small soil volume, frequent watering, and nutrients leaving with the drainage.
When will I see results?
All the nitrogen is nitrate, absorbed directly by roots, so it starts working with the first watering. Expect richer leaf color within 1-2 weeks and yellowing lower leaves stabilizing as new growth comes in. Bloom recovery takes 3-4 weeks, since the plant has to set new buds. A basket that's already leggy responds fastest if you trim it back and feed at the same time.