I fertilize mine when I start watering in late summer. They get light fertilizer from August when the first hint of green shows on the first bulb through October. They will get additional light fertilization during the winter, whenever the weather is dry enough to allow fertilizing other winter growers. I have no virus problems. I live in Southern California, the air is dry, and I keep them clean. I grow them in a mix consisting soley of pumice, coir and plaster sand. Tom Glavich "J.E. Shields" <jshields104@insightbb.com> wrote: Mark and Arnold, Arnold, we heard it from Sir Peter Smithers in the old [BULB] list. Sir Peter has said that he is convinced that feeding any of the broad-leaf Nerine varieties releases latent viruses, which can decimate a collection. I'm not willing to test it by actually fertilizing some of mine. Anyone else want to volunteer to test Sir Peter's hypothesis? Regards, Jim Shields in summery central Indiana At 05:43 PM 11/4/2005 -0500, you wrote: >Mark: > >I rarely feed the nerines. An occasion dose of African violet food is >all they have seen in three years. I have read somewhere that they >shouldn't be fed , but alas this may be garden lore like so many other >things we read an hear. > >Arnold >New jersey >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php