Fertilizers?

[Bettacreek]

So, I'm not worried about going organic, but I'd like to know what formulas I should use for my plants. I have peppers (I assume types don't matter), tomatoes, hopefully carrots and beets (I assume they use the same type), herbs (I assume rabbit poop will be good with the nitrogen), lavender (I assume it would be different from the leafy herbs), broccoli (maybe), sweet corn, and I'll list any that I've forgotten later.

 

[vfem]

Sorry, I try to go organic... compost, manure and such. I know there are a handful of great organic blends on the market as well. But I only buy 1 kind, and its because it has the extra acid for the blueberries, rhodadendron and azaleas. Its the 'PlantTone' name.

When I goto tractor supply, they always suggest the 10-10-10 fertilizer they sell for most home gardens.

I don't think that is best for everything even though that's what they push.

 

[seedcorn]

So, I'm not worried about going organic, but I'd like to know what formulas I should use for my plants. I have peppers (I assume types don't matter), tomatoes, hopefully carrots and beets (I assume they use the same type), herbs (I assume rabbit poop will be good with the nitrogen), lavender (I assume it would be different from the leafy herbs), broccoli (maybe), sweet corn, and I'll list any that I've forgotten later.

Depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Broadcast fertilizer, place beside plants, etc. 10-10-10 is a safe fertilizer if you are broadcasting. For sweet corn, you might want to consider coming back (side dressing) w/a nitrogen source. Can use 28%, urea, or one of the many foliar feeds.

 

[Bettacreek]

Sorry, I try to go organic... compost, manure and such. I know there are a handful of great organic blends on the market as well. But I only buy 1 kind, and its because it has the extra acid for the blueberries, rhodadendron and azaleas. Its the 'PlantTone' name.

When I goto tractor supply, they always suggest the 10-10-10 fertilizer they sell for most home gardens.

I don't think that is best for everything even though that's what they push.

Ha! I'd never trust a big-name company to give me advice on anything. :/ As for acid, can you use coffee for that? I just remember something about coffee or coffee grounds for the gardens (and for drain cleaning?!) As for organic, I'm fine with organic, but I feel like most of the organics are not going to be nearly as productive as the non-organics. I definately don't want to try seaweed products (they sucked when we did our science experiment in school).

Seedcorn, I assume broadcast fertilizer is just adding it to water and spreading it everywhere (or something similar), and the other method would be the little spikes/plugs. If that's correct, I'll be broadcast fertilizing, lol. For the corn, can I just use rabbit poop? It's supposed to be excellent for foilage (high in nitrogen).

 

[seedcorn]

Broadcast is just that, just broadcast it over the garden area, till it in.

Watch your sweet corn, if it doesn't have a dark green color, give it some nitrogen like 28% or a good foliar feed product.

I wouldn't go w/any fertilizer stronger than 12-12-12 as you may get burned plants.....stupid here did that 2 years ago w/16-16-16........way too hot for what I was doing.

I like to feed my plants by putting a small handful about 4" away.

The thing about fertilizer in the form of manure, the microbes will get the nitrogen first to break the fibers down. Rabbit, cow, horse manure are high in fiber so you may see nitrogen deprivation until the microbes are through. That's why you need to compost manure.

On your root crops, don't feed a lot of nitrogen to them. When the peppers are starting to bear, don't give then any nitrogen as they will go from bearing mode to let's grow more plant (no more peppers).

 

[vfem]

Sorry, I try to go organic... compost, manure and such. I know there are a handful of great organic blends on the market as well. But I only buy 1 kind, and its because it has the extra acid for the blueberries, rhodadendron and azaleas. Its the 'PlantTone' name.

When I goto tractor supply, they always suggest the 10-10-10 fertilizer they sell for most home gardens.

I don't think that is best for everything even though that's what they push.

Ha! I'd never trust a big-name company to give me advice on anything. :/ As for acid, can you use coffee for that? I just remember something about coffee or coffee grounds for the gardens (and for drain cleaning?!) As for organic, I'm fine with organic, but I feel like most of the organics are not going to be nearly as productive as the non-organics. I definately don't want to try seaweed products (they sucked when we did our science experiment in school).

Oh yes, most definitely... I add my coffee grounds from my morning pots to a canister I use for the garden as well. Always mix that in with my hydrengas and blueberries as well. For some reason, my azaleas respond better to the plant tone right before bloom time. Without it, the leaves yellow?! Who knows!

 

[wifezilla]

When I need fertilizer, I go to the duck's pool, scoop out some mucky water, add some fresh and pour it near the plants. Not exactly high tech, but it worked great last year.

 

[patandchickens]

The thing is, plants will use whatever nutrients are available to them, up to the point of being limited by one nutrient or another (whichever is in relatively-shortest supply). So adding any NPK fertilizer will be useful if the plants are limited by N, P or K; and if they are not (if their growth is currently limited by water, or light, or copper, or molybdenum, or whatever else) then *no* NPK fertilizer is going to do much of any good.

Thus it is just plain pointless to get all stressed about what exact ratio of N: P:K you should be adding. As seedcorn says, add something balanced; or figure that plants are by far most often limited by N and add something with a higher N number in the ratio; and you will be good to go. Also you can avoid buying a bajillion different fertilizers which will mostly go unused.

The only good reason for selling different ratios of fertilizers is that the companies selling 'em make more money that way

(If your soil is chronically short of P or K, you can certainly add an *amendment* to try to remedy that; but it doesn't make a lot of sense to try to do it with tiny differences in fertilizer numbers).

As far as what numbers to buy, you can calculate how much you are paying per pound of nitrogen to get a sense of what's the cheapest fertilizer per lb N. Then buy that and dilute it appropriately if necessary. Mind that organic fertilizers are generally considered to give you more "bang for your buck" than their analysis numbers suggest, since that only reports immediately-available nitrogen and organic fertilizers can also have N in forms that are more of a delayed-use nature.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'd suggest getting a soil sample tested to see what you have in your soil and what may be needed for the various crops. Your county extension agent, in the phone book under county government, can tell you where and how is the most cost efficient way to get a soils analysis. Each state may be different, but mine not only gave me the amounts of various minerals in the soil and the ph of the soil, but they asked what I planned on using it for and made recommendations for how much of various nutrients and lime I should add. Different crops require different ph's and require different nutrients. Nitrogen use seems to be the one that gets most attention, probably because it can have such a visible effect, either good or bad, but there are more nutrients required than just nitrogen and that can vary by crop.

I don't mix the fertilizer with water before I broadcast it. My method is to turn the garden with a shovel, put the dry fertilizer in a bucket and spread it by hand (broadcast it), then use a tiller to bust up the dirt clods and mix the fertilizer in the soil. You don't want the fertilizer concentrated where the plants are because it can burn the plants. To me, broadcasting is a general garden treatment.

I do not broadcast fertilizer after I have started the plants. I side dress as seedcorn said, put the fertilizer a few inches away from the plant and, using a hoe, mix it in with the soil to break the concentration up a bit so it does not burn the plant roots, but keeping it a bit away from the plants. This is much more crop specific. For crops that require high nitrogen, like corn, onions, garlic, leeks, kale, chard, I'll use one that has a high first number in the formulation and fairly low second and third numbers. I think the current bag I am using for this is a 29-4-3 but I can't remember exactly and I am not gong to go look. For those that do not take a lot of nitrogen, like peppers, beans, peas, I use a 13-13-13 formula. I know you are not growing all these, but I'm using a general example. I think Seedcorn answered most of your specific crop questions and the ones he did not, I don't know off the top of my head. Each crop is specific in its needs. When in doubt, a general rule of thumb is, if you eat the leaves, extra nitrogen is probably good, but if you want a lot of fruit set and growth and not leaf and stem growth, extra nitrogen is not necessarily good. You do need to check the requirements of each one. For example, you might think of onions as root crops, but the bulb is actually made of leaves so extra nitrogen is good.

Something else I do is add compost to whatever I am planting. I can't think of any exceptions in the garden. If it is for something I am hilling up, like beets and carrots, I mix the compost with the dirt before I hill it. Actually, I'll use a hoe to pull up the hill from one side, put the compost on the other side of the hill, and pull that compost and dirt up to complete the hill. If I am planting something like corn, I make a furrow two or three inches deep, fill it with compost, use a hoe to mix it up, then plant the seed. If it is something I am transplanting like peppers, I mix the compost with the dirt in the hole where I am putting the plant, usually quite a bit of compost for peppers and tomatoes. I'd love to have enough compost to make a 3" layer over the whole garden and till it in, but I don't. This way , I think I get the moisture retention, better soil texture, and the nutrients near the plants where it is needed.

I will talk to people at Tractor Supply, Lowe's, whatever, about the use of what they sell, but I make my own judgment as to their competence. Some know what they are talking about and some do not. In my opinion, if you go to the manufacturer of the product, not the distributor, you are much more likely to get a reliable answer. I have gotten some pretty good tips at Tractor Supply and I've received suggestions that I just plain don't follow.

Now my disclaimer. This is the way I approach it. There is nothing right or wrong with the way I do it, it is just my way. Others are successful, some more successful I am sure, using other methods. Feel free to take anything from here that you think may help you or may apply to your situation. Ask specific questions if you wish. You won't hurt my feelings if you ignore it all.

Good Luck!!!!

 

[Bettacreek]

Well, I went with a tomato fertilizer. It had the most balanced nutrients. The soil that we have is BLACK from worm castings and excellent nutrients. Plus, I plan to use compost from the city park to add to my soil when we til it. But, I really want something just in case, lol. How can I make sure that I don't have any fertilizer when my plants are fruiting?
I'm unsure of how I would be able to get it into the soil beside the plants after they're planted. I don't understand how you'd get it to the plants without damaging them. How far away do you fertilize?