I have a bottle of liquid fertiliser.
Its application instructions read:
Apply once every two weeks from Spring to Autumn:
- Using a mixture of two screwtops for each five litres water
- Cloudy days or in the evenings you may spray using one scretop for each five litres water
Now in my books, I read that before applying fertiliser, you should water your tree before hand. I'm naturally assuming that:
Two screwtops to five litres water is water soluble, and meant to be diluted.
OR
Does it mean if I water with 2.5 litres water, I should pour a single screwtop of fertiliser onto the soil after?
All logic points to diluting it (the spray instructions should give it away), but I do just wish to make sure.
Back to the 'watering well before hand'; should I be aiming to water well, trying to judge prior to water coming out of the drainage holes, and then applying fertiliser?
Finally, 5 litres?! That's a ridiculous amount of water for a pot that in dimensions is approximately 18.2cm x 11.43cm x 5.08 - that only holds 1 litre of water when empty!
I used half a litre of water, and added 20% cap full of fertiliser to keep it proportioned, and poured in a third every 5 minutes or so to give it time to absorb, and ceased watering when it began coming out of the drainage holes.