Let's talk Fertilizers Please!

[eemichael83]

I recently built a couple of slightly raised beds for growing fruits and vegetables and have bought some drip irrigation supplies that I've yet to lay out. I plan to grow Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Jalapeno, Habenero, Swiss Chard, Cantaloupe, Squash, and Green Beans, for Summer harvest and some Spinach, Broccoli, Romaine, Carrots, and possibly Onions in either Spring of Fall along with a couple of herbs like Cilantro.

I've been trying to research what a good water soluble or liquid fertilizer that I can inject directly in with the drip irrigation from time to time. I've also been reading about what the NPK rating means for the plants. From what I understand, for most of my plants (except the Lettuce, brocolli, Romaine, and Chard) it seems like I would want a slightly Nitrogen rich formula for the first several weeks and then once blooms start to appear, switch to something much lower in Nitrogen and higher in Phosphorus and Potash? This would mean 2 fertilizers.

This led me to Fox Farms, which I have read good things about (for some reason mostly on marijuana forums which was a bit troubling) but anyway, they seem to have fertilizers that are weighted more towards a particular nutrient(s) than others. Does anyone have any experience with Fox Farms for vegetable gardens? I may have jumped the gun on purchasing one of their products called Open Sesame. It has a NPK of 5-45-19 and I thought might be a good solution to add to the drip once the blooms started appearing. I've still yet to purchase anything for the first weeks of growth (more Nitrogen), but am I on the right path? Thanks in advance.

BTW, I also plan to build a small cold compost bin/pile for future use but any compost from it will not be ready for the next season.

[luvthesnapper]

Liquid kelp, soluble fulvic and humic acid, earthworm castings/tea, compost tea. I have not personally used fox farms products, but I know it works well in hydroponic setups. Alot of pot smokers use fox farms products, yes.

[Smallgardener]

For conveniance I use Miracle grow and put through my sprinkler. It is water soluble. They also have different analisys of ferts. I use the bloom formulation because it has more P. Some people would be scared of a fertilizer that has 45% P, but that only means you put less product out.
To run the MG through my sprinler I just take the shower head off the MG despenser and hook a garden hose to it and run the MG out.

[Dillbert]

an age old saying about N-P-K goes: leaves-fruit-roots
it is an imperfect saying.

for stuff like lettuces where only the green vegetative growth is the crop, higher nitrogen.
stuff like corn and beans - it's not the leaves, but the plant needs a lot of "leaf growth" to support the "fruiting" bit.
over fertilizing (N) in root crops - like carrots - can result in beautiful tops, not so much in the line of a carrot tho.
too much N on tomatoes generally results in "vines gone wild" and not so many tomatoes.

you didn't mention anything about the soil conditions in the raised beds - I'm pretty organic in my approach - digging in organic matter spring and fall and frankly very rarely need to resort to "boosting" things up with a fertilizer. in my case it's usually the green beans - if they start looking less than a lush green, I'll side dress with blood meal, for example.

unless you are growing in essentially pure sand, you really don't need to fertilize every week / other week - and it's pretty easy to over-do it, quite possibly doing more harm than good.

something like a 5-45-19 is imho way out of whack for a vegetable garden. 10-10-10 is going to be a lot easier to work with - it's really duck soup to "fertilize some more" - really tough to "remove" it.

[TheWaterbug]

I've been trying to research what a good water soluble or liquid fertilizer that I can inject directly in with the drip irrigation from time to time.

What are you using to inject the fertilizer? I'm using an [url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00065266U/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01]Add It 5016-HV[/url], but I'd like to see what else is out there that works.

Right now I have one injector and 4 different drip systems, so I'm constantly moving it around. I am considering buying a few more and making them semi-permanent, at least through the growing season.

[ReptileAddiction]

Use fish emulsion you can use it on anything and it works wonderfully!!!!!!!

[eemichael83]

I've been trying to research what a good water soluble or liquid fertilizer that I can inject directly in with the drip irrigation from time to time.

What are you using to inject the fertilizer? I'm using an [url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00065266U/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01]Add It 5016-HV[/url], but I'd like to see what else is out there that works.

Right now I have one injector and 4 different drip systems, so I'm constantly moving it around. I am considering buying a few more and making them semi-permanent, at least through the growing season.

That is exactly what I ordered. I haven't put it to use yet though. It seemed like everything else required higher pressure than a drip system might have.

[TheWaterbug]

That is exactly what I ordered. I haven't put it to use yet though. It seemed like everything else required higher pressure than a drip system might have.

I've been pretty happy with it so far. Bear in mind the minimum GPH. It basically works like a carburetor; if there's not enough flow over the top of the internal tube, it won't draw, and you won't get any fertilizer coming out. The first time I used it on my vegetables, I had only about half the required flow rate. I ran the water through it a couple of times, and then when I opened it to "refill" it, it was still full of fertilizer (I'm using Liquinox Grow, 10-10-5).

Once I added some more drippers to that section, then it drained properly, and there was only clear water left in the injector.

[GardenRN]

Have you considered not spending your money or ferts and giving organic a chance?

[Northernfox]

I do use liquid and pellet style fertilizer. it is organic and works REALLY well. my pumpkins have been eating it for three weeks and have gone insane!!! best of luck friend!

[eemichael83]

Have you considered not spending your money or ferts and giving organic a chance?

I have actually, which is why I plan on making a small compost bin for future crops. Since this is the first REAL attempt I'll be making with a garden, I thought it might be easier and cheaper to figure out what my soil and plants need with some synthetics first. Then when I get a general idea of what they need, switch over to organic and save on the trial and error.

The only thing I've attempted before was some tomatoes and bell peppers and they didn't grow well, only a few very, very small bell peppers and tomatoes. I've got a pH test kit on order to see if my soil is even close to the 6.8 I'm thinking it should be. I may see if I can return the Fox Farms Open Sesame and look for something more balanced.

[eemichael83]

I do use liquid and pellet style fertilizer. it is organic and works REALLY well. my pumpkins have been eating it for three weeks and have gone insane!!! best of luck friend!

I'd be interested in knowing which liquid fret you're using. My main goal is getting the bell peppers producing well since they've been my biggest problem. This past half-arsed attempt was grown in some highly compacted soil. Even though I dug a decent sized hole to break up the ground, I'm pretty sure once the roots took off, they probably hit what was essentially a concrete wall of dirt. The current plants are not in the raised beds BTW, I just built those for some fall crops and for next year. I've got a tiller now though so compacted soil is no longer going to be a problem.

[Northernfox]

[img]https://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii603/Northernfox14/7ae5c76b.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii603/Northernfox14/6b3befc3.jpg[/img]

the Rose one works for slow release and the liquid one can be applied to leafs or just the ground

if you have dogs make sure they can not get to where you fertilize. Mine sit at the garden fence and go insane they love it.

there are a few others at the garden centre they helped me pick mine.

[Northernfox]

my shed needs cleaning

[DoubleDogFarm]

I'm using Ringer Lawn Restore 10-2-6 in the garden this year. It's a all natural OMRI Listed fertilizer. I bought it to use on my 500ft of corn, because corn is basically grass. I had some left over so I've been using it on all the vegetables. Everything seems to be a deeper green this year. Not cheap. Something like $36.00 per 25lb bag.
https://www.saferbrand.com/store/organic-lawn-care/9325

Also wanted to note. The corn inside my fence garden is 3 times the size of the corn outside the fence. Using the same amout of fertilizer but the soil inside has many years of love and outside soil new this year. Fertilizer alone is not the anwser.


Eric

[GardenRN]

Have you considered not spending your money or ferts and giving organic a chance?

I have actually, which is why I plan on making a small compost bin for future crops. Since this is the first REAL attempt I'll be making with a garden, I thought it might be easier and cheaper to figure out what my soil and plants need with some synthetics first. Then when I get a general idea of what they need, switch over to organic and save on the trial and error.

The only thing I've attempted before was some tomatoes and bell peppers and they didn't grow well, only a few very, very small bell peppers and tomatoes. I've got a pH test kit on order to see if my soil is even close to the 6.8 I'm thinking it should be. I may see if I can return the Fox Farms Open Sesame and look for something more balanced.

Synthetics/chemicals kill a lot of micro organisms in the soil. It will be much harder for you to go back and repair the soil after the life has been damaged than it would to start out right.

Good idea with the compost bin and everything. You can give the same things, and in just the right amounts, and even more to your plants with compost instead of using ferts. By me you can get a whole pickup truck load of compost from a soil/mulch landscaping business for $28 if you pick it up. And given that you only need to side dress every few weeks, that one pickup truck load does a huge garden, all season long. How much have you spent so far on fertilizers and injectors etc?

If they are all natural organic fetrilizers, great. But chemicals use a lot of salts etc. And it is so much harder and more expensive to repair the soil after it has been killed.

Just sayin....

[eemichael83]

Thanks for the tip about synthetics killing the miroorganisms, I had no idea about that. I've only purchased the Fox Farms Open Sesame as far as fertilizers go and it was about $28. For my drip system, I spent about $70 on 100ft of 1/2", 100ft 1/4", and 30 of these types of emitters: https://www.dripirrigation.com/drip_irrigation_categories/97/drip_irrigation_parts/219

I also bought a Honda FG110 Tiller for $250 and the wood around my raised beds came in at around $50. I'll be spending some on some compost/top soil in the raised bed to bring the level up to the height of the boards.

I've only got two raised beds, one that is 18'x10' and one that is 8'x8'. I will also use a bed up against the house that is about 5'x20' and for my Cantaloupe I figured I'd just plant them along the back edge of my property since they get huge and tear everything up around them. It's not really a whole lot of garden but enough, I think, to get me plenty of fruits and vegetables for a large part of the year. As far as soil conditions go, I'm not really a good judge of that. I've got a pH test kit on the way but as far as having a good idea of the Soil Texture/Classification and all that good stuff, I'm fairly ignorant. I can take some photos though!

[rainbowgardener]

300' ish square feet is PLENTY to get started on, especially for someone with not lots of experience. You are better off working on a garden that is manageable for you, then starting tons of stuff and getting overwhelmed.

As you get more experience you can always expand.

This stuff doesn't all have to be rocket science.

To test your soil type and drainage dig a hole about a foot deep. Fill with water and allow it to drain completely. Immediately refill it and measure the depth of the water. 15 minutes later, measure the drop in water in inches, and multiply by 4 to calculate how much water drains in an hour.

Less than 1 inch per hour is poor drainage, probably heavy clay soil, indicating the site may stay wet for periods during the year. Plants that don't tolerate poor drainage will suffer. 1 to 6 inches of drainage per hour is desirable, loamy soil. Sandy soil drains faster than 6 inches per hour. You will have to do a lot of watering or plant things (like herbs for e.g.) that are drought tolerant.

Take a handful of your soil and squeeze it. When you let go it should hold together in a ball. If it doesn't, it's too dry/sandy. If you tap the ball, it should crumble apart again. If it doesn't fall apart easily, it is too wet/ clay-ey.

Smell your soil. It should smell pleasant and earthy, which is the hallmark of those micro-organisms doing their job. Old time farmers would taste the soil for acidity.

Sift through a shovelful and look for earthworms. Rich fertile soil (that has not been subjected to a lot of chemicals) should have several earthworms in a shovelful. The earthworms help break nutrients in the soil down into forms the plants can use.

Give your plants plenty of sunshine, enough water, and good loamy rich organic soil and they will do great and you won't need to do anything else. Lay down a bunch of mulch, which will conserve water and keep you from having to do much weeding and eventually break down to feed the soil. Compost everything! Put up bird feeders and bird baths, to enlist feathered friends to help keep the bugs down. Plant flowers for the bees and beneficial insects.

Gardening in a nutshell, all you really need to know!

[luvthesnapper]

Make a worm bin too. You can buy worms online. Give some scraps to the worms, and some to your compost pile. Best of both worlds

[eemichael83]

rainbowgardener... EXTREMELY helpful. Thank you very much. I'll try the soil test here next week. I know up by the house there were quite a few earthworms when I planted a few tomato plants this spring and the soil there was good.

I'm actually a bit surprised by the bird recommendation though. I always thought that since birds commonly carry disease, that I should try and keep and their feces away from the garden.