Same thing I found- CRF costs more but saves time. Soluble fertilizer is way cheaper but has to be applied more often thus more time. With soluble you can directly fertilize your plants resulting in high yields. CRF is not so direct.

I use both crf and soluble to get best of both worlds. I bet I am not the only one. :)

I use soluble fertilizers because I like the control controlled release fertilizers don't offer. When it's 90* plus, I want plants to get less fertilizer, not more.

FP is popular because of what it uses to provide N, because it includes ALL the essential elements in a favorable NPK ratio and in a favorable ratio to each other. MOST soluble fertilizers lack several nutrients, including Ca/Mg, which are included in FP.

With CRFs, no flushing is necessary ONLY if you are pretty spot on with the proper NPK ratio. For instance, not flushing would be a mistake if using something like 14-14-14 because the ratio of N:P would very quickly become badly skewed in favor of P.

Al

Al and others,

What do you think of this water soluble bagged product? It's really economical. I'm lucky because there are a couple of outlets nearby that sell to big nurseries. Materials are low-priced. How about the N in this formula? Recall that I am using it for starting deciduous trees, up to three years in containers. There is no Ca or Mg, but that's good for me because I have a lot in my water. What I'm trying to study now is the potential acidity. I'll have to figure out if I still have to acidify my water when I use this.

Thanks,
Marc

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS / AN�LISIS GARANTIZADO

Total Nitrogen / Nitr�geno Total (N)......................................... 24%

4.5% Ammoniacal Nitrogen / Nitr�geno Amoniacal

4.8% Nitrate Nitrogen / Nitr�geno Nitrato

14.7% Urea Nitrogen / Nitr�geno de �rea

Available Phosphate / Fosfato Disponible (P2O5)...................... 8%

Soluble Potash / Potasa Soluble (K2O)..................................... 16%

Boron / Boro (B)...................................................................... 0.02%

Copper / Cobre (Cu)................................................................ 0.05%

0.05% chelated copper / cobre quelado

Iron / Hierro (Fe)..................................................................... 0.10%

0.1% chelated iron / hierro quelado

Manganese / Manganeso (Mn)............................................. 0.05%

0.05% chelated manganese / manganeso quelado

Molybdenum / Molibdeno (Mo)........................................ 0.0005%

Zinc / Zinc (Zn)........................................................................ 0.05%

0.05% chelated zinc / zinc quelado

(EDTA) chelating agent (minimum) /

Agent equelante (EDTA) (m�nimo).......................................... 1.0%

Chlorine (Cl) (maximum) / Cloro (Cl) (m�ximo).....................0.3%

Potential acidity (lbs CaCO3 per ton of fertilizer) / La acidez potencial (libras CaCO3 por tonelada de fertilizante)......... 968 lb

Derived From: Urea, ammonium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, potassium nitrate, boric acid, sodium molybdate, iron EDTA, zinc EDTA, copper EDTA and manganese EDTA.

Derivarse De: Urea, fosfato de amonio, sulfato de amonio, nitrato de potasio, �cido b�rico, molibdato de sodio, EDTA hierro, EDTA zinc, EDTA cobre y EDTA manganeso.

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It looks fine - roughly the equivalent of the 24-8-16 blends made/packaged by several brands, other than it doesn't derive all of its N from urea, as most of our less expensive fertilizers do.

Al

Al, I'm having trouble interpreting the "Potential Acidity" number of 968 lbs. I understand that this relates to the fertilizer's ability to neutralize alkalinity, and move--or stabilize--the media's pH. But I can't find any literature on how this number can be used to calculate how it will react with my water. Because my water has high alkalinity (CaCO3 of 260), I add about 1 ml of sulfuric acid per gallon of irrigation water. If I use this fertilizer, will I still need to add acid? And how much of this fertilizer would I need to use to skip the acid?

Thanks,
Marc