|
| After studying this wonderful, newly discovered forum for days, I'm intrigued why most here seem to favor water soluble fertigation (WSF) over controlled release fertilizer (CRF). Since I am scaling up the number of trees in containers that I care for, I want to get fertilization right. I've experimented a bit with both. CRF has plenty of advantages. It eliminates all the fertilizer mixing, it reduces the possibility of fertilizer burn, and most importantly, it greatly reduces the amount of wasted nutrients. Everyone here seems to agree that flushing out 15 to 20 percent of the fertigation water is important. But think about how much N-P-K are going into the ground or down the drain and into the environment. Think of the cost. With CRF, flushing and leaching is not necessary. On the other hand, CRF is more expensive. Since it's release is sensitive to ambient temperatures (sometimes a good thing), you can't always control the amount delivered to the plant as you could with fertigation. It seems that many growers use a combination of both methods. From the reading I have done, research shows that some plants (citrus) yield more with CRF. Other plants (peppers) do better with WSF.
I'm curious to get more input from you experienced growers. I also don't understand why everyone here seems to be using pre-mixed water soluble fertilizer (FP seems most popular). Using some rough calculations, the crystal form in bags is just a fraction of the cost of FP. Am I missing something? Thanks,
|
Follow-Up Postings:
|
- Posted by TheMasterGardener1 5B (My Page) on Mon, Nov 5, 12 at 16:10
| 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, 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.
　 |
|
| 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, |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Container Gardening Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.