I've used many things all the way from slow release complete to green clippings from summer pruning. All seem to work. The slow release complete is easiest. Water soluable complete is way more work.

I've never worried about changing ratios of NPK for flowering etc. I think that's hype. Most of mine have needed extensive thinning. Don't need more set. Moderate vigor is best for high brix.

The slow release I use for plants in general is dynamite. It lasts longer than osmocote. Also these slow release release more when it is hot so many say if giving in the summer, cut actual time in half. So if it lasts 6 months, it really only lasts 3 months if above 75F. This product is rated for 9 months.
Anyway I buy mine here, it's the cheapest I found, and free shipping. It's a 7lb bag of the stuff! I guess it may last too long for some. I like the product myself. Of couse organic is also slow release. For my in ground and potted trees I use tree-tone myself. Although i may use this product next year. Many times it just depends what I have.

Here is a link that might be useful: dynamite all purpose

Thanks guys,I may try some Dynamite.
Maybe from reading the Soils forum,I thought that potted plants had a more difficult time picking up what they needed from a dry form of fertilizer,than those in the ground.
Fruitnut,when your clippings are used,do they get run through a chipper? Brady

Brady:

That would be mostly green soft cuttings. In a month or so they're hardly recognizable. But woodier stuff chopped up would work as part mulch part fertilizer.

I'm one who tries to have some life in the pots, so all my potting mixes have compost, and fungi are added etc. Mycogrow is only 5 bucks and enough for 250 plants. If it works great, if not no big deal. So dry or wet organic work for me. as active bacteria and such are in the pots. Sea Mate is a complete organic liquid. An excellent product. Like fruitnut says they all work, it's more what works for your growing methods, time, etc. Liquids or soluble need to be added at every watering in low does, and that is why it is harder and more time consuming. I use them for house plants in the winter. Otherwise no. When you have 50 pots adding fertilizer to the water every week is a good hour of work. Supplementing dynamite with a shot of soluble or liquid once a month is what I do. So I'm not tied up adding fertilizer all the time. If you have some form of irrigation it would be easier. I do not. I have a watering can.

I find lawn fertilizer to be by far the cheapest way to fertilize, though not ideal for potted stuff it will work just fine. The higher the N number the better on a $ to N ratio. I add triple super phosphate 0-45-0 when and where needed. Doing it this way you just have to be very careful of over fertilizing, especially with the younger more tender stuff.
On fruit trees you don't have to be careful at all really. I just follow recommended application rates and adjust accordingly for the higher N number. Starks sells a extremely high N fertilizer specifically for fruit trees that boasts an N value of around 42 I think.
I once bought bags of fertilizer at a discount store a few years ago (was Lowe's store brand, closeout I guess) for 99 cents a 20 lb. bag 27 - 0- 9. 15,000 SF coverage for lawn application. My lawn was so damn green and lush it looked artificial. Now I save it for the trees...couldn't get anything else done with all the lawn mowing I was doing. I'm still using it for my fruit trees and pretty much everything else.
I also compost everything and I'll grab up any type of organic fertilizer I can when it's free.

Where I live there is no shortage of cow manure and it is $30 per 6 bobcat bucketfuls delivered. The 10 year old stuff is what I buy because there is no danger of burning my plants with to much N and no bad smell. The benefits of using manure is a slow release fertilizer that lasts over 5 years. In comparison to my other options it's the way to go. On the hay field I use primarily N because the needs of fruit tree vs. needs of grasses such as brome are so different. If I was buying chemical for fruit trees in pots 13-13-13 would be the way I would go. My potted fruit tree solution is never long term but rather I grow new fruit trees out in pots the first 1-3 years when necessary.

I use biochar that I make when I can which is technically not considered fertilizer but the results are impressive. Nanking cherries produce 2x more fruit for me than without biochar. On some plants I saw absolutely no difference in production. With the Nanking cherries my experiment was on 10 bushes so it's far from conclusive. I suspect trace minerals and encouraged m. Fungi were what I gained.

At $30 delivered Clark, I'd pop for some of that manure too. Here you can get it and one place it was free and they would even load it, but it is 30 mins. away and I don't have a truck anymore so that was that.
I agree it works well and I've never burnt anything with cow manure. It definitely dramatically improves poor soil. In a yard setting though you have to pull back the mulch to apply it and that's a ding for the convenience factor.
I've also read that because organics keep releasing over long periods they can hold trees vegetative into cold weather causing die-back. Harvestman maintains that this is a myth, but I'm not buying it. I'm thinking the manure would likely be ok though. Manure tea really boosts little seedlings too and like you say, I suspect does a lot of good for soil microbial activity.

I designed Fruit Fuel for most fruiting plants. I recommend the water-soluble but there is also an organic version. You can read about it by searching Google for "Fruit Fuel".

Appleseed free is a great price. Woodchips are given away free here by utility companies and tree trimming firms. There is a lot of great free or cheap soul amendments.

You're right Clark...there really is a lot of free stuff available if one looks for it. The wood chips are available from the power company contractors here as well as landscape companies. One of my neighbors is having a virtual mountain built with free woodchips near his home...you should see the steam rising on cold mornings when the conditions are right...you'd think there was an industrial plant nearby. I've read Starbucks gives away their coffee grounds and I know one local coffee house does as well as the regional hospital here, the coffee house even packages them for you in those biodegradable trash bags that can be composted. At my other place (before I bought this one) I composted loads and loads of coffee grounds, grass clippings, shredded leaves and kitchen waste into my garden and you should have seen the difference in soil in just 8 years. I had earth worms the size of baby grass snakes everywhere. Wood ashes (you have to know what your getting) are great for adding in with all this stuff and help everything degrade more quickly. My neighbors even put their grass clippings and shredded leaves on my pile. It was more convenient for them and it helped me as well.

There are more options than I was aware of.Thanks,Brady