I've been using Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 as my 'all-purpose' one-size-fits-all fertilizer for the last couple of year & am extremely pleased with it, but any soluble fertilizer in a 3:1:2 ratio (like MG or Peters 24-8-16, MG 12-4-8, or the 9-3-6 mentioned) is easy to manage and a very good choice.

Al

If you can find Dr. Earth in your area it's right up there w/ espoma for in ground or raised bed/on top of soil planting.

For containers Take Al's suggestion. A few hours of searching on this forum will tell you organic ferts don't really work out in container culture. You'll find other recommendations that you might find local. FP is supposed to be hard to find except for online etail.

hydroponic stores are also likely to carry it.

Okay, I'm gonna be the odd ball. I just use a small handful of 10-10-10 or 13-13-13 commercial lawn fertilizer from any source. Cheaper is better. I usually buy it for my lawn at a local farm supply store. I distribute three or four tablespoons over the soil and water it in. I make sure to water the foliage in order to wash any beads of fert off the leaves. It will burn the leaves if left on.

Ted

You aren't really an odd ball for the approach, Ted. It's standard practice in SWC. If you are supplying only NPK then you would need to be using a growing medium that contains the rest of the nutrients though.

Hi Justaguy, Your right. He did say he was growing in good soil though. Good soil to me means it has some dirt in it with the basic mineral and bacteria complement. If he is using sterile potting mix, he should just ignore my suggestion. The NPK would probably flush through pretty fast anyhow. I did over state the amount to use though because it is dependent on the container size. I would start with maybe a tablespoon full in a smaller container. Two tablespoons in a larger container and three to four in a fifteen gallon container.

Thanks

Ted

cacher,

As you were limiting your question to Container veggies, I think what you should use depends greatly on what specific veggies you are growing. For example, Tomato-tone at 4-7-10 works great for my containers raising tomato plants, while a higher Nitrogen fert works better for corn.

{{gwi:5563}}

Raybo

I'm doing mostly Pepers, and Toms with some beans, Corn, Tomotilios, Calard greens. About 60 pots.

I simply use the red-sugar-looking MG Tomato Food for tomatoes, peppers & some other veggies. It's always mixed thoroughly into warm water, then put into a spray can & applied to potting mix close (but not too close) to plant main stem. Works wonders. That's just part of the "plan" though. The fertilization is one of many factors, when balanced properly, will produce an awesome plant. =)

- Steve

I use Steve Soloman's formula (which is for garden fertilizing in general) but y container plants seem to love it too..

Hi Al,

I'm somewhat referring to your thread for watering 101 at:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0416453111590.html

Basically, you mention that:

"Your soil should allow you to water at every watering so that water drains freely from the drain hole. The best way to water a container is: Wet the soil until you 'feel' the container is about to start draining from the bottom and stop. Wait 10 minutes and add additional water until about 10-15% of the total volume of water applied in both applications exits the drain hole. The first water allows dissolved solids to dissolve into solution, and the second watering flushes them from the soil."

My question in relating to fertilizers is that would this cause much of the dry fertilizers that you have in the container to wash away? So, if I had dry fertilizers for my tomato plant in a container, would I need to re-apply them more frequently? I think ideally for my tomatoes, I'd like to get to the consistent moisture levels present in SWC. However, I also have a bunch of tomato plants in regular containers that for the life of me, I'm struggling to keep watered and fertilized at the correct levels. Thanks!

Gary

The answer to your question could be really complicated, but basically, if it washes some of the fertilizer away, you just replace it. The purpose of watering in this fashion is to prevent fertilizer salts and dissolved minerals in your irrigation water from accumulating to levels that interfere with water/nutrient uptake.

Let me run a scenario past you. Imagine you're not watering like I suggest - that you only supply the plant the amount of water you feel it needs & are only keeping the soil damp. Imagine too, that you're using a balanced fertilizer like your garden variety of granular 12-12-12 or soluble 20-20-20.

Since your plant uses about 6x more N than P, and about half again as much K, when the N is depleted, there is still a LOT of P in the soil, and a fair amount of K. So what do you do? Add more 20-20-20 or 12-12-12? This supplies the N needed, but drives P and K levels even higher, not to mention that since you're watering in sips & none of the soluble salts are being flushed from the soil, we can add the dissolved solids in your irrigation water to the total of dissolved solids in the soil solution.

See the dilemma? You either end up over-fertilizing to satisfy the plant's N requirement, or you have to maintain N at a deficiency level to keep the TDS level within bounds.

Switch now to the way I suggested. You water & flush a % of salts from the soil each time. When fertility levels are LOW, you simply add a fresh supply of fertilizer and you're good to go. No accumulation of salts to worry about & no deficiencies.

It's easy too, while you're thinking about this, to see why it's a large advantage to supply nutrients in the approximate ratio in which plants use them. It keeps TDS at their lowest possible level & makes it easiest for plants to absorb water & nutrients. That's why many of us use almost exclusively a 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer as the base of our nutritional supplementation, and often use a K supplement to add flexibility, and in effect, change our nutrient ratios to manipulate growth patterns of certain plants.

Al

Thanks, Al! Will try this.

Thanks,
Gary