At the beginning of the season, I use 1 TB per gal. A few months later, I add about 3 per 5 gallon.

This is in conjunction of my normal weekly half doses of Miracle Gro All Purpose.

Kevin

For top dressing, 3-4 shakes. Precision is not rewarded.

Dennis

Is the Osmocote meant for container application?
I know the stuff I use is fine for containers, but I know there are other formulations out there. My bottle has instructions for container-size, although not very specific.

Josh

Thanks guys. I did a little more research and apparently the 15-9-12 formulation is the one recommended for containers, not the 14-14-14. It probably wouldn't hurt anything if I used the 14-14-14, but I'll probably just save this for other purposes and stick with the MG right now.

I don't use this product but over the years I've had a nursery, I've had to do this kind of calculation all the time with fertilizers that are labelled for farming. If you do want to be accurate you want to calculate the exact square inches of the top of the pot, but if you think it is a square foot, then what you told us is the same thing I would do. For us, 7 gallon pots are close to 1sf. In reality, this isn't a real hot fertilizer, so if you over do it a bit, it shouldn't hurt anything.

Basically the difference between 14-14-14 and 15-9-12 is in the amount of P, relative to N and K. Even the amount of P in 15-9-12 is on the high side any way, according to the new theories. They recommend using a 3-1-2 raio, like MG blue water soluble stuff ( 24-8-16).