wrote:
In a message dated 7/30/2005 8:41:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
writes:


So why would you trust the info? One fertilizer (of the same
type) is much like another.



I posted it because it came up on another list. There they were looking at a
specific brand that had been recommended by another grower.
I would trust it as far as it goes, but since Dyna-Gro was the only one with
a complete list of trace elements, it could be that they left some competition
off the list that had the same formula.
No argument about the equality of fertilizers but many of the common brands
lack trace elements you may or may not need.
For landscape use, Florida is pushing the idea of using only the nutrients
you need, rather than using a balanced N-P-K. If you don't need the P-K why add
it to the runoff.
Of course, try to find a source of fertilizer that has no or limited amounts
of P-K. Most home owners can't.
For $3 you can send a soil sample to Gainesville and get back a pH report.
For $7 the report also lists P, K, and Ca. They are pushing the $7 report at
least in Brevard County.
Billy on the Florida Space Coast



Around here, the Extension Office recommends 15-0-15 for
landscape use as our soils are naturally high in P and P is
the primary runoff nutrient. Nurseries are even starting to
stock it (though they keep on stocking the 20-30-20 [and
other] stuff, too).

Pot plants, of course, need the X-X-X balance. I don't
worry about the amount of trace elements in the fertilizer I
buy since I get bottles of chelated elements (plus) and add
it to all my fish emulsion and seaweed fertilizer which
don't have trace elements -- at least not in amounts
suficient to go on the label.

I trust very little that the fertilizer manufacturers say --
even application rates, since they are always tilted to over
application because it means you buy more fertilizer.
(Still, for the average home gardener, it is best to follow
them; otherwise the homeoener would massively overapply
under the theory that "more is better" [especially on lawns]
It isn't.)

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nature
encourages no looseness, pardons no errors. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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