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Old 23-04-2009, 04:34 PM posted to alt.home.lawn.garden
[email protected] trader4@optonline.net is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 431
Default Fertilizing Suggestions

On Apr 23, 9:50*am, Old Bob wrote:
I had a soil test done on my vegetable garden at the University of
Wsconsin Extension. *The results stated that I need to add .30 lbs/sq
ft of Nitrogen, no additional Phosphates, and to add .2 lbs/sq ft of
potash.


Which makes no sense, as that would be an exraordinary rate. They
likely either said or meant .3lbs/1000 sq ft.






To do this they say
*"Nitrogen: Apply .4 lbs of regular (high N) turf fertilizer per 100
sq ft to meet plant nitrogen needs"


Typical fertilizer meeting that very open spec would be about 30% N,
which is probably what they meant. Applying it at that rate would
give you 1.2lbs N per 1000 sq ft. which sounds like a high amount for
one application. Usually, you don't apply more than 1lb per
application. It also doesn't square with the analysis from above.




and
"Potash: *Apply 1.0 lbs of winterizer turf fertilizer per 100 sq ft to
meet plant potash needs".


And that would seem to be off by a factor of 10X too. Plus, if you're
applying nitrogen from the first advice, then with the typical
winterizer fertilizer you're also putting down more N, which makes the
advice all the more conflicting.




I am trying to translate this into what I should purchase and am left
more than a little cold. *Any suggestions on how this might translate
will be appreciated.

BTW, my garder is ~ 299 sq ft and the main crop is paste tomatoes.



Which then just adds to the confusion, because the advice they gave
you appears to be targeted at turfgrass.


You can figure out what the product contains from the label on the
bag. The fertilizer is labeled with 3 numbers, N P K, given in
percent.

N= nitrogen
P= Phosphorous
K= Potash


So, as an example, if you have a fertilizer that is 32 5 7, and you
apply it at a rate of 1 lb per 1000 sq ft, you will be getting .32lb N
per 1000 sq ft.