Bulk Tom Fertilizer?

[Granite26]

OK so now that I am growing considerly more toms than a few years back I am looking for ideas regarding bulk fertilizer that wont break the bank. I only have 500 toms in but even giving them a dose of fertilizer adds up. I work compost in soil etc but like to give the plants a drink once or twice during the growing season. Last year I mixed up Neptunes Harvest and gave each plant a gallon but that added up fast.
Thanks for your ideas!

[Timmah!]

You could google your local farm supply service stores. They sell in bulk & in many cases will custom mix whatever analysis you desire in the way of N-P-K. They should also have varying pre-bagged analyses.

[rnewste]

Granite,

I am using a bulk 14-14-14 controlled release fertilizer made by BEST on my vegetables, and I am pleased with the results:



About $0.80 per pound in the 50 pound sack, which is much cheaper than Osmocote. Plus, this has a family of Micros that Osmocote doesn't have.

DESCRIPTION: A PROFESSIONAL, COST-EFFECTIVE 3 TO 4 MONTH* FERTILIZER INTENDED FOR TOPDRESSING CONTAINERS OR SOIL
INCORPORATION OF LANDSCAPED AREAS OR FIELD APPLICATIONS. A PORTION OF THE NITROGEN IN BEST LANDSCAPE COLOR IS UNCOATED TO
HELP ESTABLISH THE PLANT. THE REMAINDER OF THE NITROGEN IS CONTROLLED-RELEASE TO PROMOTE OPTIMUM TOP GROWTH DURING THE
GROWING SEASON. BEST LANDSCAPE COLOR ALSO HAS UNCOATED PHOSPHATE AND POTASH TO ESTABLISH EARLY ROOT DEVELOPMENT, ENHANCE
BLOSSOMING AND ALSO AN EXCELLENT MICRONUTRIENT PACKAGE TO ENHANCE VIGOROUS GROWTH.
BENEFITS: BEST LANDSCAPE COLOR

• With the addition of an expanded minor element package, BEST LANDSCAPE COLOR provides
the plant with all of the nutrition required in most conditions during the growing period.
• The controlled-release nitrogen in BEST LANDSCAPE COLOR is derived from POLYON® Reactive
Layers Coating (RLC™) to provide the most precise release of nutrition available in the industry. Release of nitrogen is
controlled by osmosis and is not affected by media type, moisture level, pH, or microbial activity.

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS:
TOTAL NITROGEN (N)............................................... ............................ 14.0000% TOTAL NITROGEN
4.15% Ammoniacal Nitrogen 4.15% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
9.85% Urea Nitrogen * 9.85% Urea Nitrogen *
AVAILABLE PHOSPHATE (P2O5)............................................ ................ 14.0000% TOTAL PHOSPHORUS
SOLUBLE POTASH (K2O)............................................. ........................... 14.0000% TOTAL POTASSIUM
Magnesium (Mg).............................................. ........................................... 0.5000%
Sulfur (S) .................................................. ........................................... 3.0000%
Copper (Cu) .................................................. ........................................... 0.0500%
Iron (Fe) .................................................. ........................................... 1.0000%
Manganese (Mn).............................................. ........................................... 0.0500%
Molybdenum (M0).............................................. ......................................... 0.0005%
Zinc (Zn) .................................................. ........................................... 0.1000%

SOIL / MEDIA TEMPERATURE
RELEASE RATES
50°F 10.5°C = 6 months
60°F 15.5°C = 5 months
70°F 21.0°C = 4 months*
80°F 26.5°C = 3 months
90°F 32.0°C = 2 months

Raybo

[Granite26]

Thanks! I will check these places/products out.

[stormymater]

Sounds like something I am interested in to! Thanks for posting!

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Granite26

OK so now that I am growing considerly more toms than a few years back I am looking for ideas regarding bulk fertilizer that wont break the bank. I only have 500 toms in but even giving them a dose of fertilizer adds up. I work compost in soil etc but like to give the plants a drink once or twice during the growing season. Last year I mixed up Neptunes Harvest and gave each plant a gallon but that added up fast.
Thanks for your ideas!

This won't help you right now but for the future it could be helpful. See if you can get alfalfa meal or alfalfa pellets in bulk. They are a great long term organic fertilizer that have considerable increased my production over the last couple of years. I have also used with equally good results cottonseed meal which might be harder to get at a good price up there.

[Mischka]

The best time-release fertilizer I've found: http://www.florikan.com/nutricote.html

They coat their time-release fertilizers with varying thicknesses of polymer, based on geographical weather area and they're guaranteed not to break down prematurely, up to 270 days.

I've done side-by-side comparisons with Florikote/Nutricote against Osmocote, Jack's ClassiCote, American Pride and Fox Farm. There's a remarkable difference in performance between them Florikote/Nutricote

It's not as widely distributed as the big names, but it's well worth it if you can find it. I purchased enough of it that they offered me a rep. position for New England/New York, to save on the exorbitant shipping cost.

[JackE]

We use Peter's soluble fertilizer in 25# bags. We prefer 20-20-20 All Purpose but we switched last year to 20-10-20 and saved $10 a bag.

Phopshorous has gone up over 700% in the last couple years, so if you have enough natural P in your soil, don't buy more P than you need. Our phosphorous mines in Florida afre depleted and the last really productive P mines are in muslim-controlled No Africa (like oil!!). They are going to be extracting phosphorous from municipal waste in the future to meet agriculure demands. Have you noticed that retail lawn fertilizers often have no P anymore?

Peter's soluble 20-10-20 with full trace elements serves us well for everything. We apply it weekly to toms at the rate of 1#/100 plants, and every other week we add 1# of calcium nitrate throughout the growing seson.

The price of the Peters changes all the time - we paid $30/bag last spring but it's gone up 25% I hear. We pick up one load a year from Kinney Bonded Warehouse in Tyler, Texas. We get a quantity discount that way, but it tends to harden in the bags after a few months which makes if difficult to handle. Doesn't hurt it any, just a pain in the neck - we have to dump it in a tub and break-it up with a hammer, weigh it separately and make a slurry before injecting it in the drip system or putting it in the sprayer.

If you can keep it in a climate-controlled place, or live in a dryer climate, it won't harden like that.

Jack

[Wi-sunflower]

Have you noticed that retail lawn fertilizers often have no P anymore?

I don't think that has a whole lot to do with the availibility of Phos as much as the "clean water" regs most states have now. Phos runoff is said to be a major polutant and causes the "blooms" in lakes in the hot weather. That's also why phos has been taken out of most detergents.

Carol

[JackE]

Hi Carol --

Here's an interesting link to an article in the London Times regarding the worldwide scarcity of phophate rock reserves. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle4193017.ece

Mosaic Corp, the last of about 100 US firms mining once abundant phosphate in Florida, still controls 16% of world supplies but the reserves are dwindling rapidly as demand increases - it's stock has been going thru the roof - fastest growing on the NY Exchange - as the price of ertilizer grows exponentially every year. Morocco now has the last really substantial P reserves - but still not enough to meet demand for more than a couple decades. Experts are predicting a major crisis in food production, due to P shortage, in about 20 years. We cannot produce food without phosphorous.

Meanwhile, we producers can expect to see our fertilizer bills skyrocket, which is reflected, of course. at the supermarket. Food is actually on the rise now, due in part to the cost of P - along with diesel fuel, of course. European countries are already capturing P from sewage and the price is reaching the point that those technologies will soon be used here. This is a sleeper crisis waiting to happen and we had better get our stuff together and deal with it.

Jack

[RinTinTin]

If you are looking for a cheap/free source of Phos. check out poultry processing facilities.
The NPK ratio of poultry feathers is 15-30-0.

[JackE]

Yeah - chicken manure is hot too - 12%N . We have a large poultry industry within a couple of hours from here, and they used to give it away but now, with the growing organic industry, they sell it to commercial composters - or so I am told. I haven't used any manure in years - it wouldn't fit into our present operation but maybe we'll have to return to grandpa's days the way things are going :-)

I would imagine they sell the feathers to the composters too. The organic growers I know don't do their own composting anymore. They just call the composter who delivers and spreads it for them - more economical, they tell me.

We used to get used mushroom compost for free from several mushroom farms here in East Texas - very rich in all elements. They can only use the compost once for disease reasons and used to give it away. But now the organic growers have contracted for it - many use it exclusively. It's fantastic stuff - it was smoking and steaming in the truck and would actually burn your hand if you stuck it down in there!

Jack

Jack