Homemade Miraclegro Liquafeed Refill

[Worth1]

Here you go folks putting my money where my mouth is.
I'm gonna brag on this one.
I ground the buttress thread form tool from blank stock.
Set the lathe up for 6 threads per inch.
Took measurements and made the darn thing out of 3/4 inch PVC.
I also made room for a hose washer in the bottom.
Fits like a glove.
Worth
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[Worth1]

I decided to put hose threads on the other end hose threads look like 11/12 per inch.
Mine will cut 11 per inch but it worked out fine.
Worth
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[Cole_Robbie]

Cool. Now you need an infomercial to sell them.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Cool. Now you need an infomercial to sell them.

Some how I feel that about the time it hit the market I would get sued or they would change it up some how.
You cant even patent the darn thing.
Well maybe you can I dont know.
No where on earth that I know of is there an adapter from hose thread to 6 inch buttress thread.
Buttress threads are all around us mostly on plastic pill bottles and so on.

[MrSalvage]

Would this Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed Kit replace the need for a pressure regulator & backflow preventer?

[Rajun Gardener]

Great job Worth, I'll take 2 when you make more. PM me and we'll work out the details.!

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by MrSalvage

Would this Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed Kit replace the need for a pressure regulator & backflow preventer?

When the one that connects to the faucet came out there was a thread started here about it.
One of the questions brought up was contaminating the water supply.
I did some research and it is built with a back flow type preventer inside.
There is also no need for a regulator

Originally Posted by Rajun Gardener

Great job Worth, I'll take 2 when you make more. PM me and we'll work out the details.!

Final testing isn't complete as I have yet to buy a faucet type MG device.

One thing I did do was make a mistake on the hose end threads.
They need to be female internal or you would need a female female adapter to connect to the hose the right way.
It would be best and cheaper to just buy the fitting you need to fit the end of the 3/4 PVC pipe.
One of the things I did do with my hose end MG contraption was to take it apart and bore the orifice out to 0.040.

Worth

[Rajun Gardener]

Worth, I think the male threads will work for what I want to do. I can use a washer hose with 2 females and attach it to a 5 gallon bucket with pvc fittings. A smaller flexible hose will help keeping pressure from a big hose pulling on the feeder threads. I can set the bucket on a stand higher than the faucet, fill it with solution and not have to worry about mixing it for a while.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Rajun Gardener

Worth, I think the male threads will work for what I want to do. I can use a washer hose with 2 females and attach it to a 5 gallon bucket with pvc fittings. A smaller flexible hose will help keeping pressure from a big hose pulling on the feeder threads. I can set the bucket on a stand higher than the faucet, fill it with solution and not have to worry about mixing it for a while.

Totally forgot about washer hoses.
It appears the green shoulder you see that is up against the PVC pipe in the below pictuer has something to do with the water running out the end of my hand held model.
The one I cut threads on this happens, the one I made from the bottle it doesn't.
I have no idea if it would do the same with the faucet type as it works differently.
In either way I can still overcome this.
Nope I just checked it is the green end cap itself that does it.
It is obvious now and it is fixed.
I set the threads back like the original bottle and turned the end down so the cap snaps on like it does the bottle.
It was then tested and everything works great.
I wanted to do this to begin with but thought I could get completely away from the factory cap.
It just so happened the inside shoulder of the cap fit the inside of SCH 40 PVC perfectly.

Worth

[Worth1]

Here are pictures of the modification.
Be back in a minute to explain.
Okay I am back.
In the first pictuer you will see where I set back the threads and thinned the wall of the pipe.
The second pictuer if you look there is a little ridge on the MG cap this ridge snaps into the inside diameter of the bottle or in this case the PVC pipe.
The outer collar or what ever you want to call it has to fit on the outside of the bottle or PVC pipe.
If the pipe isn't thinned down enough it will crack this thin piece of the green cap as I did but it still works.
In the third picture you can see it snapped onto the PVC pipe just like it does the bottle.
Worth
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[Rajun Gardener]

I'm glad you have time to tinker and get it right.

I've been playing too, I have a dutch bucket hydro system and have a PPM meter so I did some testing. I hope this makes sense

I bought some bulk MG, it's blue compared to the green stuff in the bottle and twice as strong. The blue is 24-8-16


The bottle refills are 12-4-8


The MG Tomato food is 18-18-21


I'm not exactly sure how PPM changes with different strengths but it took 6 tbsp of the blue MG mixed with a little water to reach the 450PPM that matches the prepacked bottle.

The instructions on the blue stuff


I went out and started testing all the mixed solutions
I set up the feeder like directions say for the feeder and tested the supplied bottle and out the hose the PPM is 519
I then mixed a batch of the blue stuff, 1 tbsp-1 gallon of water and it tested 885, this is closer to what my hydroponic mix is but maybe it's too strong for the garden to feed more than once a week because we already have most of the requirements to grow compared to hydroponics soil-less mix but I'm just guessing.
I changed the solution in the bottle and ran that home mix of the blue MG I mixed earlier, it was only 186. This should confirm that the fertilizer in the bottles are made from different stuff and I don't have a meter to test so from here I'm winging it.
I mixed another 4.5 tbsp and then it tested 265
I added another 4.5 and it went up to 366
That's a total of 15 tbsp to get 366, I'm guessing another 6 tbsp and it would reach the same PPM as the bottle but about half as much as the recommeded mix in the directions.
I used 1/2 lb of the 1.5lb box I bought for $5.00, that $1.66 for 40 gallons

I haven't been using MG so I can't say if works good mixing it lighter than recommended. I'm sure that most of us amend the soil before planting and that should help to not need a full strength mix as a weekly feeding.

I think it'll work great as a light feeding once a week and I'm gonna start off with 10tbsp and see how it goes. Thoughts?

[Worth1]

Sounds right but I could be confused.
I agree the stuff in the bottle is not just the other stuff mixed.
This is why I bored out the orifice to 40 thousands so I could use the 5-1-1 fish fertilizer.

Worth

[Rajun Gardener]

How much of the fish fert will you use? I only want a mild boost from the MG. I've been using Calcium Nitrate and sprinkling about 2 tablespoons around each plant and watering it in about every 2 weeks, they are pretty and full of tomatoes. Here's a pic of my beds, the sun is setting so some pics have a yellow glow. From here the sun is setting to my left and a little behind my back. This is my Mirliton trellis but just added the beds this year. I'm hoping that the Mirlitons will shade the summer heat and get a longer crop from the tomatoes.

[Worth1]

Mine came out to about 1 1/2 tablespoons per gallon if I mix the bottle 50/50 water and Fish fertilizer.
This was timing how many gallons a minute the thing put out and then timing how long it took to empty the bottle.

Worth

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by FourOaks

Are you tired of being held hostage to those expensive refills? Here is the solution (with easy math)

I pretty well like the MiracleGro injector device. And, that is, what it pretty much is. It injects fertilizer into your line at a fixed rate. It works with just about any watering method, and it doesn't have to be removed do to unresolved pressure issues. When you want to use it, switch it to "feed". When you want clean water, switch it to "water".

Here is a link in case you have no idea what im talking about:

http://www.miraclegro.com/smg/goART2...00004/12900004

First let me say I DON'T work for them, I just like the product itself. I have used it with drip irrigation, soaker hoses, and a plain wand. It works pretty darn reliably. Not to mention, a whole lot cheaper then a commercial injector.

The hang up, is the cost of the refills. Not to mention the lack of variety in the refills.

Now, this tutorial even applies if you have a brand of fertilizer you like other then MiracleGro. Just got to math it out. I know plenty of folks hate MircaleGro, and thats ok.

The first thing to establish is how much water passes thru the injector too empty the refill bottle. On that link I gave you, they have a handy dandy chart. Ignore that, its useless. If you do enough reading, way down in the FAQ, they give the answer, sort of.

The injector has a mix ratio of 325:1 To make this really simple (for those who don't quite understand it) 1 gallon of concentrated fertilizer would make 325 gallons of fertilized water (the stuff your feeding your plants with).

We need to make this a smaller number because the refills dont even come in a one gallon bottle. The refills are 16 ounce bottles.

One gallon is 128oz.

128/16 = 8

So it takes 8, 16 ounce bottles too equal a gallon. Perfect. Now we divide the 325 by 8.

325/8 = 40.625

We can round that down to 40. So we now know that the injector, with a refill bottle makes 40 gallons of fertilized water. Give or take, but close enough for my purpose.

Now the refill. I like the "All Purpose". Its labeled as 12-4-8. Which is a 3-1-2 ratio. Here is where this all works out to our advantage. If the fertilizer is a 3-1-2, 6-2-4, 9-3-6, 12-4-8, 15-5-10, 18-6-12, 21-7-14, or, 24-8-16, they are exactly the same, with one exception, the strength of the fertilizer.

To get to the point, 12-4-8 is half the strength of 24-8-16. So 24-8-16 is 2 times as strong as 12-4-8. Keep this in mind. We need to side track for a moment..

I prefer a weekly, weak feeding. I started that this year and have noticed improved results over feeding every other week. Plants are growing at what I would consider a consistent rate, they don't jump over night. They are staying green and lush. I fertilize every Friday morning. Its easy for me to remember that way.

Now back to math, and my previous point. To make our refill, use the 24-8-16 bulk fertilizer. Cost wise, its the most bang for your buck. Reading the instructions (and its pretty much the same for all water soluble MiracleGro) 1 TBSP of MG mixed with 1 gallon of water.

Now, following that math, using 24-8-16 (diluting in 1 gallon of water)

1 TBSP = 24-8-16 = 40 TBSP needed per refill bottle (This might kill you plants)
1/2 TBSP = 12-4-8 = 20 TBSP needed per refill bottle (Manageable every other week feedings)
1/4 TBSP = 6-2-4 = 10 TBSP needed per refill bottle (This is what I use every Friday)

We now have something to work with. Grab your supplies and your kitchen apron, its time to mix up a refill.

You will need some el cheapo measuring spoons, a funnel, coffee filter, and a jar/bottle to mix everything in. Also your empty refill bottle.

In your jar/bottle put in 14 to 15 ounces of warm water. I like using a quart size Gatorade bottle. But anything with a tight sealing lid will work.

Measure out your fertilizer (I use 10 TBSP) and add this to your jar with water. Shake this until the fertilizer is dissolved. Dont worry if you see some particles floating around. This is some sort of inert stuff that wont dissolve no matter what. Set this to the side.

The refill bottle has a valve that has to be removed. Using a knife, pry it off. Be careful, the first couple of times the valve is firmly seated. After that, it gets easier.

Now place your coffee filter in the funnel and place that into your refill bottle. Pour your homemade fertilizer in and let the filter do its job. I use one of the permanent coffee filters that is a fine metal mesh. It filters faster then a paper filter.

You want to filter the mix due to the sediment. It will clog up the injector if not.

Once your refill bottle is full, put the valve back on. You will hear it snap when it seats properly. Then, go feed your plants.

How is the mg injector holding up? I see a lot of people saying it starts leaking in the middle.

Can you post some pictures of your new tank setup?