bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Fertilizer Ratios and Effect on Dilution...

As example I have a bottle of Schultz African Violet Plus fertilizer, which has an analysis of 8-14-9. Those numbers are the percentage by weight of the NPK - 8% Nitrogen, 14% Phosphate, 9% Potash. Now, you would never apply it at the "full strength" as you say (to african violets or bonsai at least). The recommended concentration is

7 drops per quart of water if used continuously
14 drops per quart if used once or twice a month.

So this 5.5 oz bottle is good for something like 25 -50 Gallons of fertilized irrigation water when used at normal strength. And full concentration is about 100 times recommended strength!

Regardless of that, if you wanted to reduce fertilizer application to about 10% normal, if you were using it once a week, you could cut your fertilizer application to once every two months and get a similar result to diluting the fertilizer from normal to 1:10 of normal.

Personally, I find it easier to play with the frequency of application, or simply skip the hottest months altogether.

Now I prefer to use organic fertilizer in cake form, so I simply don't apply it as frequently and often remove much of what was already there as the heat builds, or stop applying it altogether until the brunt of the summer heat passes

To answer the technical question, you'd be best off talking to Soildoc, but it comes down to the amount of fertilizer that is retained in the soil over a given period of time, which is a function of concentration and frequency of application, and characteristics of the soil, like CEC which is a measure of how sticky it is to certain ions, and how fast draining it is.

Hope that helps!

Regards,

Matt

16-Aug-2002	#2
TreeBay Tips:5¢ Advice:Free *MODERATOR GROUP* Join Date: Aug-2001 Location: Silicon Valley Country: USA USDA Zone: 9 AHS Heat Zone: 4 Posts: 9,747	As example I have a bottle of Schultz African Violet Plus fertilizer, which has an analysis of 8-14-9. Those numbers are the percentage by weight of the NPK - 8% Nitrogen, 14% Phosphate, 9% Potash. Now, you would never apply it at the "full strength" as you say (to african violets or bonsai at least). The recommended concentration is 7 drops per quart of water if used continuously 14 drops per quart if used once or twice a month. So this 5.5 oz bottle is good for something like 25 -50 Gallons of fertilized irrigation water when used at normal strength. And full concentration is about 100 times recommended strength! Regardless of that, if you wanted to reduce fertilizer application to about 10% normal, if you were using it once a week, you could cut your fertilizer application to once every two months and get a similar result to diluting the fertilizer from normal to 1:10 of normal. Personally, I find it easier to play with the frequency of application, or simply skip the hottest months altogether. Now I prefer to use organic fertilizer in cake form, so I simply don't apply it as frequently and often remove much of what was already there as the heat builds, or stop applying it altogether until the brunt of the summer heat passes To answer the technical question, you'd be best off talking to Soildoc, but it comes down to the amount of fertilizer that is retained in the soil over a given period of time, which is a function of concentration and frequency of application, and characteristics of the soil, like CEC which is a measure of how sticky it is to certain ions, and how fast draining it is. Hope that helps! Regards, Matt __________________ Want to be a seller on bonsaiAUCTIONS? Get authorized today! bonsaiTALK: Over 100,005.36 Megabytes Served this Month!