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Mailing Address
East Everglades
Orchid Society
15220 SW 232 St.
Miami, FL 33170
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Liquid Fertilizer
by Dr. Bert Pressman
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| Someone I know switched from solid to liquid fertilizer because he couldn't get the last smidgeon to dissolve, and he was damned if he would pay for the insolubles. Talk about being penny-wise and pound-foolish! In using Dynagrow (liquid) to avoid insolubles, he raised his cost for plant nutrients about ten fold.
I, too, like the convenience of liquid fertilizer, but I am too cheap to pay such a premium, so I "roll my own." All you need is a bag of 20-20-20 fertilizer (I prefer "No Dye"), a 2 qt Pyrex bowl with pouring spout, a 1 gal, thick plastic or glass storage vessel (milk cartons eventually leak!), and a microwave oven.
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Place 4 cups of 20-20-20 and 3/4 cup Epsom salts (to supply needed magnesium) in the bowl, add about a qt. water, and heat in the oven till hot (about 6 min on high). Stir thoroughly with spoon or paddle, let undissolved crystals settle, and pour the clear liquid above into the storage vessel (funnel useful). Add another qt water to the mixing bowl, reheat, stir, settle and add the clear fluid to the storage vessel. Repeat the procedure a third time, which should be sufficient to dissolve all the fertilizer possible. Fill the storage vessel with additional water till the total volume is a gallon. On standing, a fluffy residue settles out leaving a clear fluid above. You have now produced a gallon of 6-6-6 concentrate, containing 1/2 Tbsp. fertilizer per liquid ounce.
If you fertilize with a pump sprayer, use 2 Tbsp. 6-6-6/ gal. A Gilmore hose-end sprayer, at a dial setting of 2, delivers about 1 Oz from the reservoir/ gal spray. Thus, filling the 1 pt reservoir (it actually holds 18 Oz) with concentrate delivers 18 gal spray. I can pour 7 clear pints from the storage vessel, enough for 7 fertilizer applications. To salvage the dregs, filtration from the fluffy residue is required (a layer of Kleenex works as a filter).
If you want to use the hose-end sprayer to deliver less than 18 gal, fill the spray reservoir only partially. For example, if you want to spray only 4 gal, put only 8 Tbsp. (4 Oz) 6-6-6 into the reservoir; if you need less than 4 gal spray, you don't yet have enough orchids. |
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