Outrageous cost of palm fertilizer

[Walt]

I was at my local Home Depot recently and had my socks knocked off when I saw the current price of fertilizer.

For example:

Lesco 13-3-13: $41.31/50# bag.

Lesco 8-10-10: $33.81/50# bag.

Vigoro 10-10-10: $20.98/40# bag.

Rite Green 6-6-6: $11.47/33# bag.

These prices are frigging laughable!

I told the garden manager that stuff could sit on the pallets and rot before I would pay that price. She confirmed to me many customers were complaining and also not purchasing the fertilizer.

Monday I went to a local fertilizer store (Brandt) that caters to agriculture. They have much better prices.

Growers Palm Special 12-4-12-2 (mag.) with controlled release nitrogen and potash: $20.00/50# bag.

The above is roughly equivelant to Lesco and is less than half the price (thus also half the sales tax).

I bought six bags for this month's feeding, which I will do at the end of the month. Plus, I bought a 2-1/2 gallon jug of Nurture CRN 30-0-0- controlled release liquid fertilizer. I will use this (nitrogen) to supplement my wood ash that I use to fertlize my less important palms and shurbs. Wood ash has everything by nitrogen, plus it has about 50% the equivalency of lime, which I need in my acidic sandy soil.

Home Depot and Lesco can go pound sand with respect to their fertilizer.

[_Keith]

I was at my local Home Depot recently and had my socks knocked off when I saw the current price of fertilizer.

For example:

Lesco 13-3-13: $41.31/50# bag.

Lesco 8-10-10: $33.81/50# bag.

Vigoro 10-10-10: $20.98/40# bag.

Rite Green 6-6-6: $11.47/33# bag.

These prices are frigging laughable!

I told the garden manager that stuff could sit on the pallets and rot before I would pay that price. She confirmed to me many customers were complaining and also not purchasing the fertilizer.

Monday I went to a local fertilizer store (Brandt) that caters to agriculture. They have much better prices.

Growers Palm Special 12-4-12-2 (mag.) with controlled release nitrogen and potash: $20.00/50# bag.

The above is roughly equivelant to Lesco and is less than half the price (thus also half the sales tax).

I bought six bags for this month's feeding, which I will do at the end of the month. Plus, I bought a 2-1/2 gallon jug of Nurture CRN 30-0-0- controlled release liquid fertilizer. I will use this (nitrogen) to supplement my wood ash that I use to fertlize my less important palms and shurbs. Wood ash has everything by nitrogen, plus it has about 50% the equivalency of lime, which I need in my acidic sandy soil.

Home Depot and Lesco can go pound sand with respect to their fertilizer.

It is not just fertilizer. Not sure if you do the grocery shopping in the family, but the grocery store is just as laughable nowadays. When fuel went sky high everyone jacked their prices. I suspect, that even though fuel is now back to normal, they are leaving the prices high to see if they can hold them there.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Walt, the fertilizer business absurd right now. Prices on some things (primarily Nitrogen) have fallen recently, but Potassium is still over the top. In fact, the commodity price is still $1200-1300 per ton (in shipload, bulk quantites!!!!!). Good palm fertilizers contain a lot of potassium. The limited number of raw materials suppliers (like Chilean Nitrate, Agrium, China, Belarus, and one other player that I can't remember) have a huge market share. They effectively have a cartel and some have closed production facilities to keep 2008 prices up. (The cost of potassium rose 800% in 2008). Phosophorous is still way high too. The micros (metals like Iron, Copper, Zinc, etc) have decreased. The price increases you found at the retailers wasn't an effort to increase profits, it reflected an absurd increase in the cost. Many vendors to the big boxes sign price agreements that are good for 12 months. That meant they couldn't increase the price despite the increase in costs. One company, Spectrum Industries, sold or closed all of their businesses that sold fertilizer and I wonder if they got caught in the price agreement vice. My employer, Scotts Miracle Gro, purchased the Vigoro brand from Spectrum. Unfortunately we don't own any of the raw materials manufacturing facilities! We felt the pinch too. Now in the business unit I work with, we are trying to sell expensive fertilizer to nurseries that aren't selling plants! It's one hell of a mess and when it's over, I hope I never experience anything like it again. I'm genuinely worried about my job! Sorry for the griping. It's keeping me awake at night! If you want some good fertilizer for your potted plants, drop me an e-mail. I'd be glad to trade a bag or two for garden tour! My e-mail is keithsa@mac.com.

[_Keith]

Walt, the fertilizer business absurd right now. Prices on some things (primarily Nitrogen) have fallen recently, but Potassium is still over the top. In fact, the commodity price is still $1200-1300 per ton (in shipload, bulk quantites!!!!!). Good palm fertilizers contain a lot of potassium. The limited number of raw materials suppliers (like Chilean Nitrate, Agrium, China, Belarus, and one other player that I can't remember) have a huge market share. They effectively have a cartel and some have closed production facilities to keep 2008 prices up. (The cost of potassium rose 800% in 2008). Phosophorous is still way high too. The micros (metals like Iron, Copper, Zinc, etc) have decreased. The price increases you found at the retailers wasn't an effort to increase profits, it reflected an absurd increase in the cost. Many vendors to the big boxes sign price agreements that are good for 12 months. That meant they couldn't increase the price despite the increase in costs. One company, Spectrum Industries, sold or closed all of their businesses that sold fertilizer and I wonder if they got caught in the price agreement vice. My employer, Scotts Miracle Gro, purchased the Vigoro brand from Spectrum. Unfortunately we don't own any of the raw materials manufacturing facilities! We felt the pinch too. Now in the business unit I work with, we are trying to sell expensive fertilizer to nurseries that aren't selling plants! It's one hell of a mess and when it's over, I hope I never experience anything like it again. I'm genuinely worried about my job! Sorry for the griping. It's keeping me awake at night! If you want some good fertilizer for your potted plants, drop me an e-mail. I'd be glad to trade a bag or two for garden tour! My e-mail is keithsa@mac.com.

My prayers to you, my friend.

[Mark Heath]

Walt, where is this store that you're talking about? Sounds like good prices to me!! I travel to frostproof every now and then, and it is somewhat close to your place i imagine?

[Walt]

Walt, where is this store that you're talking about? Sounds like good prices to me!! I travel to frostproof every now and then, and it is somewhat close to your place i imagine?

Mark: Brandt Consolidated (formely Agra Chem) is located on SR 17, just south of Avon Park. Their phone number is 863-453-6450.

Their actual address is: 959 South Anglelo Lake Road.

The Growers Palm Special 12-4-12-2 I bought for $20/50# bag comes from Growers Fertilizer Corporation, 312 North Buena Vista Drive, Lake Alfred, Florida (in case you can get it from them and it would be closer to you).

Here's their homepage link. They have a retail store at Lake Alfred: http://www.growersfertilizer.com/

I'm not sure why they don't list the fertilizer I bought, but they do list 8-2-12.

[Walt]

Walt, the fertilizer business absurd right now. Prices on some things (primarily Nitrogen) have fallen recently, but Potassium is still over the top. In fact, the commodity price is still $1200-1300 per ton (in shipload, bulk quantites!!!!!). Good palm fertilizers contain a lot of potassium. The limited number of raw materials suppliers (like Chilean Nitrate, Agrium, China, Belarus, and one other player that I can't remember) have a huge market share. They effectively have a cartel and some have closed production facilities to keep 2008 prices up. (The cost of potassium rose 800% in 2008). Phosophorous is still way high too. The micros (metals like Iron, Copper, Zinc, etc) have decreased. The price increases you found at the retailers wasn't an effort to increase profits, it reflected an absurd increase in the cost. Many vendors to the big boxes sign price agreements that are good for 12 months. That meant they couldn't increase the price despite the increase in costs. One company, Spectrum Industries, sold or closed all of their businesses that sold fertilizer and I wonder if they got caught in the price agreement vice. My employer, Scotts Miracle Gro, purchased the Vigoro brand from Spectrum. Unfortunately we don't own any of the raw materials manufacturing facilities! We felt the pinch too. Now in the business unit I work with, we are trying to sell expensive fertilizer to nurseries that aren't selling plants! It's one hell of a mess and when it's over, I hope I never experience anything like it again. I'm genuinely worried about my job! Sorry for the griping. It's keeping me awake at night! If you want some good fertilizer for your potted plants, drop me an e-mail. I'd be glad to trade a bag or two for garden tour! My e-mail is keithsa@mac.com.

Keith: I realize it isn't Home Depot's fault, that they are conspiring to keep their price up. My comment to the garden manager (and I've known her for many years and we are friends) was not directed at her or Home Depot, but for her to give customer complaint feed back to the vendor.

I had read about six months ago that the nitrogen in fertilizer was derived from natural gas, and when the cost of NG skyrocketed so did the cost of nitrogen. I wasn't aware of the higer potassium costs. As for Phosphorus, this is uneeded in my soil, so I delibertly look for a NPK analysis that is low on P. I don't want to pay for minerals I don't need.

Since potassium is what most palms here in Florida are deficient of, I would like to buy some straight potassium. I manage to get one 50# bag of 0-0-62 by Lesco, but a friend had to get it for me up in Orlando. It's not available here.

BTW, I can get all my fertilizer needs at Brandt. I buy 25# bags of 20-20-20 water soluable; 14-14-14 osmocote, and various analysis of nutricote slow release pellet types (like Dynamite).

Anytime you want a tour of my garden just let me know. However, that tour will have to wait until my garden recovers.

I was going to hold the CFPACS June meeting here (as per CFPACS president Bob Johnson's wishes) but that is cancelled now (I think). I just had another mid 20 night in the open yard and 28.8 under tree canopy. If tomorrow is colder than this morning it may be my coldest on record since moving here in 1997.

[Walt]

I was at my local Home Depot recently and had my socks knocked off when I saw the current price of fertilizer.

For example:

Lesco 13-3-13: $41.31/50# bag.

Lesco 8-10-10: $33.81/50# bag.

Vigoro 10-10-10: $20.98/40# bag.

Rite Green 6-6-6: $11.47/33# bag.

These prices are frigging laughable!

I told the garden manager that stuff could sit on the pallets and rot before I would pay that price. She confirmed to me many customers were complaining and also not purchasing the fertilizer.

Monday I went to a local fertilizer store (Brandt) that caters to agriculture. They have much better prices.

Growers Palm Special 12-4-12-2 (mag.) with controlled release nitrogen and potash: $20.00/50# bag.

The above is roughly equivelant to Lesco and is less than half the price (thus also half the sales tax).

I bought six bags for this month's feeding, which I will do at the end of the month. Plus, I bought a 2-1/2 gallon jug of Nurture CRN 30-0-0- controlled release liquid fertilizer. I will use this (nitrogen) to supplement my wood ash that I use to fertlize my less important palms and shurbs. Wood ash has everything by nitrogen, plus it has about 50% the equivalency of lime, which I need in my acidic sandy soil.

Home Depot and Lesco can go pound sand with respect to their fertilizer.

It is not just fertilizer. Not sure if you do the grocery shopping in the family, but the grocery store is just as laughable nowadays. When fuel went sky high everyone jacked their prices. I suspect, that even though fuel is now back to normal, they are leaving the prices high to see if they can hold them there.

I'm well aware of grocery prices! My wife works at Publix Supermarkets. The price of everything has soared.

[Mark Heath]

Hello Walt,

Thank you so much for the link, it's now on my favorites bar! I am a liscenced grower, Breezy Palms Growers LLC.

Hopefully they will sell to me and also,,, the fertilizer you use,,, do you recomend it for XButyagrus'?? Please inform me

as to which fertilizer i should buy from them. It will be liquid seeing i am going to run it through my irrigation system at

my palm field in Frostproof.

BTW, I do hope you hold a CFPACS meeting at your place, i would love to see your garden!!! Don't worry, it could'nt look any more burnt than mine!!

Mark

[edric]

It is Home Depots fault, I went there about a month ago or so, and they wanted I think 9.97 for a bag of palm fert. that was only 6.97 at wal-Mart right down the street, and Lesco the brand they push at home Depot, has no trace elements, try Rite Green, it does have trace elements, so far Wal-Mart has the best price, and product, Ed

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Walt, I think it would be interesting to see how your garden is recovering so I'd encourage you to host the meeting. There is certainly no cause to worry about the aesthetics. All of us are essentially in the same boat and freezes are going to occur again so it's valuable to observe the survivors and how they are recovering. The recovery (or death) of palms is one of the important aspects of our hobby. In my case I'm going replace the deceased with plants that have better cold tolerance. Last night, the frost was so heavy here that it looked like snow. Luckily it wasn't that cold, but boy can the frost cause damage. I found burnt fronds on my Livistona drudei that I hadn't noticed up till then (but I'm moderately red-green colorblind so sometimes I have to really be up close to see it). I understand your point about the Potassium. We've been coating Potassium Chloride (KCL), and Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4) for some time. I imagine I can get some. Working in conjunction with ProSource in Ft Myers, we just built a palm fert that I think complies with Dr Tim Broschat's recommendations. I think it's a bit pricy because of the specs. It's not our brand but contains some of our coated Potassium and Coated nitrogen. The Phosphorous is 2% which is in line with his recommendations. The first batch was built as samples and I think it's been shipped to several key nurseries.

Keith, thanks for the kind words. Much to my surprise today, I heard that we are actually going to hire for an open position! I'm interpreting it as a sign our leaders are going to be patient! I've been pumped up all day!

If this economy would just turn around. I watch the news on Friday night (too depressing to watch more than once/week!) and I hear they are close to printing and spending the $800,000,000,000 "stimulus package". So, I did a little bit of MS Excel math and discovered if they took the $800,000,000,000 and divided it evenly for every American alive, is that only $2666 per capita? Am I missing some zeros somewhere? Anyway, considering the scale of the per captia problem, it seems like a giant waste to borrow and spend this money. $2666 per capita isn't going to fix this problem! We need to get people whole on their mortgages before anything is going to turn around. I'm a friggin' horticulturist and I'm having yet another giant DUHHH! moment here. Instead of writing checks, they need to force lenders and borrowers to the renegotiation table and work out new loans that people can pay. Both the lenders and the borrowers should share the resulting pain instead of passing debt on to our grandchildren!! The results of people paying their mortgages again would begin changing things. I fear that until that happens, nothing is going to work until the natural economic cycle does precisely the same thing (with about the same grace as a tornado "pruning" a tree). So, I don't see the demand for trees and shrubs (or the fertilizers used to grow them) going up any time soon.

Edric, good find at Wal-Mart. I certainly wouldn't say that all of the store sell at the same markup % (it's also possible Wal-Mart didn't have the new, more expensive products on the shelf yet). But in the same line of thought you are expressing, one thing I'm trying to understand right now is whether the Big Boxes are passing along the enormous discounts some of their plant vendors are giving. I know of 2 large wholesale nurseries that have cut their selling price in half. I don't know whether the stores have passed along that savings. I sure hope they have! It's been too cold in my neck of the woods to purchase anything anyway so I haven 't been plant shopping.

[Walt]

Hello Walt,

Thank you so much for the link, it's now on my favorites bar! I am a liscenced grower, Breezy Palms Growers LLC.

Hopefully they will sell to me and also,,, the fertilizer you use,,, do you recomend it for XButyagrus'?? Please inform me

as to which fertilizer i should buy from them. It will be liquid seeing i am going to run it through my irrigation system at

my palm field in Frostproof.

BTW, I do hope you hold a CFPACS meeting at your place, i would love to see your garden!!! Don't worry, it could'nt look any more burnt than mine!!

Mark

Hi Mark,

Your are welcome for the link. I believe in networking and passing on information to all parties interested.

I've been buying from Brandt (formely Agra Chem) for years off and on. Hence, I've been feeding all of my palms with either Growers Palm Special 12-4-12-2 or Lesco 13-3-13 or Lesco 8-10-10. I have one butiagrus palm and it has about 5 feet of trunk and a full, green canopy. Not a trace of potassium deficiency in it.

I haven't ruled out that I wouldn't have a meeting in 2009. I think a fall meeting would work, based on the expected recovery of my garden. Bob Johnson (before the freezes) was shooting for a June meeting here (we had one here in June of 2003). I was up for a June 2009 meeting until last week's devastating freeze.

The problem is, is with lead time to announce the CFPACS quarterly meetings in the Palmateer and website, etc. If I could hold off my decision until the end of April I would know if my garden would be presentable.

I think we are out of the woods now with respect to any more hard freezes. The 15-day forecast shows nothing less than low 40s for my area. I now look forward to the warm weather that will induce new growth to everything that was freeze damaged, hencs showing how far back wood (non palm stuff) was frozen back to.

Walt

[Walt]

Walt, I think it would be interesting to see how your garden is recovering so I'd encourage you to host the meeting. There is certainly no cause to worry about the aesthetics. All of us are essentially in the same boat and freezes are going to occur again so it's valuable to observe the survivors and how they are recovering. The recovery (or death) of palms is one of the important aspects of our hobby. In my case I'm going replace the deceased with plants that have better cold tolerance. Last night, the frost was so heavy here that it looked like snow. Luckily it wasn't that cold, but boy can the frost cause damage. I found burnt fronds on my Livistona drudei that I hadn't noticed up till then (but I'm moderately red-green colorblind so sometimes I have to really be up close to see it). I understand your point about the Potassium. We've been coating Potassium Chloride (KCL), and Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4) for some time. I imagine I can get some. Working in conjunction with ProSource in Ft Myers, we just built a palm fert that I think complies with Dr Tim Broschat's recommendations. I think it's a bit pricy because of the specs. It's not our brand but contains some of our coated Potassium and Coated nitrogen. The Phosphorous is 2% which is in line with his recommendations. The first batch was built as samples and I think it's been shipped to several key nurseries.

Keith, thanks for the kind words. Much to my surprise today, I heard that we are actually going to hire for an open position! I'm interpreting it as a sign our leaders are going to be patient! I've been pumped up all day!

If this economy would just turn around. I watch the news on Friday night (too depressing to watch more than once/week!) and I hear they are close to printing and spending the $800,000,000,000 "stimulus package". So, I did a little bit of MS Excel math and discovered if they took the $800,000,000,000 and divided it evenly for every American alive, is that only $2666 per capita? Am I missing some zeros somewhere? Anyway, considering the scale of the per captia problem, it seems like a giant waste to borrow and spend this money. $2666 per capita isn't going to fix this problem! We need to get people whole on their mortgages before anything is going to turn around. I'm a friggin' horticulturist and I'm having yet another giant DUHHH! moment here. Instead of writing checks, they need to force lenders and borrowers to the renegotiation table and work out new loans that people can pay. Both the lenders and the borrowers should share the resulting pain instead of passing debt on to our grandchildren!! The results of people paying their mortgages again would begin changing things. I fear that until that happens, nothing is going to work until the natural economic cycle does precisely the same thing (with about the same grace as a tornado "pruning" a tree). So, I don't see the demand for trees and shrubs (or the fertilizers used to grow them) going up any time soon.

Edric, good find at Wal-Mart. I certainly wouldn't say that all of the store sell at the same markup % (it's also possible Wal-Mart didn't have the new, more expensive products on the shelf yet). But in the same line of thought you are expressing, one thing I'm trying to understand right now is whether the Big Boxes are passing along the enormous discounts some of their plant vendors are giving. I know of 2 large wholesale nurseries that have cut their selling price in half. I don't know whether the stores have passed along that savings. I sure hope they have! It's been too cold in my neck of the woods to purchase anything anyway so I haven 't been plant shopping.

Hi Keith,

As I mentioned to Mark in my last reply to him, I haven't ruled out a meeting at my place. Most garden items will be fully restored (or close to it) by June. What I'm referring to here is non palm stuff, such as climbing vines, ficus species trees, ixora, hibiscus, bananas, alocasias, etc.

Palm canopies are another thing. By June, many of my palms that were totally fried won't have but 3-4 new fronds and will look overtrimmed. My prized (to me) Archontophoenix alexadrae palm was totally fried. I sure hope this one makes it. I believe it will due to its size.

Like you, I don't plan on replacing any zone 10+ palms lost by this freeze (I doubt if I will lose any, based on past freeze and defoliation experiences). But if I do lose any, they will be replaced with more cold hardy species. I do have a stock of A. cunninghamiana to replace any I may lose to the freeze. But if I don't lost any, all my stock will be planted this spring.

One good thing from last week's radiational freeze is that it sharply defined the warmest areas of my property. Hence, it will be these areas that I will plant my stock of A. cunninghamiana.

Walt

[Mark Heath]

Thanks Walt,

I have allways used Lesco 8-10-10. It works great but now i know which fertilizer to use from Brandt.

Thank you,

Mark

[edbrown_III]

Walt and Mark,

Good commentary you all,

Last time I fertilized ( in sept) the high end Lesco was 26.95----

I did something simular the feed store has a nurserymans special --- all the minors etc. like the high end Lesco-- so I started using that -- its priced about the same $20/bag. --- Hard to digest but not the super high price

I was afraid it was going to get so expensive that I would have to buy cheap(poor quality) fertilizer and bags of Mg, K, Mn etc and formulate my own--- Lifes too short for poor quality beer and fertilzer. I guess once the back log of high cost f ertilizer (from the oil prices ) slowly works its way throught the economy it , the prices will subside--- it did with oil.

Hope to visit you soon at meetings or when you host..

Best regards

Ed

[ruskinPalms]

I use the Lesco 8-10-10 stuff and the one I get does seem to have all the minors in it - I don't remember what I paid for it though. I spread it on the whole yard, grass and all and everything seems to grow well. My yard isn't too big so even if it is a little expensive I still think it is worth it given all the great growth I had over the past few years. Hopefully it made a lot of my palms strong enough to pull through these last freezes.

[Johnny Palmseed]

I'm not sure if it's related, but there was a 99 day strike by potash miners in Canada last year.

It has caused a shortage of potassium acetate which is used to de-ice runways.

Since potassium is a commodity, supply & demand has ratcheted up the price.

I think Lesco has gotten out of control with their prices in general.

I used to go right to the Lesco store because they had a better variety.

I was getting a general fertilizer something like 10-2-12 for about $20-25 for a 50# bag.

Then I tried their palm special 8-2-12 but it was $39 for a 40# bag!

The 0-0-20 SulPoMag was a fair price when I first went but last April was up to 26.50 for a 50# bag.

Unfortunately, my soil is so poor (sand,shell,coquina,high pH) I will have to continue to fertilize regularly.

John

[Mark@PalmBeach]

I was going to add this very same topic and then saw this. I was in Home Depot today and also shocked by the price. I generally use about 8  x 50 pds bags, so there is no way I am going to pay this much. 

Does anyone know a reasonable cost supplier of palm fertilizer in South Florida?. I sent a note to Growers Fertilizer Corp, but not sure if they would ship to the West Palm Beach area or if the shipping cost would eat up any potential savings.

I will probably start fertilizing at the end of this month so I am hoping to find a supplier soon.

[Mark Heath]

I was going to add this very same topic and then saw this. I was in Home Depot today and also shocked by the price. I generally use about 8  x 50 pds bags, so there is no way I am going to pay this much. 

Does anyone know a reasonable cost supplier of palm fertilizer in South Florida?. I sent a note to Growers Fertilizer Corp, but not sure if they would ship to the West Palm Beach area or if the shipping cost would eat up any potential savings.

I will probably start fertilizing at the end of this month so I am hoping to find a supplier soon.

Hello Mark,

Give my friend Doug Errickson a call, he has a huge wholesale nursery in Stuart. Tell him you know me and he'll tell you where you can find good quality fertilizer. 772-220-1612.

[edric]

Wal-mart, Rite Green 7-3-7 40 lb. 6 weeks ago 6.97 a bag, with minor elements, Manganese, and so on, Ed

[Mark Heath]

Wal-mart, Rite Green 7-3-7 40 lb. 6 weeks ago 6.97 a bag, with minor elements, Manganese, and so on, Ed

That is a fantastic deal!!! Thanks!

[Phil]

Walt,

It's a peculiar world right now. At our nursery we are offering 20% off to this group on our entire inventory, including all palms, cycads and tropicals. Yet everything I buy to keep the nursery going (and I mean everything) has gone up. Certainly, nothing has gone down. This includes utilities, water, plastic pots, fertilizer, paper goods, etc. I know of a lot of small nurseries who are closing their doors forever, and this includes a good sized palm nursery in Orange County. I'm sure other specialty nurseries would agree that all of us would appreciate any support we can get. The big box stores have everything from dry wall to batteries to keep them going, but we just sell palms. So, we all need customers to help pay for that fertilizer.

Phil

[Mark@PalmBeach]

Walt,

It's a peculiar world right now. At our nursery we are offering 20% off to this group on our entire inventory, including all palms, cycads and tropicals. Yet everything I buy to keep the nursery going (and I mean everything) has gone up. Certainly, nothing has gone down. This includes utilities, water, plastic pots, fertilizer, paper goods, etc. I know of a lot of small nurseries who are closing their doors forever, and this includes a good sized palm nursery in Orange County. I'm sure other specialty nurseries would agree that all of us would appreciate any support we can get. The big box stores have everything from dry wall to batteries to keep them going, but we just sell palms. So, we all need customers to help pay for that fertilizer.

Phil

Phil I am not sure what your point is. Whenever the specialty nurseries have a sale I do my best to patronize them but I am not sure what connection you are trying to make with the general price of fertilizer. In fact if enough people, don't buy that expensive stuff, then in theory there should be a increase in supply and hence the price of fertilizer would feel a downward pressure. In other words basic economics.. Unless your are saying you just need strong demand for palms to cover the increased overhead of all these costs of production going up.. fix the lending situation, and real estate market and that should help that aspect of this mess..

[ruskinPalms]

I really need to get to home depot. . . . I just bought a bag of that lesco 8-10-10 crap about two weeks ago and I really don't remember it shocking me that much on its price, just seemed like the same old stuff. I am wondering if this price increase is recent and/or regional. Anyway, I still stand by it as far as its effectiveness. It really has led to some healthy palms (and everything else!) in my yard, freezes and hurricanes be damned.... I feel that too many ferts use WAY too much nitrogen in them. I HATE lawn fertilizers.......

[Phil]

Mark,

My point is that many actual nurseries have dropped their prices to survive. You might expect the wholesalers of materials that we nurserymen buy to be playing by the same rules. These wholesalers have presently lower sales as well, so one might expect lower wholesale prices to encourage sales. We are not seeing this at all. Offhand, I can't think of one wholesale price of anything I buy for the nursery that has come down in my area. And on many items they have escalated the prices, sometimes quite a bit. Maybe this will change over time, but I have not seen it yet.

Phil

[edric]

Lesco DOES NOT provide minor elements, which are mandatory for most palms here in FL, Ed

[Walt]

Lesco DOES NOT provide minor elements, which are mandatory for most palms here in FL, Ed

My new computer (less than 3 months old) crashed. I'm using a friend's computer now at his house.

I see lots of responses to this thread. I agree with Phil on his points.

I'm currently using lots of wood ash (I burn all my palm, trees, leaves, pine cones, etc.) debris. Wood ash has all the minors and is a reasonably good source of potassium and magnesium. I bought some liquid nitrogen that is 70 percent slow release to supplement my wood ash since wood ash has no nitrogen.

[Tyrone]

I went to buy some NPK granular style fert the other day and was shocked too at the cost. I used to be able to buy a 50kg bag of NPK red with double the trace elements specially formulated by a palm nursery for palms in sandy soils and it used to cost me $55, approx $1 AUD/kg. That supplier has retired and so I can't get that great mix any more. Anyway the closest thing to it is a Cresco product (local) called NPK Blue Special which still lacked manganese, but noone stocks it. The Box stores sell another one just called "NPK blue" but the NPK formulation is wrong, (I like something with a bit of kick in Potassium) and it's $39 AUD for a 10kg bag, approx $4AUD/kg. What a rip. I'd use that 10kg bag on my majestic, a few of my Royals and Foxy ladies and it'd be gone. Anyway I searched and searched and found a Farm/Agricultural supplier that had a mix that came all the way from New South Wales with a 12-5-14 plus a good supply of TE (except manganese which I'll have to add) for $52 for a 25kg bag, or approx $2/kg. This is half the price of the box stores, but double what I used to pay a couple of years ago. Luckily my garden is established with a thick humus layer so I can use the fert more sparingly for the same effect, but I'll be using less fert nowadays that's for sure.

Phil, it sounds like the palm nurseries are doing it real tough over there. I hope it's not a sign of things to come over here. At the moment palm sales are ticking along alright at the nursery I work at, and palm nurseries round about our area, and prices have just been steadily climbing due to demand outstripping supply, so nurseries seem to be absorbing increasing running costs OK. But if demand drops off, quite a few will have to reassess what they are doing, myself included. I'll never stop growing palms though. I just may have to get an income outside of tropical horticulture if it all goes pear shaped.

Best regards

Tyrone

[_Keith]

Bump. I am about 6 weeks from first fertilizer application here. Where are the deals out there, online or otherwise.

[hopper]

I went to buy some NPK granular style fert the other day and was shocked too at the cost. I used to be able to buy a 50kg bag of NPK red with double the trace elements specially formulated by a palm nursery for palms in sandy soils and it used to cost me $55, approx $1 AUD/kg. That supplier has retired and so I can't get that great mix any more. Anyway the closest thing to it is a Cresco product (local) called NPK Blue Special which still lacked manganese, but noone stocks it. The Box stores sell another one just called "NPK blue" but the NPK formulation is wrong, (I like something with a bit of kick in Potassium) and it's $39 AUD for a 10kg bag, approx $4AUD/kg. What a rip. I'd use that 10kg bag on my majestic, a few of my Royals and Foxy ladies and it'd be gone. Anyway I searched and searched and found a Farm/Agricultural supplier that had a mix that came all the way from New South Wales with a 12-5-14 plus a good supply of TE (except manganese which I'll have to add) for $52 for a 25kg bag, or approx $2/kg. This is half the price of the box stores, but double what I used to pay a couple of years ago. Luckily my garden is established with a thick humus layer so I can use the fert more sparingly for the same effect, but I'll be using less fert nowadays that's for sure.Phil, it sounds like the palm nurseries are doing it real tough over there. I hope it's not a sign of things to come over here. At the moment palm sales are ticking along alright at the nursery I work at, and palm nurseries round about our area, and prices have just been steadily climbing due to demand outstripping supply, so nurseries seem to be absorbing increasing running costs OK. But if demand drops off, quite a few will have to reassess what they are doing, myself included. I'll never stop growing palms though. I just may have to get an income outside of tropical horticulture if it all goes pear shaped.Best regardsTyrone

Hi Tyrone

Good to see the metric and AU dollar comparisons. I had purchased a 5kg bag of Richgro Organic palm and fertilizer from bunnings to give my Bangalow, Majestic, plus unknown other a feed. Paid about 11.95 from memory. Is this stuff the best I can get as it is rated at 5:2.5:1.5 with only .093% Mn. Looking to use this stuff on my transplanted Kentias in the future, if they survive.

Thanks

Edited December 28, 2012 by hopper

[NApalm]

Interesting thread...

[sonoranfans]

the cost of all fertilizer is up for at least two reasons. First, the dollar has been inflated by quantitative easing(stimulus, FED printing money), and second the demand for all fertilizer has increased due to the production of corn used in ethanolized gasoline. I have read that corn fields used for fuel typically get 3x the normal fertilizer application in order to maximize yield. The rising cost of fertilizer also leads to a rise in food prices in general... And no you cannot trust the inflation calculations anymore, they have been revised to hide real inflation as in food prices... As far as palm fertilizer, it requires NPK so it goes up. In florida due to the sandy soil we need the better time release fertilizers to keep our palms happy, and they are even more costly due to the time release technology... If you have clay soils, you can feel a little lucky as your soils tend to hold nutrients in the soil longer, more bang for the buck.

[Alberto]

Here the prices of this kind of stuff are REALLY EXPENSIVE!!! fAR FROM the prices posted here........

For example; http://www.3colinas.com.br/?produtos-veterinarios=Fertilizantes

R$ 600,00 = US $ 293, 65

[Adrock15659]

I have been using the 6 month 8-2-12 palm blend from Florikan. I am paying more up front but less applications per year and saving money that way.

http://florikan.com/labels/8-2-12-180-LND.pdf

[sonoranfans]

I have been using the 6 month 8-2-12 palm blend from Florikan. I am paying more up front but less applications per year and saving money that way.

http://florikan.com/labels/8-2-12-180-LND.pdf

I have been using the 6 month 8-2-12 palm blend from Florikan. I am paying more up front but less applications per year and saving money that way.

http://florikan.com/labels/8-2-12-180-LND.pdf

I have been using this fert for just about 2 years. Engineered time release so you wont need as much and there is always a good nutrient level if applied every 4-5 months. This is good stuff, has all the traces calibrated to be delivered through time, and keeps the finicky ones like copernicia happy. I over apply and my bill is the same as the lesco 3 month, but better results...

[Tulio]

Adrock/Tom: Where can you buy Florikan fertilizer?

[sonoranfans]

Adrock/Tom: Where can you buy Florikan fertilizer?

You can go to the florikan website and find distributors. The closest to me is big earth landscaping in palmetto, you may have a better option closer to you.

[_Keith]

I just went to the website. All of those links say "Coming soon."

[Walt]

As I stated in my first posting to start this thread, I use a palm special fertilzer I get from a local company called Brandt Consolidated. I think the home company is in Ilinois. In any event, they sell a palm special fertilzer made by Sunniland Corp. The basic NPK is 8-2-12.

Below is a bag label I scanned. Just this past October I paid $20 (plus sales tax) for a 50# bag (I bought 6 bags) to do my November mineral feeding. Brandt, over the years, has carried two other palm fertilizer analysis, but picked this one up several years ago. This analysis is the closest you I can get here in Highlands County, Florida, to what the University of Florida recommends for the state of Florida. The UofF recommends 8-2-12-4 (Mg), with N, K, and Mg all in controlled release. Well, I can't get that around here, and even if I could it would probablly be cost prohibitive.

The UofF recommends fertilizing four times a year (Feb., May, Aug. and Nov.). However, I fertilizer 6-8 times a year using proportionately less so as to better control leaching of the fast release portion of the fertilizer. It's more effort and time to do this but I don't mind. I'm retired and get bored with nothing to do.

Sunniland has 16 locations throughout Florida and two locations in Georgia according to the linked website address below. Perhaps any of you in Florida that might want this analysis of fertilizer might give your nearest office a call on availability and price, etc.:

http://www.sunnilandcorp.com/roofing/locations

[palmislandRandy]

Walt, I just paid $27.00 per bag of 8-2-12 from Howard's, which is also a Florida based Co. I alternate it with K-Mag (0-0-22) @ $18.50 a bag. The formulation is similar, so for 20 bucks a bag, I'll give the Sunniland a try.

Thanks