Fertilizer tablets

[MattyB]

I've found that mulching heavily and promoting a healthy population of worms and soil microbes is the best way to keep my plants happy. 1 or 2 times a year I'll apply some synthetic fertilizer as well, to give the plants a boost, and to make sure I don't get any deficiencies. Since I water exclusively by drip emitters, broadcasting granular fertilzer isn't an option. I've seen people who just place piles of granular next to the emitter and it slowly gets dissolved and percolates down that way. I've taken it to the next step and I first expose the mulch covered emitter, poke a deep hole w/ a metal handle or digging bar, and drop a handful of granular down each hole. This has worked great to allow the nutrients to percolate down deep to the root zone. The problem is that it takes an entire days work to fertilize just one zone, and my back aches from crawling around on my hands and knees on the slope, digging in the mulch.

I've thought about adding fertilizer tablets to the filter of the drip system to fertigate, but my instincts tell me that even the most water soluable fertilizer will eventually clog up the emitters w/ minerals.

The best idea I've had is to use some 2 year planting tablets (like this or like this) and bury those in the dirt where the emitters are. That way I'd only have to do the crawling around thing once every two years.

Does anyone have any experience with these or similar tablets?

Any other creative ideas come to mind?

Thanks for the help.

[doubravsky]

I tried the tablet thing in the filter, but found that I had to add and add and add all of the time to get enough fert out there.

EZ-Flo. Simple, cheap, throught the drip. I'm a fan.

[BS Man about Palms]

crawling is fun..

[Palmə häl′ik]

I dunno.

After a couple years of torturin' my yard with fertilzers, and over-watering.....

My conclusions with your initial statement...

ORGANIC. After all, nobody goes out into habitat and fertilizes wild palms, do they...

They've seemed to grow fine without human interaction this long...

I must've whacked over thirty or so palms, with either over fertilzation or over-watered 'em, along with freezing temps... OR BOTH, most likely.

I'm tryin' a different approach this year...

MULCH, MULCH, MULCH.

WORMS, WORMS, WORMS.

I found somebody on CL to get FloridaRedWorms from, and I hope to have a BINGO with 'em.

I prolly will spread small amounts of chemical ferts with a broadcast spreader, but the piles at the base of palms has stopped! ...just to green things up; ya know.

I had to pay to play.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Palmə häl′ik

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Matt my friend even though you spread granular fertilizer around the palms base the moisture will slowly seep all around the palm through capilary action . I remember Gary Levine telling me that the one drip was enough.

What i have been doing this summer is mixing up a diluted solution of liquid bone meal , soluable thrive fertilizer , liqiud kelp and liquid fish emulsion and adding this to a 9 litre (2 gallon watering can and putting this concoction around the root zone of all my palms every week . The downside is that it takes 1.5 hrs but hey good exercise and love being out in the garden . Ever since i have been doing this the palms are growing like escapees in the ground

Troy

[Mandrew968]

I just sprinkle an 8-4-8 plus micros around all my palms 4-8 times a year, depending on the species. I find that placement is the most important factor for a palm. If it's in the right spot, less is more Unless it's a Copernicia--Then you PUMP IT!

[sonoranfans]

When I had clay soil in arizona, I used to place spikes at 2-3 emitters for each palm, then broadcast a little granular each month and water it in. Spikes were good for 3 months, so I'd spike 2x a year. That worked very well, based on growth rates and green color. I supplemented with organics,fish emulsion and humates, but they are weak on nutrient content. In florida we have the florikote palm fertilizer, its a 5-6 month time release(by osmosis) that was proven by univ of florida to work best in nutrient delivery. Its similar to osmocote plus, but the controlled release technology is alot better and its 1/2 the price. A big rain in our sandy soil just tends to wash fertilizer away, that is why we have such severe potassium and magnesium deficiencies here. I supplement with some organics,hollytone fert, humates and fish emulsion, but they cannot deliver nearly as much in nutrients and their time/concentration profile is not proven and very likely not effective based on simple solubility chemistry. For example, if the magnesium delivers faster than your iron, the fertilizer doesnt work so well in delivering a consistent micronutrient balance over time. The osmosis technology in florikote(florikan is the company)ensures that the delivery rates are correlated. I talked with Ken Johnson, who has been growing palms for more than 25 years, he uses the time release NPK he buys in bulk. Looking at his yard, that is good enough for me, his palms are the healthiest around.

[Bennz]

I've found that mulching heavily and promoting a healthy population of worms and soil microbes is the best way to keep my plants happy. 1 or 2 times a year I'll apply some synthetic fertilizer as well, to give the plants a boost, and to make sure I don't get any deficiencies. Since I water exclusively by drip emitters, broadcasting granular fertilzer isn't an option. I've seen people who just place piles of granular next to the emitter and it slowly gets dissolved and percolates down that way. I've taken it to the next step and I first expose the mulch covered emitter, poke a deep hole w/ a metal handle or digging bar, and drop a handful of granular down each hole. This has worked great to allow the nutrients to percolate down deep to the root zone. The problem is that it takes an entire days work to fertilize just one zone, and my back aches from crawling around on my hands and knees on the slope, digging in the mulch.

I've thought about adding fertilizer tablets to the filter of the drip system to fertigate, but my instincts tell me that even the most water soluable fertilizer will eventually clog up the emitters w/ minerals.

The best idea I've had is to use some 2 year planting tablets (like this or like this) and bury those in the dirt where the emitters are. That way I'd only have to do the crawling around thing once every two years.

Does anyone have any experience with these or similar tablets?

Any other creative ideas come to mind?

Thanks for the help.

Hi Matt,

I trialed agriform about 12-15 years ago with forestry establishment. My conclusion was it was a waste of money, growth rates were almost identical throughout the stand, and variations appeared to be microsite related (mainly soil moisture and wind) rather than fert. tab present or not. My soils are not greatly fertile either. Crop was Eucalyptus saligna.

Agriform are primarily broken down by soil microbes, so your healthy heavily mulched soils will make them last a much shorter time than spec.!

If you're getting good results with your mulching, why bother to add more? Personally I wouldn't unless I knew there was a soil deficiency to overcome.

My place has been organic certified for years now, and I can't really see the point in forcing things much beyond what the soil and climatic conditions would naturally dictate. Once you've created a forced growth environment, you need to continue the inputs to maintain it, or there will be a 'crash' period. This happens all the time with farmland, people who go down the high fert. input

track end up needing to apply slighlty more all the time to maintain conditions, and if the inputs stop, everything crashes for a while until a new equilibrium is worked out. Not sure how this relates to palms in gardens, but I expect there would be a similar result, on a less dramatic scale.

[MattyB]

Great info guys, thank you so much for taking the time to respond.

[ghar41]

This is such a great topic.

A few years ago I burned my Chameadorea's with granular fertilizer so I stopped using it on them. I'm just mulching them now but I am tempted to try low amounts of fish emulsion....

With other palms that show deficiencies, I've supplimented them with granular fertilzer. On Butia archeri plants that were showing a deficiency, I worked granular Iron and a granular with micro's into the mulch in small amounts, in three different applications, over the course of about 4 months. I was concerned that the fertilizer wouldn't dissolve in areas away from the drip emitter, so I hose watered them in each time. I like the idea that capillary action under the mulch took over from there...I dont know for sure, but whatever the case, the plants have improved a great deal.