Does it include all of the micro-nutrients, as well?

Or do you have to supply those with another fertilizer?

Josh

Josh, you got me there. I really don't know. I can just go by my trees performance. I was just shy of 300 lemons on my Myers.

I will look on the bag tomorrow.

Randy, are these in-ground trees?

Thanks :-)

Mike

I too use this fert...it's a time release granual. I had my parents pick up a bag of it when they were in FL 2 years ago and I am VERY glad I did.

Hey Josh,
You bring up some good questions. Questions I don't know the answers to but I do still fertilize with FP and white vinegar when I use the Sunnyland.

One word of caution. I would NOT recommend this fert to anyone due to the fact that it is meant for inground citrus and tropical fruit trees. The directions are not specific for potted citrus so you do take a big risk at over fertilizing but I just go with my "weakly weekly" practice, well I should say weakly, monthly..LOL!

I have seen awesome AWESOME results with this fert. Especially with my 'Maha Chinook' mango tree. In 2 years it grew from about 2ft to 6ft....in a pot, I think that's pretty good.

Josh, you should grow a potted mango! IMO, they are the EASIST tropical fruit you can grow.

Andrew

Mike yes they are in the ground.

Hullo, I am curious as to what your application rate/method is for the sunniland 6 4 6? I have a 40lb of it but am not sure of the directions for potted plants. And yes Josh it contains most Micros (is missing Ca and Mg I believe).

And CA and MG are the two most important micros for citrus.

Hi Johnmerr, my irrigation water is pumped from 100% limestone aquifiers and already contains high amounts of dissolved Ca and Mg, so I'm not really concerned about fertilizers providing those two as they're already being supplied every time I water. Thanks for the advice though, I agree that they are important micros.

Soooo many variables that we who try to give advice in a vacuum do not know.

No worriers Johnmerr your advice is sound for those who don't have hard water, I do appreciate the helpfulness.

bahamadan, I would be more concerned about the N source. If it is primarily from urea, I would not use in a container culture. You will end up with salt (biuret) burn after a time. Most container citrus growers tend to use Dyna Gro Foliage Pro, which does not use a urea-based N product, so no chance really of biuret burn. I do not use a granular product designed for in-ground use (such as Vigoro) for any of my container citrus. I do use those products for my in-ground citrus, no problems there. For my container citrus, I use Osmocote Plus (the Plus formulation has a nice NPK ratio for citrus plus the micros), as well as Foliage Pro. This product sounds perfectly fine for in-ground citrus, as is Vigoro, but there are better, safer choices for your container citrus.

Patty S.

Thanks or the update Patty! Josh (greeman28) was saying I should consult you for advice so I'm glad you did the favor of responding to my post. I have read most of the cultivation forums over on the citrus forums by Jodi, Al, Mike, Josh, etc etc (really probably more extensive research than I should have, lots of reading lol) and am very familiar with what Foliage Pro is but unfortunately it is not sold here on my island. I would have to ship it in internationally which would be expensive so I have been trying to focus on using what is available locally. I think I do remember reading that urea requires soil microbes to break it down before it is available to the plant? If so I can see why that would pose a difficulty in containers, especially how most of mine are 1-2 gallons and not large enough to support any decent microbial activity.

I'm very familiar with Osmocote Plus as well, and it does seem like a great CRF. My only issue with it is that it is incredibly expensive over here (something like $10/lb) whereas the Sunniland 6-4-6 was less than $20 for 40 lbs. I will apply the 6-4-6 to my in-ground plants then (no citrus but a few Sapodillas, Mangoes, many Bananas, some Coconuts, an Avocado and a Spondias mombin, known locally as 'Hog Plum' but more well-known as either Yellow Mombin, Java Plum or Ashanti Plum). If the issue with the urea is salt build up in containers, could I still use it in them and just water/flush regularly to leach any excess salt out? It does have some nutritional value that I assume would be available in containers (contains phosphate and potash, and some ammoniacal nitrogen and various micros).

Also, I've been wondering how much my irrigation water has to do with how my container plants update nutrients. I tested it using phenol red solution (6.8-8.2) and it tested out as 8.2+, which is believable as our water is pumped from 100% limestone aquifiers and presumably contains lots of dissolved Ca and Mg (which is why I don't look for those in my fertilizers). However, I used the same phenol red (came with my dad's pool test kit) to determine the right amount of 3.3% sulfuric acid to use to lower the pH to 5. I think I used the pool kit incorrectly, as when searching online I found out phenol red only shows pH over a range of 6.8 to 8.2 (which suggests my irrigation water could be higher than 8.2) so I did not get a true 5 reading. If I may ask what do you use to test your water pH? I went to a local hardware store but they only had other pool kits, which usually do not test for "low" pH around 4 and 5.

Well, no need to reduce the pH to 5, that's awfully low for citrus. They are not acid-loving plants (this myth will simply not die a quiet death). The actually prefer more of a neutral pH: 6-7, so I would shoot for 6 as your lowest pH. My municipal water is about the same, and for my young citrus during my cooler winter months, I can see some issues with lockout of certain micros. But, as the tree matures, and for my container plants, no issues whatsoever with the water pH. Yes, soil microbes are part of the breakdown process for urea-based N, so I would see if you can find a bagged fertilizer that does not use so much urea-based N for their nitrogen component. A clue - it will be more expensive. Urea is cheap, cheap, cheap. So, more economically-priced fertilizers will most certainly use a higher percentage of urea products to provide nitrogen. We, too, have a lot of Ca in our waters (our pipes get clogged up pretty quickly out here in S. California, due to the Ca mineral build up), since we are on granite and limestone as well. I don't fret about my water, frankly. Unless I knew our water was outrageously alkaline or acidic, it just isn't that big a deal for citrus. They can tolerate fairly alkaline water. If it starts getting about maybe 8.7, then I would star to be concerned. Our commercial citrus growers do not worry about their water pH, so I don't, either.

Patty S.

Noted with thanks Patty S., the mindset behind 5 was that containers have some buffering capacity (and I believe I also read that Al/Tapla recommends a pH of 5.5 for container media). I did notice that urea seems to be pretty cheap/widely available, it was the main N component of many of the other fertilizers I checked out as well lol. I do suspect our water is around 8.6-8.8 (not sure exactly because the phenol red maxed out at 8.2) but I was reading a hydrogeology expedition report conducted on another of my country's islands some years ago by university scientists and it revealed most of the inland lake water was around that range (the rain was also around 7.3-7.5 lol) so I would suspect my island is similar as our geological construct is the same. In either event, feel free to keep the advice coming. I do appreciate the helpfulness :)

Dan II

Dan, well the thing to do is decide if it is worth the hassle of acidifying your water. I would take two very similar container citrus, acidify one's water and the other just leave as is. See if you see a noticeable difference in the leaves and in the tree's growth. If not, I simply wouldn't waste the time. I have not had any issues at all with nutrient uptake and vigor with my somewhat alkaline municipal water in my container citrus. Performance will dictate your actions, Dan :-)

Patty S.

Hullo Patty, sorry for the late reply. My citrus collection at present only consists of an air-layered mystery citrus from my grandmother's garden (most likely rootstock) and a seedling found under her Persian lime tree. I've been readily acidifying my irrigation water for all my container plants whenever I water. I simply made a 3.3% stock solution of sulfuric acid and add a tablespoon of that to a gallon of water (I do 5 gallon increments which makes it easier to water everything). It's become so habitual now that I would feel strange watering from the hose or a bucket without first acidifying lol. While I haven't had a test plant and non-test to see if it makes a difference, I have noticed an increased response from other plants upon acidifying the water and assume that this extends to the citrus. Here is a photo of the air-layered on March 20th: