Yeah, I have a bag of Bandini 12-4-8; but they're time-release granules.
I prefer water soluble plant food; I have great results with all my tropicals using Roberta's Hawaiian Flower Magic 9-18-9.

Wingo

I have used it with good results.
Our home depot sells it.

Works well for me also.

I have used Miracle Gro that has a higher Nitrogen content than the Phosphorus and Potassium content and that has the essential micronutrients. It is used as a foliar spray, and I have had very good results with it. I usually use it at half strength and this gives me good results without burning my palms. Mix it with a few drops of regular Ivory Liquid as a wetting agent in the spray bottle.

How would a 8-4-8 do? I saw a Vigaro (I think ??) 8-4-8 at Home Depot.

Firefightersflame,

It might work alright, but keep in mind that with palms, they like a higher nitrogen content, something like a 2-1-1 ratio. And after all they are grown for their foliage and the nitrogen produces beautiful foliage. The fertilizer I use is a 24-8-16 Miracle Gro All Purpose with micronutrients. I water it down to a 12-4-8 ratio and that works great. Once I plant palms in the ground, I use a good granular soil Palm fertilizer. There are afew on the market, but only get one in the 2-1-1 or 12-4-8 ratio with micronutrients. Only apply fertilizer to palms in the spring, summer, and fall, but not in the winter, unless you live in the southern parts of South Florida, because you don't want to encourage tender new growth on your outdoor palms in the winter when a frost or freeze could really nip the new growth. For those of you who have tender tropical palms that may get frost bitten, refer to Florida Extension Service's publication, "Treating Cold Damaged Ornamental Palms". It has excellent recommendations for helping coconut palms, royals, and other cold tender tropicals to recover from a hard freeze! Hint: they need Copper and Boron treatments after a hard freeze, but FOLLOW THEIR RECOMMENDATIONS!

I have used anything that has a higher nitrogen ratio on palms and they look fine - as long as there are micronutrients. What si called Avocado-Mango here, 13-7-13 w/trace, works particularly well on almost anything. The reality is that whatever "plant type" it is labeled for, the ratio is what matters. nitrogen is for leaves, so green leaves require higher first number etc..Greg in DRY HUMID New Port Richey where the current dewpoint is 77F under partial sun

Coconut Palm- thank you for the great advice.

My palms are all in the ground, so I guess I will look for the other Palm Fertilizers. I wonder if the Miracle Grow all purpose that you mentioned will work good for the tropicals bedded in with my palms. - Terra

fire

I use miracle grow all purpose plant food that you mix It is a 12-4-8 My palms include pindo's, mexican fan,
windmills, and 2 diffrient kinds of bananas all in the ground... They love this stuff I am more than happy to pay $12.00 for this stuff ,as it realy makes my palms happy ..
I also put it on all my flowers and potted palms too.

Topher- do you use it for roses?

I am in Southern California, so we don't have much of a winter (except last winter got us good)...so still stop fertilizing the palms in Fall? - Terra

I am logging notes in my new spiffy "Garden Journal" that I created. So I am going over all my past posts and reading everthing and taking down notes!

I don't use All Purpose as much as I used to....mine is different than Topher's, my "MG" is 24-8-16, but it's many years old....in comparison, Miracle-Gro for Roses is 18-18-21

I'm just a weekend gardener....unless your plants are suffering from a particular deficiency, I can't see the harm in using an All Purpose for your whole garden. Sometimes I think it's all marketing!

I stop fertilizing in Fall, you're right, we have an extended Fall instead of a Fall & Winter.

I hope this helps some???

I do use it for roses.. My wife's rose has tripled in height
in about 2 months It was a little vine when we got it.. now she just got her first flower.. " WOW " was all we could say ! In my opinion this stuff will work for anything !
I fertilize about every 2 weeks .