Abbs.

Lots of people use different things.. I'm not sure or can remember where you live, but I like to use Foliage Pro ( Dyna Gro) I use it diluted weekly or at full dose every two weeks. Then I flush with the natural rainwater or well water. You should be fertilizing now durring the growing season and then back off in the fall..

Lots of discussion on fertilizers.. ;-). You can use search engine to search the best for you, but I like FP in the Gritty mix. I will water gently before I Fertilize all of my plants. Just to prevent burn.. I'm Sure using it diluted will be fine, but its just a habit of mine.. Always want to be safe. I just use the shower nozzle on hose give them a quick once over.

I make my solution in a 20 gallon barrel. They use a hand container ( two gallon) to water each plant.

Hope this helps.. Lots of different ideas on this subject!!!

Take care and I hope you are having a great blooming summer!!! ;-)

Laura

I think the best general rule is that it must be a soluble type of fertilizer to be effective with gritty mix. Good luck with it.

First - what Laura said. Then, it's not that soluble fertilizers are the only fertilizers effective when using the gritty mix, it's that soluble fertilizers offer the kind of control over your plant's nutrition you can't achieve through soil supplements (organic fertilizers/ forms of nutrition). The microbial populations required to reduce the hydrocarbon chains in organic supplements to elemental forms the plant can assimilate are highly variable. As such,. you can't rely on them to reduce the feather or horn meal you applied today into something the plant can use. That might not happen until the temperature increases or decreases or the pH level becomes less limiting or until the soil isn't so dry or soggy ..... With soluble synthetics, you can know exactly what you supplied, how much you supplied, and that it will be immediately available. Having that knowledge can be a significant advantage, and prevent a number of potential limitations associated with guesswork.

The issue between organic forms of nutrition vs soluble synthetic forms is the same no matter if one uses MG soil, ProMix, the 5:1:1 mix, the gritty mix. and so on. Eliminating guesswork eliminates a number of potential problems and can significantly increase the grower's margin of error.

Let's take a thoughtful look at the product "Spray and Grow". Analysis of the product shows it contains only (note the decimal points that help to illustrate how little in the way of nutrition and exactly what elements it contains)
.1% Fe (iron)
.05% Z(inc)
45 ppm N(ickel)
Less than .5 ppm Mo (essentially none)
.12 ppm Co (essentially none)
So .... nothing at all to be excited about. It contains no N, P, or K, Ca, Mg, S, Cu, Bo, or Mn. It DOES contain lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and selenium. From a chemical perspective, and based on its analysis, it's pretty much useless.

Still in view of its analysis, it's very unusual for a Fe or Z deficiency to develop if you're using a soluble fertilizer, unless the pH of the soil/soil solution is quite high, in which case a little white vinegar added to the irrigation water would almost certainly be more effective than S & G applications.

Al