Daniels plant food

I recently posted about Osmocote controlled release fertilizer (CRF) and mentioned that I also use a liquid feed fertilizer along with it. Well, the one I'm using today is called Daniels Plant Food and it's working great for us. They have formulations for home gardeners, professional growers as well as for garden centers. All of their products are produced from a seed extract so they're extremely organic which is why I chose them. Keeping away toxic chemicals is not only safe for you, it's safer for the plants. I mean really, avoid fertilizer burn by simply avoiding the chemicals that run the risk of burning plants!

The home gardener version is the same basic formulation as their standard professional version, 10-4-3, only it comes in a much smaller container. It's available online from many sources and local retailers are offering it more and more. For those of you that are professional growers, call your local distributor to see if it's available, I use BFG Supply here in Chicago.

Application rates for the home version are listed on the bottle and are quite easy to follow. For professional mix rates it can get a little difficult, but with 10% N it's not too hard to figure out the math. I use Dosatron injectors and they have a nifty little calculator on their site to calculate the amount of concentrate and the injector settings. If you're using Dosamatic, I bet they have something similar.

When I purchased my first injector for the spring season this year I went looking for something to replace the fish emulsion I had been using. While I absolutely swear by fish emulsion, especially in the home garden, it simply can't be mixed and used with an injector. I was after something organic in nature to reduce the risk of burn, reduce runoff issues and be able to use on vegetable AND ornamental crops. The only one I found was Daniels.

One thing to keep in mind about this fertilizer is where the Nitrogen comes from. The type (yes, there are a couple type of N) is of a source that doesn't "green" up plants at low rates like a chemical fertilizer. It'll provide all the nutrients, major and minor, that your plants need but if you want lush green foliage you'll need to increase the strength. I'm finding that 50ppm N is good for normal use, but an increase to 100-200ppm every week greens up the plants rather nicely.

What you don't know how to calculate ppm of your fertilizer? Well, use this calculator to figure it out. Plug in the NPK of Daniels there (10-4-3) then fiddle with the teaspoons per gallon until you hit the desired rate. Don't worry, I'll be explaining the types of Nitrogen and application rates for different crops in a future article.

All in all, if you're a sworn MiracleGro person today, try dumping that chemical backwash for a season and give the organic option a try. Not only will you see a difference, you'll feel better about it.

Osmocote

A few years ago I started using a controlled release fertilizer (CRF) called Osmocote. I was a bit skeptical at first but since then have become a true convert. If you want to save time and labor feeding your plants, start using this stuff.

The best way to describe a controlled release fertilizer is that it's like an M&M and slowly over time, based on temperature, the outer coating starts to melt away. As this happens small amounts of fertilizer are released into the soil around it. The best part is that the rate of "melting" changes with the temperature. When it's cooler, it slows down, when it warms up, it speeds up. This provides almost the perfect amount of feeding when the plant needs it.

I specifically use Osmocote although there are other brands on the market. From what I've read it was one of the original products of this type. Osmocote is from Scott's, although I'm not sure if they are the original creators or if they purchased it from someone.

They currently offer 2 "grades" of the product, a consumer and a professional version. For years I used the consumer version, and specifically the fruit & vegetable one, however this year I switched to Osmocote Plus professional. These come in 50 lb. bags and are more cost effective in larger volumes. But, for anyone at home, the retail will work just fine. The professional version is also available in several different strengths as well as versions with minor elements (other than NPK).

Applications rates are printed on the retail product, and for the professional version they have data sheets on their website. I've been using 2 TSP for a 4" pot, 1 TBSP for 1 gallon or 8" pots and 2 TBSP for 2 gallon mums. For the plants and baskets we plant up in May I plan on that lasting well through the summer, usually into August.

We apply it in what's called a "top dress" which simply means we sprinkle it on the top of the soil around a potted plant. The other option is to mix the product into your potting mix, however, if you do this only mix what you need for a short time. After the addition into your soil, the outside humidity and temperature coupled with the moisture in the soil will start the time ticking. It's because of this (and that mixing is labor intensive) that we use the top dress method.

All in all, it's a wonderful product. The only real downside is that's its not organic, in any way. But, if you want to prove what it can do, take two of the same plant and put Osmocote on one of them. In 2-4 weeks the one with the CRF will be noticeably different.

Dosatron Injector

I recently purchased a Dosatron D14MZ2 fertilizer injector from BFG Supply (in Joliet, IL) and thought I would give some idea of how it works.

My reasoning for the purchase was to allow us to provide a constant feed to our plants in and around the greenhouses at a low rate (50ppm N). Prior to the injector I was either hand mixing Neptun's Harvest fish emulsion (FE) in a watering can or using a Miracle Grow LiquaFeed Ready-To-Use hand sprayer. The advantage of the fish emulsion is the fact that it's all organic and is almost impossible to burn the plants with. The Miracle Grow provided a higher rate of feeding over the FE but can run the risk of phytotoxicity. The single largest downside to either option at a larger scale is cost. In order to feed the amount of plants we have I was using 2 Miracle Grow fertilizer cartridges a week and up to 2 FE bottles a month. Here in Chicago that came to $25 per week in April I was spendnig on fertilizer. Add to that the labor to hand mix the FE in 2 gallon amounts and we were spending almost $150 a month!

Now, I did a ton of research into injectors prior to the purchase and one thing I found was that some fertilizers "tank mix" better than others so I first had to find that. I researched and tested concentrates from Scotts, Peters and Daniel's. In the end, the Daniel's 10-4-3 proved to be the safest and most cost effective option. Like the fish emulsion it's organic so fertilizer burn is lowered if not removed completely. Additionally, the Nitrogen in the mix is of a form that plants can uptake more efficiently. From my supplier here, BFG, a 4.7 gallon jug of Daniel's is around $34.

I decided on the Dosatron injector over the others because they use fewer parts in the unit. Not only are there fewer parts, less of them move. Fewer moving parts means fewer breakdowns long term. In addition to that, when I had questions prior to purchasing the unit their customer service was grade A. Despite the fact that I'm a small grower and only needed a single injector they took the time to answer every question I had and provided all sorts of tips on how to size the unit. In the end I decided on their newer 14GPM unit since I was powering a single hose, wanted an easy bypass and wanted to make the unit portable.

I purchased the unit from BFG for $285 along with a $26 filter. Additionally, I purchased the bypass kit directly from Dosatron as BFG didn't carry it. I also purchased a back flow valve from a local Menard's as well as some hose menders, plumbing tape, 600lb moving cart/truck, some 1/2" plywood, a 5 gallon bucket and 4 "U" bolts. Total cost for the entire unit was $422.

For the bypass there are 2 options: build a PVC one or purchase one directly from Dosatron. I opted for the Dosatron bypass since the unit is going to be portable. If it was wall mounted directly I would have built a bypass out of 3/4" PVC with unions so it could be removed for maintenance. The inline bypass took about 15 minutes to install. The only downside is you have to remove the air bleed valve to install it. The service rep at Dosatron told me that they unit could have been ordered with the bypass installed through BFG to save me the work. I should note that BFG never told me that. However, even if they did I didn't want to wait 2 weeks to get the system in, they had the standard one in stock.

It took perhaps an hour to build and assemble the entire unit, the injector itself was extremely simple to setup, perhaps 10 minutes. I can't stress enough how easy the injector is to install and operate, Dosatron has done a great job on that part. Once assembled all I needed to do was determine how to mix the fertilizer. Here's where Dosatron's service and support excels. I called them to see if they had any recommendations, not only did they help, it turns out they have a calculator on their website to give you the rates and settings you need for a particular feeding rate.

In the end I calculated that I need 4 cups of Daniel's concentrate to 5 gallons of water and the injector set to 1% to achieve a final rate of 50ppm N. This provides us with a low, slow constant feed for all the plants.

Also, since we have kids around I wanted to be sure they don't drink from the fertilized water even if the bypass is on. So, I installed a "Y" valve on the spigot, one side goes to the injector, the other has a regular hose on it. Additionally, I used black hoses on the injector so the kids know not to use it. Black = bad, green = good.

I'm using a 5 gallon bucket a week of the concentrate which equates to 1 gallon of Daniel's per month. At that rate the 4.7 gallon will last me almost 5 months! This comes to around $6.80 per month in fertilizer now which means I'm saving around $143 per month. Seriously, you can't ask for better than a 3 month ROI.

Images of the injector and setup are here.