Which Fertiliser to use ?

[markcond]

Hi, I'm trying to work out what are suitable fertilisers, whether soluble, granular or slow release for the following plants:

Psychotria, cacti, poppies, natives (mainly wattle), HBWR, Ipomoea, tobacco, Ololiuqui and Voacanga etc. Again I'm being lazy and haven't searched too hard on the forums. I'm recovering from Ross River Fever and can't concentrate for long enough to search properly and keep going in circles I've got a pack of "Yates Soluble all purpose" but it doesn't say anything about natives. Same for the "Seasol Seaweed Soil Conditioner" and "Powerfeed Fish Fertiliser".

Edited December 16, 2008 by markcond

[Garbage]

I have suspicions about using seaweed extracts on slow growing cactus,especially when they are just emerging from a rest period.

More i cannot say.

Granular fertilizer i have chucked at everything in the past,if you make make sure it does not remain on the plant it has the advantage of slow release that can be monitored ith the eyes.

For cactus they say a low nitrogen feed is best for retaining resistance to disease and the elements,low nitrogen or no nitrogen feed is alo used towards the end of the growing season to 'harden off' growth before the ravages of winter.

[PhoenixSon]

what i like to do is keep all meat scraps etc in the freezer and when i have a shite load i bury it where im going to plant something i also chuck in a heap of chook poo pellets with all the added goodies, dolomite and anything else i have lying around.

Also well composted organic sheep manure i've used on psychotria and they seemed to like it.

[markcond]

Thanks guys. I think the main ones I need to watch are the Wattles. I think I saw a slow release for natives but I can't remember where . I currently give most of my food scraps to my parrots in a large aviary. I've lined the bottom concrete slab with sugar can mulch. I suppose this will be good for my garden beds. Although I thought bird pooh was rich in Phosphorus which probably would harm my natives. Anyways, your feedbacks are much appreciated.

[PhoenixSon]

Also I remember daddio T saying that all rainforest plants don't take up liquid ferts. ( ooops bad memory) wonder why!

Edited December 19, 2008 by spacemonk

[Garbage]

If you winnow the bird seed after the parrots are done with it you will have a bunch of husks and a little reclaimed bird seed to feed the parrots.

My folks do this but throw the husks away,some sort of wooden box that is attatched to a hoover.

These husks could be useful as a soil improver ii surpose.

[Micromegas]

While natives are not perhaps as sensitive as people make them out to be, mine did not enjoy Yates all purpose soluble fertiliser, some showing leaf drop a few days later. They are in the ground btw, seedlings. They like seasol, charlie carp if diluted enough. Osmocote native fertiliser granules is excellent but expensive. Mixing this through the soil before planting is great. Cacti seem to like just about anything, seasol, soluble high-N fertiliser, and dynamic lifter, as well as manure spread around the roots.

[blog]

Anything with ammonium nitrate in it is horrendously acidic. You can feel it burning your hand if you're making up an aqueous solution, and if you have a cut or a nick , you mightt just start screaming. So I look for the Nitrogen component to be something else other than ammonium nitrate or urea. When you buy that cheap slow release fertiliser from supermarkets and the like that contains Ammonium nitrate, i'm pretty sure the nitrogen isn't slow release at all. I've seen bits of the granule just dissolve away infront of me when tested with putting them in some water. I suspect that to be the AN.

[Chiral]

Chicken poo...

H.

[Torsten]

Also I remember daddio T saying that all rainforest plants don't take up liquid ferts.

uh oh.... if I said that, then it must have been out of some very specific context. Rainforest plants are very efficient at taking up all nutrients VERY quickly and that would certainly include solutions. Not sure where this misunderstanding arose from.

Osmocote is safe for pretty much everything except some of the phophate sensitive natives, but you can get special osmocote for them. Tropical osmocote is best for brisbane.

I've had some bad burns with osmocote if it has been sitting around in high humidity for a long time as that seems to make it not-so-slow release. Also had some bad experiences with generic products.

I personally don't like soluble ferts too much, but we do use seaweed and fish emulsion occasionally as a foliar spray in the nursery.

For larger pots nothing beats chicken shit.

[Re-Grifter]

How safe is fish shit juice for bigger pots?.....i think my friend over ferted his caapi... .... kinda went yellow and limp for a couple of days and got brown leaf tips....then seemed to spring back to it's usual vigour after a heavy rain.

Edited December 19, 2008 by Re-Grifter

[markcond]

Has anyone used that Super Thrive shit. It's worth buying just to read the label for a laugh. I have used it a few times. Some plants seem to respond well while others react as if you'd poured roundup on em. It's supposed to have all sorts of growth stimulants and hormones according to the label. I'd really like to know of other peoples opinion of this product.

[Re-Grifter]

Why can't we just poop in our pots?....

[markcond]

Why can't we just poop in our pots?....

Go ahead and poop. Keep in mind if you eat meat your pooh should be composted first as it is a bit strong (like cat and dog pooh). Also the use of human waste as fertiliser is strongly linked to the spreading of intestinal parasites. Also I think there is an issue of bioaccumulation. We are at the top of the food chain and thus our waste is likely to have high levels of toxins, though I think this would depend almost entirely on ones diet. There have been a lot of cases of food poisoning here in Australia which have been traced back to Chinese farmers who crap in their fields to fertilise them. Check out "Night Soil" in Wikipedia

[Re-Grifter]

Looks like you know your shit....

Hmm, i might pass on the pot-pooping then, thanks for the info?!?

Edited December 19, 2008 by Re-Grifter

[markcond]

Looks like you know your shit....

Hmm, i might pass on the pot-pooping then, thanks for the info?!?

Sorry Re-Grifter, I was probably overly negative about the use of human pooh. Most of the hazards are really only an issue with edible plants. There have been a lot of cases of imported Chinese/Asian vegetable like Boc Choy carrying parasites and bacteria, esp Salmonella. If you were to use it for other plants I would still recommend composting your pooh first. The composting should get rid of most of the nasties anyway. I remember a guy from a sewerage plant telling me that continued use of effluent could lead to heavy metal build up, but he pointed out that sewerage contains a lot of other stuff like industrial waste in addition to human waste.

[Garbage]

I wouldn't recommend using your own dung for anything,or eating your enemies brains for that matter.

I was reading the Chinese were,perhaps still are,regarded as a very Cannibalistic people.

Talk of visiting scribes encountering human flesh opely sold at the markets.

And since Christmas is almost upon us i wonder who could resist the Holy infant so tender and mild!

[markcond]

I wouldn't recommend using your own dung for anything,or eating your enemies brains for that matter.

I was reading the Chinese were,perhaps still are,regarded as a very Cannibalistic people.

Talk of visiting scribes encountering human flesh opely sold at the markets.

And since Christmas is almost upon us i wonder who could resist the Holy infant so tender and mild!

Maybe we could use our pooh to render straw huts like some tribes in Africa use cow dung. Then you would always have a supply to patch up any holes or do a rumpus room extension with.

[Garbage]

The wattle and daub approach,hmmm.

[planthelper]

night soil, might be ok, if you compost it first and than use it, only around trees and buried...

you would have to use ample carbon with it, meaning high carbon compost material like wood chips, saw dust, kinda,

and some lime.all you have to do is get the C to N ratio right, if you used too much wood chips, add some more N in form of urine, or more night soil. after a few weeks in a closed (close to anerobic condition) you might dig it into a drench around trees or non food, landscape plants.

my tip about general fertilizer use for beginners is to try one product for a while and than experiment with the other available choices. as a beginner, you never know how strong your fert is gonna be.

the most dangerous fertilizer, so to speak is, liquid fertilizer, like hydroponic stuff, because of "over fertilization", whilst maybe dynamic lifter pellets, could be termed as saver, as in avoiding over fertilization. not to say that, one can't kill a plant by using too much pellets, but the action is slower, thus making it "saver". but in most circumstances, you would like plants in your care to get all the ferts it needs right away, and as such liquid ferts are great, one can see how leaves turn green after just 24h or so with some plants... and aswell they will contain pretty much all the plants need. whilst other ferts will lack some of the nutes and minerals plant need.

the downside is for liquid ferts (and osmocote) is aswell that they are a non organic approach.

osmocote is great for beginners, as it tries to avoid over fertilization, and constitutes of an almost complet balance of nutes.

but if you are careless, one can even overfertilize with slow release fertilizers, if for example you used a bit too much of it, and the potting mix is kept very wet or soggy constantly.

[Garbage]

The arable farmers around here spray pig excrement over the fields,rumour has it human waste byproducts are used as well.

It can become quite ripe in the autumn.

Another possibility is using those little bonsai soil top baskets with rape seed nuggets.

The Apple tree in my folks garden has two bird tables which regularly have their food bowls filled with used parrot food,the birds rake their way through it to find a tasty morsel and in so doing scatter the rest to the earth.

I suspect several kilo or orgnic material finds it's way into apples over the year due to this process.

It used to be a biennial bearer but now has a good crop of apples every year.

[markcond]

Come to think of it, some months ago I saw a story on Landline about a company in Sydney recovering waste from sewerage and composting it in huge piles and selling it to farmers. I think they were mixing in woody material from timber mill by products such as sawdust. In my friends work he regularly tests sewage sludge from the various council treatment plants and they usually seem ok as far as heavy metals go, Not sure about the microbial levels though. The problem with sewage plant solids is that they can be loaded with industrial and medical waste.

[Garbage]

Not to mention Mosquito.

[genki]

i feed all my plants with a mix of charlie carp and the liquid from my bokashi bin. they also get a bit of seasol occasionally. they all seem pretty happy with the mix, i dilute it a bit more for my lophs. i also piss around my lime tree occasionally.