Commercial Fertilizer

Winterbush

Winterbush

Location
suburb of Villa de Verde
Is anyone out there willing to admit they are using a commercial fertilizer? I am contemplating administering some to trees of construction and drought damage. Ideally I would like something with low N and as many trace elements that I can find. The site is manicured landscape with Fescue grass and the crappy clay soil of Upstate SC.
Any info would help even if it may be a quick and inexpensive homemade mixture but I am cutting down to many trees due to people being skeptical of the cost effectiveness of the Applications of Cmabistat. A great product but it does not save everything. Also will be adding this to Rhizo fuel.

Thanks
 
I've had good luck with one called Medina Hasta-gro liquid.

It has a bacterial stimulant (helps with compaction), very low N, trace elements and micronutrients.

I've paid to have it indexed (tested for all levels of componants) and it had more concentrated ammendments than I could hope to juice-up a tank with for the type of rescue work we do here on diseased/stressed trees.

Also found a consistancy with it's label that we've discovered isn't the case with many of the bottled-formulas available or sold with a lot of hype.
 
They're manufactured only a hundred miles from me, but have a global market. Even some HomeDepot or Lowe's garden sections might, but Google 'Medina Agricultural Products'
and try from there.

I think you'll be satisfied for what your looking to treat.
 
When our nutritional study became newsworthy in Texas, back a decade, suppliers from everywhere sent reps or products to try - I couldn't and didn't keep up.

Ending-up with a warehouse of supplements and bacteria and pills and thrills, I kept steady with Medina for at the least the simple reason I could work with their staff scientist and knew exactly what componants I needed and had test results available 24/7. Price was another factor.

Most all advertised bottled products I found were simply bulk manufactured ammendments sold to suppliers who labelled to their desires, seeking target markets. Out of the four major facilities making bio-stimulants, for example, there were over fifty separate labels by the time consumer's found them on the shelves.

And Superthrive, believe it or not, I never tried. I can however claim that there is at least two other molecularly identical products available that each claim proprietary ownership of the formula, which raises red flaming flags on all their claims.

I'm not a paid rep for Medina, but can testify to the efficacy and consistancy of their products. I had to shop around for a few years before we crossed paths, met with not just as few developers and suppliers and signed more than one non-disclosure contract. It's a shark infested industry, dealing with ag diseases, and I have some scars to prove it. Many of them certainly hold some secrets, it goes beyond NPK additives, some research genetics and chromosonal mutations that'd make your fiction writers squirm. So there are lawyers too, like the ones I had to hire.

Try Hastagrow if needing immediate nutritional infusion or Medina Soil Conditioner for longer-term therapies. MHO.
 
I have considered cmpost tea and would like to learn to make it however I have a thousand excuses that usually revolve around restricted time to get into it. Also from the little knowledge that i have of it my phc program is still to slow (few and far between) to make it a productive program. If you would like to hear some of my punk excuses I will tell you but there really are toooooo many to just start whining.
Oakwilt Thank you for you knoledge and experience on the subject. and you tooo TTTM.
 
I would recommend 1/2"-1" of compost worked into the soil, and then a treatment of CT a few weeks later. Does the tree have mulch of any sort?


Fert will feed the TREE, you need to feed and condition the SOIL, and let the SOIL feed the tree. Create, grow, and maintain a good colony of beneficials, especially Mycorhizae.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
[ QUOTE ]

Fert will feed the TREE, you need to feed and condition the SOIL, and let the SOIL feed the tree. Create, grow, and maintain a good colony of beneficials, especially Mycorhizae.



[/ QUOTE ]



We can't "feed" trees (that comes from the process of photosynthesis), but BB is totally correct by focusing more on the makeup of the soil and less on what type of fertilizers to use.


Good luck, full figured one, on your quest for cheap and easy solutions for all of life's fertility issues!


SZ


ps. Call me!
 
Some great information here. I would like to clarify something that Mr. Bull recommended in the digging in of compost into the soil.

I know most of you who are reading this are aware of the differences but this process gets screwed up all the time with sometimes very negative effects.

Organic material is NOT soil organic matter (SOM). SOM is stable, can last for 7 to 42 years in the soil. It has become humus, approximately 50% C and 5% N. Organic material such as leaves, manure, other plant parts; i.e., NON-fully composted material, is still unstable in the soil. As much as 90% of it disappears quickly, tying up soil activity with its decomposition process.

So IF IN DOUBT, we recommend surface application only. Do not dig it in.

Dave
 
[ QUOTE ]
Some great information here. I would like to clarify something that Mr. Bull recommended in the digging in of compost into the soil.

I know most of you who are reading this are aware of the differences but this process gets screwed up all the time with sometimes very negative effects.

Organic material is NOT soil organic matter (SOM). SOM is stable, can last for 7 to 42 years in the soil. It has become humus, approximately 50% C and 5% N. Organic material such as leaves, manure, other plant parts; i.e., NON-fully composted material, is still unstable in the soil. As much as 90% of it disappears quickly, tying up soil activity with its decomposition process.

So IF IN DOUBT, we recommend surface application only. Do not dig it in.

Dave

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, and should have clarified. Never use non composted materials, and never use compost from an unproven source. Your putting alot of trust in someone by using their compost, so be sure it is a good product made with care and fully composted.

Make your own compost! Very easy and very rewarding!
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Fert will feed the TREE, you need to feed and condition the SOIL, and let the SOIL feed the tree. Create, grow, and maintain a good colony of beneficials, especially Mycorhizae.



[/ QUOTE ]



We can't "feed" trees (that comes from the process of photosynthesis), but BB is totally correct by focusing more on the makeup of the soil and less on what type of fertilizers to use.


Good luck, full figured one, on your quest for cheap and easy solutions for all of life's fertility issues!


SZ


ps. Call me!

[/ QUOTE ]

What I meant by feed the trees, was that when we lay down these man made unnatural ferts, once they have been used up, or washed through the soil past the roots, they are gone! If we the Arborist educate the customers that by feeding the micros, fungi's, and bacterias in the soil, they will in turn help feed the tree. Even long past the time when the compost or CT has washed away or been used up.

There was a seminar given in late fall by the MAA. The presenters name escapes me right now, shame on me! But it was about the use of organics, CT, compost, mulch, etc etc etc in the woody landscape. ( a subject that fascinates me) It was NOT a speech bashing ferts, we DO still need them. But more opening our eyes to the more complex world of beneficials, and their relationships to the plants they need to survive. He also touched on the fact that you can cut your fert rates by half and still achieve the same results without hurting the plant with adventitious growth.

I am by no means a scholar on the subject like most of you, but I have a passion for this topic. It really bothers me to see companies dumping gallons of fert on trees 2,3,even 6 times per year!!!! Whats left in the soil with those methods? Whats happens when the customer stops the fert program for whatever reason? We need to think long term, not RIGHT NOW all the time.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I am by no means a scholar on the subject like most of you, but I have a passion for this topic.

[/ QUOTE ]

What is a scholar? Don't sell yourself short. It takes an inquisitive mind to recognize that what is accepted as "normal" may not be right. It takes a very sharp mind to determine a better way.

A very wise man said "it's not how much you know, it's how much you know that is correct".

Dave
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am by no means a scholar on the subject like most of you, but I have a passion for this topic.

[/ QUOTE ]

What is a scholar? Don't sell yourself short. It takes an inquisitive mind to recognize that what is accepted as "normal" may not be right. It takes a very sharp mind to determine a better way.

A very wise man said "it's not how much you know, it's how much you know that is correct".

Dave

[/ QUOTE ]

Scholar
 
BB, I agree, we are all still learning. What I have learned is that adding material that is not well composted can almost completely stall plant growth. I did it with my own veggies in containers, so I am sure of it! I have seen dozens of presentations and read many words that indicate that the use of natural compost can completely supplant synthetic fert. Based on this and what happens naturally in the forest, I believe that soil amendment with organic material, aeration and vertical mulching are the way to go! Just make sure that your compost is composted!

-Tom
 
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