What Deep Root Fertilizers Are you Using?

W

Wisconsin Climber

Location
Southeast Wisconsin
We have been using Davey Arbor Green Pro for 12 years and have had great success and results. It is a granular deep root fertilizer product that must be agitated once it is mixed which can make it challenging to work with. If we don't use the whole batch we either need to keep the pump running all night or use it up on the trees in our yard. It only has to be applied once a year which makes it efficient for our applicators. And, the results are amazing.

We are wondering if there is a liquid product out there that brings good results that does not have to be agitated. We don't want to be required to apply it multiple times during the season. Our manpower is stretched already. Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks!
 
I have in the past in small 55 gallon drums. I took an old bed sheet and tied up about two five gallon buckets of compost and steeped it in the barrels for a week dunking it and wringing out the bag everyday. Hard to tell if it was the tea or the vert mulching but the results were favorable.
 
I have used PHC tree fert products in the past with good and expected results. The BioPak is a great product in their line too in the right application. It's a powder, so it can be difficult to mix large quantities. Recently, we started using Autumn Care by Growth Products. The jury is still out...I don't think it's better, yet, just easier to handle.
 
We used the Arbor care products for years because our first rig only had liquid agitation and could not keep granular suspended. They were ok but since switching I’ve seen much better results with the dry stuff
 
I agree the granular has excellent results. GHTree does your applicator bring the granular with them and mix more throughout the day if needed to minimize leftover? And/Or, how do you handle what's left in the tank at the end of the day? Just looking for creative ideas. If we run the agitator overnight we worry about running out of fuel plus that can get expensive too with the price of fuel these days.
 
Wisconsin Climber said:
I agree the granular has excellent results. GHTree does your applicator bring the granular with them and mix more throughout the day if needed to minimize leftover? And/Or, how do you handle what's left in the tank at the end of the day? Just looking for creative ideas. If we run the agitator overnight we worry about running out of fuel plus that can get expensive too with the price of fuel these days.
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We have never used this product and do not perform any applications any more, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

We used to apply lawn care products in suspension that required agitation, and found that while they would settle out overnight, we could mix them back in again by agitating thoroughly in the morning, although some products required us to use a long plastic stirrer (we used a length of pvc pipe because it worked and was chemically impervious enough for our purposes) to get things started. That may be an option for you, maybe try it with a smaller quantity the first time. Adding water and more product helped mix too, when we added to the tank for that day of spraying.
 
My mix usually consists of a liquid or dry soluble powder biostimulant package containing humic acids, seaweed extract, a solid micronutrient package, and a touch of mycorrhiza. I'll use yucca as a wetting agent/surfactant so everything stays put where it's placed and doesn't fall out and leach into the trout streams I love (the humic acids help with this too).

Once I've got the above bases covered then I will run some lighter "organic" npk values in the form of liquid blends (nitrade of soda/potassium sulfate) or fish hydrolysate. Salt based npk formulas just wreck the microbe populations I'm working to establish (like pouring salt on a slug). I use fish at a modest rate for spring and a higher rate in the fall, but I won't use it in the summer because I find that the addition of rotting organic matter during peak temperatures and summer conditions can result in opportunistic pathogen/disease problems.

Occasionally I'll sprinkle in a bit of endo/ecto mycorrhiza or compost tea to these mixes as well, always season/situation dependent.

The idea is to feed the tree by feeding the microbes first, then they can break down and bio-assimilate existing soil nutrition and help with disease/stress resistance. trees need this. we as an industry tend to rely far too heavily on npk.
 
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I have used Superroots from plant essentials for over 10 years with great results. It does need some slight agitiation but can be left overnight without agitation as long as it is re-aggitated the next morning. We like it because it is low in nitrogen and focuses more on soil health ingridients than pushing new growth. It comes in 30 and 55 gal drums. I haven't found a similar product that inlcudes similar ingriedinets without mixing multiple products together. It will burn foliage due to the acids so its for soil injection only.

SuperRoots – Plant Essentials

plantessentials.biz plantessentials.biz
 
SunValleyTree said:
I have used Superroots from plant essentials for over 10 years with great results. It does need some slight agitiation but can be left overnight without agitation as long as it is re-aggitated the next morning. We like it because it is low in nitrogen and focuses more on soil health ingridients than pushing new growth. It comes in 30 and 55 gal drums. I haven't found a similar product that inlcudes similar ingriedinets without mixing multiple products together. It will burn foliage due to the acids so its for soil injection only.

SuperRoots – Plant Essentials

plantessentials.biz plantessentials.biz
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Out of burning curiosity I just went and looked this product up and it actually seems decent. Still, a 5% N from Urea is still pretty high for a "biological product", especially with the higher salt index of urea. This makes me dubious about the concentration of said microbes, because if it were a highly biological product, high salts in the same solution would desiccate the biology. If the acids burn foliage, they would almost certainly crisp up finer roots as well. Why do you think it's an acid burn and not a nutrient burn out of curiosity (does this occur more in the summer months)? The organic acids referenced in the label would likely be humic/fulvics, but a truly high and available fulvic concentration cannot be obtained from shale, so this furthers my curiosities..

Usually higher salt N levels in the same mix with microbials kills off the microbes in the jug, which ultimately results in even a slightly higher N once the biology has broken down. This problem can be solved by organic N source, but it is difficult to formulate biological products that also have higher organic N values due to the amount of material required. This is why more biologically sensitive tank mixes come from the mixing of multiple materials/products in the tank morning of application and often require agitation. If the jug doesn't blow up on the shelf or smell like it's rotting after sitting in the tank overnight, more often than not, it simply is not very biologically active.

just my 2 cents, with respect
 
OrganicApproach said:
Out of burning curiosity I just went and looked this product up and it actually seems decent. Still, a 5% N from Urea is still pretty high for a "biological product", especially with the higher salt index of urea. This makes me dubious about the concentration of said microbes, because if it were a highly biological product, high salts in the same solution would desiccate the biology. If the acids burn foliage, they would almost certainly crisp up finer roots as well. Why do you think it's an acid burn and not a nutrient burn out of curiosity (does this occur more in the summer months)? The organic acids referenced in the label would likely be humic/fulvics, but a truly high and available fulvic concentration cannot be obtained from shale, so this furthers my curiosities..

Usually higher salt N levels in the same mix with microbials kills off the microbes in the jug, which ultimately results in even a slightly higher N once the biology has broken down. This problem can be solved by organic N source, but it is difficult to formulate biological products that also have higher organic N values due to the amount of material required. This is why more biologically sensitive tank mixes come from the mixing of multiple materials/products in the tank morning of application and often require agitation. If the jug doesn't blow up on the shelf or smell like it's rotting after sitting in the tank overnight, more often than not, it simply is not very biologically active.

just my 2 cents, with respect
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I am not a chemist but just assumed the burning was related to acids but also considered nutrient burn as a possible cause. The burn occurs no matter what season if applied as a foliar, I learned the hard way one year after using some I had leftover on my veggie garden and fried it all...oops.

Yes the 5% is higher than I would prefer based on what we know about "tree fertilization" but it is much lower than most tree ferts on the market that I have found. I believe the biorush from rainbow is 3%.

I forgot to mention that in many cases, we add additional powedered mycorhizae to the solution prior to making applications. It def has a strong smell but unsure if that is related to biological activity.

I know the owner of plant essentials is very approachable, so you may email him to answer your further questions.

Thanks for your input
 
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