Beginner Gardening: Can someone help me work out sprayer setting mixing ratios, 1 by dirtworks

dirtworks wrote:
I will start by saying, never buy or use miracle grow. Those types of fertilizers are essentially made from oil and propane as a starter and they take large amounts of energy to produce thus having a huge carbon foot print. Hard to believe but true. They damage the soil and makes plants dependent on you to continuously feed them because the soil life is diminished and can no longer sustain itself over time.

Organic fertilizer is best and once you begin using it you will find you need to fertilize less often and have fewer pest problems too because you will be building healthy, life sustaining soil for the plants to live in. Liquid organic fertilizer is available in many styles now and mixing is every bit as easy as miracle grow or any other synthetic fertilizer so the switch is easy to make.

Organic lawn fertilizer is best as well. you don't need to fertilize every day or week though. Midsummer or hot spells are good times to take a break from fertilizing the lawn. The grass goes dormant during the heat of the season and without adequate water it can't use much fertilizer anyway. Low or no nitrogen organic fertilizers are recommended during these times for root building and cell maintaining cell structure. Kelp and calcium based organic fertilizers with Mycorrhizae are best. They help build the soil life and can't harm any plants or animals. Getting them in the gardens around the lawn can only help. They are non-burning and vital for soil health. Putting them down on the lawn when the soil is dry won't hurt the plants or the soil but they won't work either. All fertilizer is activated by water.

At Dirt Works, we sell hose end sprayers and as a professional gardener even I admit the instructions on them can be hard to understand. I sympathize. Another nice part about using organic fertilizer is it's almost impossible to use too much. The granular products can be spilled into a pile on the ground by accident with no ill effect. If you use too much of the liquid products, no harm done except that you run out too soon. Just hose the area down and don't apply any for anymore for a while and hose down the area to give it a good soaking. The plants will have plenty to work with.

One general rule of them or two: It's better to fertilize more often with less than less often with more and don't apply foliar fertilizer or pesticides of any kind during the height of the day in the sun. You can have a phototoxicity (don't know if I spelled that right) reaction that can cause the leaves to curl and even kill the plants. Fertilize in the early morning, the evening or on solid cloudy, cooler days.