I consulted with a chemist friend of mine...and very accomplsihed grower of orchids and hoyas...about the home brew fertilizer discussed earlier. I thought I would pass on his comments on his improvement to the formula. I am passing this information on FYI - and I have no opinions about it at all, yet. I plan on mixing a gallon and using it on some test plants including hoyas in the greenhouse when the days get longer....
have had overnight to think about the Home Brew fertilizer. I would
not use it as written. It is not a balanced configuration. I will stick
to using a proffessional grade commercial fertilizer. My prefernce will
stay the Green Care Orchid RO WWater Special. It is a 13-3-15 with
0.018 Boron, 0.044 Copper, 0.177 Iron, 0.088 manganese, 0.018
Molybdenum, 0.041 Zinc, 8 Calcium, 4 Magnesium, 4 sulfur. This
fertilizer covers all the bases, you don't need to worry about missing
anything.
Now if I did not have access to the above, I would modify the home brew
as follows:
Double the Ammonia. Epiphytes in bark and peat based soild need more
nitrogen than plants in clay based soils.
Epsom Salts are too high, I would cut the Epsom salt amount to 1/4 of
the amount of Ammonia.
Skip the beer, too much sugar, not much else, risking soil microbes
going wild. If you really want alcohol for its miror role in aiding
absorption, add a splash of vodka, or gin or wiskey. Or denatured
Alcohol. I suppose Isopropyl alcohol would work also.
Keep the Molasses, it is suprisingly good stuff. You could even double
the molasses. More good stuff.
The bloom booster could really unbalance the fertilizer without
doubling the ammonia, but since you are adding the ammonia, it can
stay. IF you don't double the ammonia, change the bloom booster to a
20-20-20. I really strongly believe high phosphorous fertilizers, where
the phosphorous is greater than 25% of the nitrogen are harmful to your
plants. Don't over do the phosphorous source.
Vitamin B12 - I think is over rated, won't do anything except make the
fertilizer more expensive. Won't hurt.
If I were to make the home brew here is the version I would propose:
1/4 cup Epsom salts
1 cup ammonia
2 cup water
1/2 cup (4 oz) Isopropyl alcohol
1 cup molasses (use black strap)
4 tbs 20-20-20 fertilizer, or Stern's Mira-Acid 30-10-10 with minors.
Mix and use 1 tablespoon per gallon of water.
This message was edited Dec 5, 2006 3:25 PM
Home Brew Fertilizer Revisited
Here is his analysis of the original formula:
Hi All, just got back in town from Thanksgiving holiday
The great thing about plants is that they don't read the books, they
take nutrients from their potting mix and water as they find them.
Dave's Garden home brew fertilizer:
Beer - supplies digestable sugars to the soil microbes (fungi &
bacteria) the Hoya roots can absorb some sugars directly and use them,
though I don't think this is very effective. *possibly feeding the
soil microbes accelerates the breakdown of the media, releasing
nutrients bound in the potting mix. Beer definitely supplies some
Potassium and the alcohol slightly improves nutrient absorption.
Epsom Salts are mostly magnesium sulfate, both magnesium and sulfur are
required macro-nutrients that often are lacking in consumer grade
chemical fertilizers.
Ammonia is the nitrogen source for the fertilizer, ammonia is rapidly
absorbed by most plants, Hoya & Orchids love ammonia, but the caution
is that excess ammonia can kill roots, though in the open mixes used
for Hoya this is unlikely.
Molasses, more sugar, again, can be absorbed and used by the Hoya, but
not a good replacement for photosynthesis. *possibly feeding the soil
microbes accelerates the breakdown of the media, releasing nutrients
bound in the potting mix. From Knappen Chemical's manual, mineral
nutrients in molasses as % of dry weight, calcium 0.4 - 0.8%, potassium
1.5 - 7.0%, sulfur as sulfate 10-15%, phosphorous 0.6 - 2.0% and in
lesser amounts vitamins Biotin, Folic Acid, Inositol, Ca-Pantothenate,
Pyridoxine, Riboflavin, Thiamine, Nicotinic Acid & Choline. All are
good stuff, and can be absorbed in whole or the break down products can
be absorbed after the soil microbes eat it. Also from Knappen is that
molasses is 2 to 10% protien, which when digested by soil microbes
releases nitrogen.
Bloom Booster - I assume this is a 0-15-0 fertilizer, or maybe a
10-20-10,
Vitamin B, or Superthrive - Vitamins might be able to be absorb and
used by the Hoya, & when they break down they contain nutrients like
iron, nitrogen, and a few of the micro-nutrients.
All in All, looks like a fairly complete fertilizer, I am not sure how
well it is balanced, but it doesn't look too bad. I was surprised when
I looked up the analysis of molasses how many goodies molasses has in
it. I believe to be effective this DG Brew needs to be used in
conjunction with a soil based potting mix that encourages a certain
amount of soil microbes to digest the fertilizer. Might not work as
well with slab mounted epiphytes.
Myself I would use Green Care's MSU or DynaGrow, and drink the beer
while watering. I am not overly fond of the idea of putting that much
sugar into my potting mix. Worst case this could launch a
fungal/bacterial problem, best case it will accelerate break down of
potting mix by soil microbes. I was surprised to see the list of the
goodies in Molasses, it has me thinking about maybe trying molasses as
an additive to my regular MSU based formulation. My company used to buy
molasses for use in concrete additives, so I happen to have an analysis
sitting on my desktop. Unfortunately we don't buy it any more. All in
all I would say that DG's Magic Brew has some value as a fertilizer.
Hope this gives insight.
Thanks so much for all the good info! I printed it out so I will have it handy to read and re-read. For us novice growers, it sure is nice to have some experts out there to explain stuff like this!
Thanks again,
Lin
Don't think of myself as an 'expert', Lin....just a grower with a heck of a lot of questions...and on the skeptical side. I have swallowed so many 'miracle' ideas and been stung, hurt or disappointed...that I like to carefully get the REAL knowledgeable folks to weigh in. I just hope this information helps!!!! Thanks for the compliment tho'.... (blush)....
Carol
Great I learned something new today. Thanks Carol for taking the time and sharing this information with us. It is very much appreciated.
Patti
It's so nice to have friends that take the time to share their knowledge with us. I have printed that out & will revise my solution somewhat next time I mix it up. Will be interesting to see if the results are different. Sure did work great like it was tho. However, I am now a bit concerned with the microbs in the soil.
Marcy
My DH & I don't drink so I went to the next-door neighbors house and she gave me a 12-oz can of Coors Lite. I mixed this up with the epsom salts & ammonia. Do you think Lite beer will work or should I add some sugar to it? Also, can you screw the cap on or should you leave it open? Thanks, Buttoneer