Liquid Fertilizer
- Thread starter NWWI
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I don't know about "as claimed" but it is the very most expensive way to fertilize. Get the pH right and your clover will be fine in most cases. Unless you have an extreme case of low P or K, I wouldn't worry about clover.
FarmerDan
5 year old buck +
In production agriculture liquid fertilizers are an economic convenience. If you are spraying to kill weeds post emergence (after planting and after the plant, corn for example, has some growth) using liquid fertilizers rather than water as the herbicide carrier has advantages. It's an addition at the margin and not (as some would claim) a substitute for building soil nutrient levels to whatever level might be desired.
A gallon of what I/we call Liquid N or UAN weighs about 11 lbs. It contains 10% N and 34% P (10-34-0). There are other analyses. That gallon supplies 1.1 lbs of actual N and about 3.5 lbs of actual phosphorous - and the rest is water (or oil solvents).
Think about that. To illustrate consider this. The manufacturer of the liquid fertilizer buys the ingredients you do and processes them to become viscous adding liquid that's irrelevant to fertilization. You pay for the processing and the fertilizer you could have bought in a bag. It's not quite like that, but you, hopefully get the idea.
That's not to say its not right for you, but Yoder's right - again. It's very expensive and not suited for long-term nutrient building.
A gallon of what I/we call Liquid N or UAN weighs about 11 lbs. It contains 10% N and 34% P (10-34-0). There are other analyses. That gallon supplies 1.1 lbs of actual N and about 3.5 lbs of actual phosphorous - and the rest is water (or oil solvents).
Think about that. To illustrate consider this. The manufacturer of the liquid fertilizer buys the ingredients you do and processes them to become viscous adding liquid that's irrelevant to fertilization. You pay for the processing and the fertilizer you could have bought in a bag. It's not quite like that, but you, hopefully get the idea.
That's not to say its not right for you, but Yoder's right - again. It's very expensive and not suited for long-term nutrient building.
Better off making your own. Find some 'weeds' that are growing vigorously. Pull them up and fill a 5 gallon bucket full. Fill the bucket up with water and put a lid on it. Let it sit outside in the sun for a couple of months. Then strain out the plant matter, and add 10 parts water for every part liquid fertilizer. So 5 gallons makes enough for a 55 gallon drum. Then just spray it on your plot. Leave a strip unsprayed so you can see the difference in a couple weeks
Weeds like lambsquarter, pigweed, marestail, ragweed, and dandelion are excellent for this. Now I also use things I grow specifically for this purpose, like comfrey and borage.
The best thing about this is that you don't just get the NPK, but all the other stuff too like calcium, magnesium, sulfur, zinc, molybdenum, etc.
Weeds like lambsquarter, pigweed, marestail, ragweed, and dandelion are excellent for this. Now I also use things I grow specifically for this purpose, like comfrey and borage.
The best thing about this is that you don't just get the NPK, but all the other stuff too like calcium, magnesium, sulfur, zinc, molybdenum, etc.
