When to fertilize new seedlings?

[Chris A]

Sorry if this has been posted but I did not find it in a search.

My seedlings are now ~1/4" tall at two weeks since planting in peat pots, under grow lights. My potting mix is peat, bark & vermiculite. No added fertilizer. At what point do I start to fertilize? Since I'm only doing a dozen plants or so this year I was just going to use my wife's Miracle Grow for tomatoes. I did read that was OK, correct? Give the Miracle Grow at recommended strength to seedlings? Water it down? How often?

Sorry but this is my first year and I really don't want to screw it up before it gets going.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Chris

 

[DonH]

I would go ahead and add a little fertilizer. I waited 3 weeks and the seedlings were starting to look really weak. They perked up after I fertilized them.

 

[Seanz]

What i did was give them a bit of blood and bone when i transplanted them.

 

[leverhead]

Read the analysis on the package! Stay away from high amounts of Urea.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Agree with leverhead, make sure there is no urea in the mix. Also, consider giving thema dilute dosage first. If the package calls for 1 Tablesppon per gallon, try 1 tsp first. If nothing gets fried in a few days you can fertilize again.

 

[lemminkainen]

What i did was give them a bit of blood and bone when i transplanted them.

It takes quite a long time before (around a month, depending on soil) bonemeal is broken down and available to the plants.

 

[Chris A]

Just so I'm clear, NO urea is acceptable? The Miracle Grow packet says 14% Urea Nitrogen.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

In my book, NO urea is acceptable. There are those that have used it before and not killed their plants and there are those that killed thousands of plants by using it. Use at your own risk.

 

[Chris A]

For someone like me who is planting a small plot, not a crop, is there a fertilizer available at Lowe's, Home Depot or another national store that would be good to use?

 

[Jack in NB]

Hello Chris -

I'm not sure of the concerns over Urea content myself. It hasn't seemed to affect my crop significantly - either in growth or smoking in my pipe.

Having said that, I use it in dilute proportions. I feed the babies with a 15-30-15 off-the-shelf water soluble (Miracle Grow, RX-15, whatever I happen to find in a bargain bin!) at about 1/3 the recommended rate. An earlier post said use a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon per gallon - GOOD ADVICE! Some of the N in the blends I use may be in the urea form - haven't checked.

I start feeding about 3 weeks after seeding, and every week or so just add a wee drink on each little feller. Perhaps a tablespoonful or less in place of a normal watering.

I also give them a cupful or two when planting out. After that, I feed the plants every week or so until mid July, shutting off to give them time to ripen.

It's interesting to see the diverse opinions that pop up on the group here! The same applies in the outside world - there are many different and often contradictory approaches recommended by various experts, and a world of products available to help us in our plant growing activities. We chose the products that make us feel good - to think that we're doing the best we can for our plants. And while a lot of those products (snake oil, jungle juice,.....) don't really help the plants much, they usually don't hurt them either.... and they really stimulate the economy!

Can I now step down from my soap box?

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Jack, I think you hit the nail on the head... when in doubt, use a dilute solution. That was probably my advice about using 1 tsp instead of 1 tablespoon. I based that on using a TDS meter. 1 Tablspoon would have probably killed my plants but the 1 tsp was just perfect according to my meter.

 

[Knucklehead]

I bought this urea free fertilizer based on a post by JBD. So far I'm having great results in the float trays and also in the 1020 trays. http://search.cartserver.com/search...axhits=&bool=AND&keywords=grow+more+urea+free A heartbreaking example of urea toxicity can be found here: http://fairtradetobacco.com/showthread.php?892-Over-before-it-even-started

 

[Jack in NB]

JBD -

The meter is the way to go!

I ran some math a while back, and if I recall correctly the 1 tbsp/gal gave around 1200 - 1500 ppm of N in the solution. I think the recommendations for injection or bottom fertilizing are around 250 - 300 ppm of N. The label rates are considerably stronger than we need for seedlings. I'm guessing that the higher rates are for application to potted plants, which have a considerably larger soil mass per plant than seedlings, and therefore cushion the impact of the higher concentration.

 

[Knucklehead]

BigBonner recommends a reading of .9 for Burley and .75 for the other varieties. On my meter that shows up as 900 and 750. This is using a 20-10-20 water soluble fertilizer. The thread "Tell me about Float trays" contains this info.

 

[BigBonner]

I would rather under fertilize seedlings as to over fertilize them . Over doing it will cause way more problems from falling over , spindly stalks , brittle , black root rot and the main part is planting them outside they will be too tender to take hot heat until they start growing .

 

[Knucklehead]

I would rather under fertilize seedlings as to over fertilize them . Over doing it will cause way more problems from falling over , spindly stalks , brittle , black root rot and the main part is planting them outside they will be too tender to take hot heat until they start growing .

uh oh did I post wrong?

 

[BigBonner]

uh oh did I post wrong?

No you hit the mark . That is where I set my readings.
Its the 1200to 1500 parts per million . 1.2 and 1.5 . Using the TDS meter you wil have to calibrate it . You will also have to test your water source and add on to it . My water is .2

 

[Knucklehead]

No you hit the mark . That is where I set my readings.
Its the 1200to 1500 parts per million . 1.2 and 1.5 . Using the TDS meter you wil have to calibrate it . You will also have to test your water source and add on to it . My water is .2

My water was 1.5. Do I add .7 to that for Burley and end up with .85, or do I want to end up with .9 regardless of the water reading?