Plant food

[mirafzalkhan]

Every water soluble fertilizer is considered foliar as well. I had same question in mind, searched for answer but not find it, but just thinking gave me the answer.
If a fertilizer is 100% soluble in water it can absorb through leaves therefore every liquid fertilizer can be used as a foliar fertilizer and only those granular fertilizer which is more than 90% soluble can also be used as a foliar fertilizer. So from now use DAP as a foliar fertilizer.
from fauji fertilizer site The solubility of DAP is more than 95%, which is highest among the phosphatic fertilizers available in the country. Due to high solubility it can also be used through fertigation as well as by foliar application.

[Tahir Khan]

Izhar bhai you are absolutely right about the GrowMore 20:20:20 it is an excellent fertilizer been using it for an year now and the results are tremendous

[UMAR KHAN]

Izhar is right i also use 20 20 20 formula but the brand is diffrent i use delta green.

[ahsan2333]

hi everyone
Someone here mentioned they used NPK 17-17-17 for citrus trees.
can anybody tell me what should be done for micronutrients for an orchid of about 50 trees.

correct me if i am wrong, a learned gentleman told me that DAP is basic in nature and since most soils in pakistan are basic, it is better to use SSP that is acidic nature rather than DAP plus it has calcium and other microutrients as well at least one brand that i came across badshah SSP anyhow i dont have any practical experience with it.

[UMAR KHAN]

Use NPK 17 17 17 in winter before flowering..use foliar micronutients of good quality.

[M Farooq]

Any commercial source of Epsam salt in lahore and how to use it?

And one more question. Every water soluble fertilizer is considered foliar as well?

In a strict sense water solubility does not necessary imply it can be used as a foliar fertilizer. Foliar fertilizers generally contain a complexing (in a chemical terminology) agent that help the micronutrients to penetrate the leaves. For example, Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate and it contains Mg(2+) ion. If you directly spray such a solution it will not effectively enter the leaves but when complexed with appropiate substances Mg can enter the leaves directly. There are certain requirements per se the most important being that it should be non-corrosive to the leaves (ideally near neutral pH) e.g. if something crystallizes on the leaves after spray, its local concentration will be so high that it may burn the leaves.

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Plant Food
Fertiliser

Basic intake is through ROOTS, it can also absorb some through leaves.
Foliar feeding is resorted to as a booster or when the roots are not performing well.
All plant foods organic or inorganic are taken up by the plant as inorganic chemicals.
The organic fertilisers take longer time to break up in to absorbable form so are longer lasting on the other hand water soluble fertilisers (commonly used for containers) get leeched down in soil to an in-accessible depth. The granular forms are in-between.
The organic fertilisers are also good soil amenders.

The requirement of plant is divided into MACRO and MICRO nutrients.
The elements required in larger quantity are macro nutrients. These are Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (commonly referred as N P K).
Micro nutrients are essential but required in very small quantity. These are Sulphur, Magnesium, Iron, Copper, Zinc, Boron, Borax, and Molybdenum etc.
Most soils have adequate micronutrients and some inorganic fertilisers also have them as impurity. The organic fertilisers are the end product of plants so they have all, a plant requires.

REQUIREMENT OF PLANTS
Almost all plants have their own choice of food, qualitatively/quantitatively. You have a choice of formulating your own mixture or buy one of the readymade mixes at10-100times the cost.
An exprt working with a fertiliser company advised me to use a mix of two parts Nitro Phos and one part Pot Sulph to get a balanced NPK. the advantage of useing Nitro Phos is that it has the trace elements as impurity.
The NPK requirement not only varies from plant to plant but also during growth and bloom period.
All micro nutrient salts are available at AKBARI MANDI

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Grow more produces more then a dozen formulations of NPK with micro nutrients.
Each plant has its own Specific requirement.
Same plant has different requirement during growth period, pre-flowering and post flowering period.
What is the total annual requirement?
What formulation at what time?
How much at that time?
The regime would be different for containers and for ground; for Annuals and for perennials.

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

A thorough study of the subject reveals that;
During growth cycle the formulations with higher N and pre flowering with higher P are desirable.
Whatever formulation you may choose the quantity recommended by Grow More is 600 parts N per million, watering every 2 weeks.
Say if you are using 17-17-17 then 10gm of it has 1.7gm of N. So 10gm in 3 Litters of water would give you 600 PPM N.
Using 10-20-10; 10gm in 1.7 Litters of water will give you 600 PPM N.

Foliar spray of 10gm of urea + 10gm of Pot Nitrate in a Litter of water during growth period is desirable.
I hope it would be of some help to some.

[Faiqa Hameed]

Can we use DAP in small quantity in money plants and some flowering plants ? I have actually used it don't know if it will cause damage to my plants .