I'm glad that you talked about this because most people don't. It's very disappointing to see new gardeners (and some supposedly experienced ones) pour the Nitrogen on and then complain about the lack of fruit. Btw, I have excellent results with fish emulsion fertilizer, then I adjust Nitrogen application as necessary.
Wow you covered every single problem l needed an answer to in just one video. Thanks for showing us what each of those products are actually used for. I finally understand which plants need what. Awesome 😎
I think the issue is one of those catch-22s for the company. Higher nitrogen makes plants look better. The problem is that if they sold a better fertilizer with higher P and K values, plants would be better off but their vegetation wouldn't look as good and thus buyers who don't know any better would think the fertilizer is inferior. You'll notice all cheap fertilizers are extra heavy on the nitrogen for this reason.
Thanks for being honest. After you trashed all purpose miracle grow, you came back later saying another variant of miracle grow, for tomatoes was fairly good for various fruit a vegetable plants. Unfortunately when most people heard you trash miracle grow all purpose, all they hear is don't use miracle grow, period.
I have learned so much from your videos. After 30 years of backyard gardens I switched to raised beds and containers, you are a wealth 4:21 of common sense information.
Thank you for confirming I was doing this right. I start off with the same all purpose fertilizer you showed to get the plant going, but after the plant has become established I switch to the blooming fertilizer to get some fruit developing. Great video for anyone who was wondering!
As an agronimist dealing with fertilizers for a long time, you advice is good. One thing is like to add is a point on micronutrients. Micronutrients are unregulated and manufacturers can put in products that are not biological available, but still claim it on the label. I have found that miraclegro often adds micronutrients to their products, and do a good job of using effective ones. Where I live we have alkaline soil and micronutrients are important addition to my plants nutrition. Just know that market of micronutrients is a buyer beware one. More bad ones than good ones.
This vid got my subscription. There's a couple videos on RU-vid with an old timer that breaks down into a lot of detail about the percentages of fertilizes. Your video got about 90% of that guys details in about 5% of the time. Great content, thank you.
I mix in blood and bone meal, pot ash and partially composted leaves a couple weeks before I plant. Then at planting add a top dress of blood and bone meal and a healthy dose of fish emulsion with a good watering in. I've had pretty good results from just that. This year, I'm going to add these every 3-4 weeks to see how much the added fertilizer helps towards the end of the season.
Why does a fertilizer say 20-20-20? Is that the same as using two portions of 10-10-10? Some fertilizers have a low number like 5-5-5, feels not worth the money. Can you explain?
I’m challenging myself to avoid having to buy any fertilizer from the store I been researching lots and realized got to know your plants first and foremost but I started a slow compost bin in the winter which is now matured pretty nice after these months and the weather getting warmer here helping it break down more and I add some food scraps from the kitchen here and there along with dead tree dust material from old decayed tree in forest near me to mix in along with some stone dust I both harvest myself from deep woods I can find here. Hoping by summer or mid season my compost will be perfectly diverse and matured to feed all my plants this season! Wish everyone abundant harvest and peaceful grows! Peace keep growing and planting! 👍
Yes, I read Elliot Coleman’s book, Fours season harvest, years ago and he recommends using green sand, phosphate, and either alfalfa meal or cottonseed meal to create a balanced NPK in the garden. These are very good especially for organic gardening.
That is how I gardened for my first 5 years, and my gardens still did really well just using compost and making compost tea, but adding extra nutrition from store bought fertilizer just gives everything a boost and bigger harvests. Its a fun challenge, especially for learning to be 100% self-sufficient so that you don't have to rely on adding store bought fertilizers. It's the same reason I enjoy continuing to learn about wild foraged foods. Cheers!
I worked for a horticulturalist for a year, he taught me this a long time ago. But I loved your comprehensive and precise explanation. You know your stuff, and getting this information out there is useful to many gardeners! I subscribed right away and am looking forward to checking out the rest of your great content! 😁
The Redfield Ratio is a very interesting concept. It states that the nitrogen to phosphorous ratio in the oceans, and even stable freshwater bodies of water, is a very consistent 16:1. Any deviation from this ratio and algae blooms are the result. The use of high phosphorous fertilizers needs to be done carefully to ensure runoff is minimized. I personally only use high phosphorous fertilizer as a means to trigger blooms, and whenever the plants are not in bloom I use as little phosphorous as possible, and prefer insoluble forms like bone meal. The bloom boosters, being low in nitrogen, may also work be means of nitrogen restriction, and not necessarily because of the excess phosphorous. An interesting experiment would be to use the same dosage of nitrogen while only varying the amount of phosphorous applied. And another experiment with the same dosage of phosphorous with the nitrogen restricted. This would help isolate more variables and help determine whether or not it is the extra phosphorous responsible for blooming, or restricted nitrogen. Phosphorous runoff is no joke and a serious environmental hazard!
@@MrLandslide84 The Great Lakes are a great case study in the effects of Phosphorus pollution. When the EPA banned phosphate detergents in the late 1970's the improvement in water quality was dramatic. Now that phosphorus from detergents are no longer an issue, agriculture runoff is the single biggest contributing factor. It greatly disappoints me to see recommendations to throw on massive amounts of phosphorus fertilizer with no consideration for the environment! The science is crystal clear that phosphorus runoff is an extreme environmental pollutant. Recommending to apply phosphorus in ratios well beyond what plants have been studied to even uptake is not evidence based. Does it even make sense to apply NPK in a 1:1:1 ratio when virtually no plant based organic fertilizers have such a ratio? Soybean meal is a 7:1:2, Neem 6:1:2, Alfalfa 3:1:3, Kelp 1:0:2, Cottonseed 6:2:1. These are ground up plants that do not contain anywhere close to a 1:1:1 ratio...
If you have access to an agriculture agronomy facility, they carry bulk "K" (potassium @ 0-0-60). Apply after onset and during bloom stage. Known to increase flavor of produce.
Thank you so much. I just started working at a nursery and came here to learn more so I could give our customers better advice! This video is fantastic. Very informative and doesn’t waste time. Thank you so much!
North Texas, growing Sweet 100's this year, they're doing great while the beefmasters are struggling going into consistent 90+ day high, 70's low temps. Great tips!!!
Crazy how I was researching this the other day. Trying to figure the best method for annuals in containers. I end up buying dr earths fruit fertilizer instead of the tomato and veg version. I feel like Fruit fertilizer would work better. Plus I wanted something that I could use in my fig, peach, and lemon tree. Then, I realized I’m growing in containers and needed something more soluble. I don’t like throwing away the fertilizer after turning it into a tea. So, I went back and got the fish 5-1-1 and morbloom.
OM everloving G!!! You just answered my exact problem this year!! I tried the AP Miracle Grow for the first time this year and it has been confusing (until now) because it seemed to be working, but just not quite right. My plants are huge, green, healthy, and beautiful! However, they are producing far less fruits and smaller fruits than normal! Now it has helped fix some problems like curved or ball cucumbers, and bottom rot and top cracking in my tomaters, but everything is small and not producing as much. My straight 8 cukes are more like straight 5-6s and my pickling cukes are only 3-4 inches. Plus only like 1-3 small tomaters per plant and some have none! I'm talking a sad 2-3 inch Whoppers and 1-2 inch Supersonics and Better Boys! My Sqooshes (it's just fun to say that way) are absolutely massive, but so far only 1 little sqoosh out of all of them 😢! At least now I know the likely cause! It's only mid June so I think I still have time to turn them around, but I need to act fast! Thanks for the great info!!
I appreciate your knowledge. I sat on the floor of a bookstore this past weekend with a pile of gardening books. I’ve learned so much more from your videos than what I could glean from the books. Thank you for sharing your gardening wisdom. 😊
If you like organic only, get some good quality earthworm castings and Soldier Fly Frass because Frass will fertilize and is a natural insect repellant ..A mix of 1 gallon of water and a teaspoon of unsulphered molasses poured on the root area when the plant has developed the roots after about 3 weeks will feed the fungi and the plants will get a huge boost from that and do it again later on when the fruit starts growing out
Very helpful. I just ordered a.p. and tomato miracle gro. I will use the ap now and at flower stage use the other! So helpful! We have never fertilized before so hopefully this will help us. Our goal is have enough to eat and also provide some to our local food pantry.
Just subbed! This is great,direct,no nonsense info. I appreciate that! I really loath sifting through the content providers life story to get the info i need when im busy in the garden
This is the first time I’ve ever heard if watermelon being referred to as a vegetable. This tip video is so vital especially to new growers. Thanks for making it!
My point is that many things we call "vegetables" are actually fruits. Technically, the only thing that is a "vegetable" is the *vegetation* of the plant. Anything that comes from a flower is a fruit.
I am grateful for your advice. I took your advice many times an much of it has helped. Jobes wirks really great in our zone, so does the Alaskan More Bloom.
Hello, first of all thank you for sharing your expertise. I'm not a gardener; I have one beefsteak tomato plant in what I believe is a 5-gallon container. ☺ I knew about using Miracle-Gro tomato, but when I was looking at Jobes and others with the numbers 5-5-5 or 1-1-1 or 10-20-40-60 whatever, ☺ I really got lost. Because of that, I only purchased the Miracle-Gro tomato. I had worked for a retailer as a dept. manager for the seasonal department; we sold systemic whatever for sure for roses. However, I never learned what it was for. 😠 I understood about Miracle-Gro just fine. I'd subscribe to your channel if I were a gardener. I'll definitely "share" to my gardening daughter. She told me about caring for my ol' girl, but you and others have shown and told at the same time. That made it easier to picture what my daughter had been telling me then showing at another time. Thank you very much! I'll be heading to the nearest garden department soon ish.
Now I know why I got huge beautiful tomato plants but few blooms and no tomatoes! Thanks! Just planted my tomatoes in Miracle Grow again. Going to get some phosphorus fertilizer for them today!
About July of this year I noticed my tomatoes had quit flowering and for the most part quit growing, and doing a little RU-vid research I started giving them Jack's Tomato FeED and the results have been night and day. Within 2 or 3 days of using it I started seeing little flowers start to form and within 2 weeks I had a bunch of new baby tomatoes. I'm growing 15 plants which are 15 different varieties and not all reacted the same, with my Brandywines not seeming to get all that big of a boost from it, but others, especially the purple top varieties, just took off. I have backed off a little on how much I'm giving them, more for the reason that it's the beginning of Sept. and I want the plants energy to go into what's already there, but I can't wait for next year
This year I bought the jacks bloom booster, i use it primarily for my fruit trees, but for my garden I mix 3 tbsp each of miracle grow all purpose & Jack's to 5 bucket at it ratios to 20-22-21/gal. So I can have high nitrogen, all purpose and blooms, without buying jacks triple 20.
I think so, too. Even reading the comments, I’m seeing folks say this isn’t the case, but I guarantee they’re mixing other products, like compost and granulated organics to the mix that is throwing off the NPK ratio and muting the effects. If you ONLY use a 24-8-16 fertilizer, the results on your fruiting veggies isn’t great…
@@2MinuteGardenTips Well Sir, l generally use 4-18-38 with additional calcium nitrate and magnesium. These are water soluble, mixed at a rate of 12 grams for 4-18-38, 6 grams of magnesium and 12 grams of calcium nitrate per 5 gallons of water. Generally have patio tomatoes that exceed 5 feet tall with abundance of fruit, peppers, jalapeno, poblano, banana and green bell are 6 to 7 feet tall, also with an abundance of fruit. Cherry and beef steak tomatoes that grow to be over 6 feet tall, also loaded with fruit. All of these are grown in 17 to 20 gallon totes as I have limited garden space.
@@2MinuteGardenTips If they're mixing other products how can you attribute the increase in production exclusively to the phosphorus? It's like being low on energy, taking a multivitamin, and attributing the increase in energy to B12 without verifying with blood tests nor isolated supplementation.
I only use Miracle Gro at the beginning of the growing season for a couple of waterings then switch to Fox Farms Open Sesame then Beastie Bloomz which have high phosphorus content. Gotten a lot of peppers and tomatoes using that combination. It also helps to pollinate the flowers with an electric toothbrush by vibrating them.
Spot on!!! Jack's Classic .. 20-20-20 .. with the occasional inclusion of touch of humic acid powder. Bone meal and seaweek/kelp supplement is also helpful. Fish emulsion is also good, unless you've got neighbors and are allergic to bees. :) (I own a commercial, licensed, and inspected nursery)
Thanks for the tips! In addition to your video on why fertilizer is a must to begin with for agriculture, now I know which ones I need for my veggies and which for my flowers and fruiting veggies.
Thank you so much for asking & it just shows just how kind I’m certain that you are for asking, “What’s going on?”, because it’s been a long hard week already and it’s only Tuesday can you imagine that but since you asked, “What’s going on?” I will certainly tell you that things could be better but then they could be worse also and isn’t that always the case with life ha ha no matter what’s happening it could always be worse and no matter what is happening it could always be better, although there was one time, in fact actually there’s been a few times in my life where when somebody ask me “What’s going on?” I could actually tell him that things couldn’t be better, “What’s going on?” is that things are going so well but then I stop and think you know I suppose something else great could happen and things could even be better so to answer your question “What’s going on?”, I’ll begin by saying things are actually looking up kind of like Paul McCartney wrote that “everything is looking better” and then the severely negative John Lennon wrote, “couldn’t get much worse“, which means obviously that Paul McCartney was an optimist and John Lennon was a pessimist and we all certainly all know that therefore if you were to ask them “What’s going on?” considering they are two people which certainly fills out the definition of guys plural, they would say what they said in that song which they wrote many songs in their career but can you believe they only wrote Beatle songs or actually all the Beatles songs they wrote were before they were 30 years old which really is astonishing therefore if you were to ask them “What’s going on?” they would have been all over the road from the beginning to the end of the Beatles career yet you ask me “What’s going on?” and I can tell you that things are looking pretty good, I’ll come back later to finish answering your question but thank you so much for asking that question.
When you recommend adding bone meal every two weeks, does that mean sprinkling bone meal on the soil surface and watering it in? I usually add it to my soil mix as I plant (Im a beginning gardener) seeds or transplant then let it go through the season. Please advise. Thank you for sharing these videos! :)
I had the same exact question! This is my first time using bone meal and I’m growing tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets. I got fish emulsion, compost and have already transplanted. My determinate variety is already blooming but I’m pretty sure it’s way too early for that. My plants I bought awhile ago (burmee big boys) either died or are probably going to. Sucks. My Grandpa used to bury the fish carcasses in the garden by the tomatoes when I was a kid, so I’m not really sure when to add the fish emulsion in during the grow cycle either so hopefully I can find a video on that and hopefully I get some tomatoes in Ohio, even if I only get one growth cycle out of my determinants. Fingers crossed!
Great video! How do you determine how much fertilizer to give a plant? The boxes included instruction on how much powder to add to a gallon...but doesn't make clear how far that gallon is supposed to go. I have to think putting that whole gallon on one plant is a lot different to spreading that gallon over ten plants...but don't know which way to go!
Thanks ! that just explained 70% of my problems being a new gardener . Last season I had beautiful eggplants but few flowers that didn’t produce fruit and a lot less tomatoes than I use to get. Logging it in my notes .Always learning 🚜🫛🌱🪴
this is something that I just learned this year thanking what i have seen on this channel a a few others.... this and MULCHING for the win You can teach and old dog a new trick. Thank you very much!!
This was my first year gardening with any real seriousness. I have been using the all purpose miracle grow. I have not seen a decrease or lack of flowers or fruit at all. I didn't soil test recently and the only nutrient I was lacking in was nitrogen. The plants (squash/cucumbers) had depleted the soil almost entirely while still showing a surplus of phosphorus and potassium. I have one pepper plant that has 12 mature fruits and has finished it's second "round" of flowering and another 20 or so small pepper fruits. Are my results that far out of the ordinary?
I have the ingredients and plan to make JADAM fertilizers and pesticides this week. I also compost in place and use tons of woodchips and mulched leaves around my garden. I found a deal at a marijuana store that is closing down nearby so I got tons of Fox farm soil in on the cheap. I really hope that between the soil, woodchips, leaves, and composting I’ll be ok cuz the fertilizer stuff is not fun for me😩. I do have the Alaskan Fish jawn so I’ll use that from time to time. Thanks for ur awesome content!
I use Miricale-Grow tomato food on my potted tomatoes and peppers with good results. In the garden I have best luck with a cheap 10-10-10 from the local farm store and lots of compost.
Wow , I was under the impression Tomatoes needed high Nitrogen. I'm using a liquid fertiliser 15 . 1 . 8 . ratio & sure they are rocketing skyward . I make my own Potash tea from the winter fireplace . I also chop up banana skins then steep in hot water & leave for a week . Diluted with tank water makes a good Potassium tea as well . Phosphorus I might have to buy
The 5-5-5 + bone meal is safe and effective for this plain old gardner. I've tried it. It works. I am willing to learn and increase my knowledge and produce.
That looks like a kennel that your plants was setting on. I have the same setup at my house. Lol when they get sun they go into the kennel to keep my dog from destroying them 😂
