The Grow formula is much higher in phosphorus than any plant can benefit from, but other than that it's a great fertilizer. I used to use it years ago because that is what I found at a hydro store, but switched to Foliage Pro once I learned more about plant nutrition. The Grow formula isn't a bad choice and it's certainly not going to kill your plants, it's just a waste of phosphorus which is a water body pollutant. I don't know if your reading has lead you to this post or not. It's the CEO of DynaGro explaining that high phosphorus fertilizers are useless.

I think too, we could chase the question in another direction. What if we asked and answered what's in the soda/juice/sweet tea that offers a potential benefit to the plant and is there anything in the leftovers that is potentially limiting?? In the juice & soda, we know there might be natural or artificial flavorings, neither of which are likely to be beneficial. There is water, which we know isn't a plus. We already know that some of the bio-compounds in tea are potentially limiting. So, we're left with the primary consideration, which is the sugar content. Let's clear the way by saying if the drinks are artificially sweetened, it's almost a certainty that it would have a limiting effect, or at best would offer no advantage to the plant. Even if it was needed and could be used by the plant, sugar couldn't be absorbed by the plant in molecular form. The hydrocarbon chain would need to be cleaved. Sugar (CnH2nOn [n is a number from 3-7]) hydrocarbon chains contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which are never deficient under normal circumstances, so nutritionally it looks like the leftovers are a bust. What does sugar actually DO when it becomes part of the soil solution? It increases the level of TDS (total dissolved solids and EC (electrical conductivity). What this does is make it more difficult for the plant to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in water. The goal of a good nutritional supplementation program should be to keep TDS/EC as low as possible w/o the level of nutrients being so low it causes nutrient deficiencies. From this, we can see that ANYTHING in the soil solution that is not nutritional is going to be limiting. To illustrate why non-nutrients in the soil solution are limiting, lets say that in a plant growing strongly, 800 ppm fertility is perfect when only the nutrients essential to growth are present in the soil solution, and they are there in the same ratio in which plants use them. Anything lower than 800 ppm carries the potential for deficiencies, and anything above 800 ppm makes it more difficult to absorb water & nutrients. Skewing the RATIO of nutrients in the soil solution even when the total ppm remains at 800 is also limiting. Adding sugar or any soluble substance the plant can't use has to be limiting. At 800 ppm with sugar being 100 ppm, there can be nutritional deficiencies even if the nutrient ratio is perfect. At 900 ppm with sugar being 100 ppm the effect is limiting because it makes it unnecessarily difficult for the plant to take up water - the primary cause of spoiled foliage in houseplants. I'm done. ;-) Al

Al suggested to let your tap water sit for 24 hours to allow CO2 to gas off. Is this only for the initial test to see how much vinegar to add to get the pH in the right spot, or is that a recommendation for every watering? I don't think I can commit to filling up buckets of water the day before Everytime, but could totally do it once for the sake of getting a good reading. You'll need to allow the CO2 to gas off initially, then check it (tapwater) every once in a while because municipalities are always changing the amount of chemicals they add to your water supply. You'll be able to judge how often you need to check it by how much it changes, or doesn't. Probably every 3 months would be good. Personally, I don't chase my tail trying to maintain a fixed pH level for anything I grow, yet I manage to keep my plants very healthy. Most of the images I've posted through the years show extraordinarily healthy plant material as a matter of course. My pursuit of the ideal pH is pretty much limited to adding a little citric acid or white vinegar to my irrigation water before I water, whenever I see iron chlorosis, and that mostly occurs in plants I over-winter under lights in the basement. I'm presuming it's due to carbonate accumulation in the medium and related to the fact I can't flush the medium as profusely as I can watering from the hose outdoors. Once the plants go back outdoors for the summer, the issue pretty much goes away, though I have a few (6 or so) plants that still show a bit too much interveinal chlorosis for my taste. I've discovered for those few plants, a small dose of Sprint 138, an iron chelate for high pH applications, fixes it pronto. I also discovered the same treatment of Sprint 138 works just as well for over-wintering plants w/o having to acidify the water. It might be something to consider, but be willing to dig deep into your wallet if you go that route. The last 5 lbs I bought was over $100, but I have friends who use it so we share the cost. If you want to try it, I can send you a little. It only takes 1/4 stp/gallon every 5th or 6th watering, so it goes a very long way in containers. So, does the target pH offered (5-5.5) take that into consideration, or should this be adjusted for foliage pro and protekt? Similarly, any granule fert (Osmocote Plus in my case) in the mix would also affect this, right? All of those additives affect pH. You'll need to decide how important maintaining a precise pH is to you, then do some research to decide what method you want to use to check pH, then be prepared to learn you're going to have to settle for 'close enough' because of the number if factors in constant flux that change pH. I acidify my irrigation water to about 5.5 whether I use it to fertigate or irrigate. If it helps to know. I have something saved somewhere from Dave Neal, CEO of Dyna-Gro Plant Solutions that essentially says not to be concerned about any rise in pH associated with use of ProTeKt 0-0-3. After a long net search, I ended up back at this old thread for what Dave said: "To date more than 200 university studies have been published regarding the multiple benefits of soluble silicon. If you are using distilled water, presumably you are adding fertilizer. Since most [fertilizers] are acidic and applied at a rate higher than Pro-TeKt, the fact that Pro-TeKt has a high pH is more than offset by the low pH of the fertilizer. With many thousands of long time users of Pro-TeKt, I know of no one who has lost a plant due to high pH." Finally, just to clarify order of operations: add foliage pro, then water, then vinegar, then protekt? Mixing in between? I think, when you're adding ProTeKt 0-0-3, the water should not be acidified as it can cause the Ca in the FP 9-3-6 to precipitate out of solution. Al

Most plants absorb N-P-K in about a 3:1:2 ratio. Foliage Pro matches that ratio perfectly, whereas Dyna-Gro's other products contain way more P than necessary and considerably more K as well. The market is filled with high P fertilizers due to the myths that a 1:1:1 ratio is a proper ratio for general growth, and that even higher levels of P increase flowering. One might wonder why companies make these useless formulas, and I think the CEO of Dyna-Gro himself said it best. "...it is simpler to give the market what they think they need than to try to reeducate it." http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1388370/the-uselessness-of-high-p-fertilizers Can't say I blame him. If Dyna-Gro didn't make high P formulas, people would just buy them somewhere else. Thankfully they make a proper formula for those of us that want it. -Chris