Oh My God, my thread reappeared..that IS spooky..lol I wonder if the thread regarding Colocasia mysteriously returned..have to check it out..LOL..strange. Billy, I know what you mean about powdered fertilizer..I opened the plastic bag it comes in, (for acidic plants) and found dark blue speckles..perhaps it got wet during handling, so don't want to chance it..Afterall, if you or anyone here read up on fertilizers, they say never use mixed fertilzer that's been sitting in water more than 8 hours..or less.. I tossed it, so don't have to worry..We went to Ace Hardware, purchased new ferts.. I don't know if old fert would harm a plant, but at the least, may lose nutrients.. It takes 2-3 days to fertilize my plants..why waste time using something that's not going to work?? Or worse, harm/kill plants? Chan, your post is interesting..I agree. Most of my ferts are powder though..The only liquid ferts I've seen are those by, I believe, Shultz..the directions say, use 7 drops per gallon of water, 'everytime' you water..sounds like they're trying to push their product, instrucing people to use every watering. Wouldnt you think??? Toni

I think the message as it applies here is that we shouldn't be afraid of using synthetics in lawn care just because they contain chemicals. Just because something has an "ingredient" with a funny looking name that may be hard to pronounce doesn't mean that it's necessarily bad or wouldn't be produced naturally. For example, organic fertilizers can cause chemical run off just like synthetic fertilizers. Somewhat off topic, someone asked me what I was feeding my dog because her fur was so shiny and smooth. This person couldn't believe when I told her that I feed her bagged, dry dog food from the pet store. "All those chemicals and artificial ingredients! It's just not natural!" This person fed her dog a raw diet, and I guess she was assuming that plopping a round of filet mignon into the food bowl was somehow more natural than dog food. To me, that's just as unnatural. (Her dog was also suffering from conditions that may or may not have been related to diet, including terrible fur quality and weak bone issues...) Giving a dog a T-bone is as unnatural as dropping countless pounds of soy meal in a lawn to feed it., just as broadcasting Scotts Lawnfood is equally unnatural to feeding your dog dry kibble. There is nothing natural about a lawn (or farming or gardening, for that matter). There was an entire hoopla about this years ago, which is why the word "organic" is used where "natural" used to be. Lawns do not exist in nature without human intervention. Stop mowing, feeding and weeding the lawn for a single season and you will see my point. In nature, success would be a single seed out of thousands germinating and surviving log enough to produce more seed. In the man made lawn, success is typically 85-90% germination at a minimum, with the constant upkeep to ensure proper care for many years, and the prevention of any grass plants from producing seed. At any rate, I was going for a lighthearted post with that image and not something of serious analysis.

Use the stuff with no fear - organics will not burn or harm your plant. I have had my best luck with using an all-organic program that is manure based (either horse, cow, or poultry). There is no need to fear bad microbes with properly composted &/or pasturized manure - composting gets rid of the bad & encourages the good (which is not harmful to us, only beneficial to the plant); pasturizing may kill microbes, but it's only killing bad. It's the process of composting that encourages already existing good microbes in the soil, that's why it's good to put certain types of uncomposted organic matter in soils (ie: letting grass cippings drop behind every now & then, or spreading manure). As for the guy who has no need for molasses, poultry manure & humates, this is what I've learned through scientific research of the materials: The molasses is a high quality natural sugar which is loaded with all kind of nutrients that provide food for the GOOD microbes, to encourage their propogation, & therefore health of the soil - the poulty manure is a manure product that is very high in nitrogen per pound (more so than many other manures), as well as the other nutrients needed, but yet won't burn the plant on application, like chemical fertilizers (it also slow releases, so it doesn't wash into our waterways causing fish death & drinking water contamination) - the humates stimulate growth & plant development by storing nutrients for slow release - and just for the record, the sea kelp is a great source of organic nutrients, & green sand is a natural source of iron & other minerals that won't burn a plant, either. I've used this product on my St. Aug & Bermuda grass lawns & pastures, & have had much luck with using it in conjuction with spreading dried horse manure with one of my applications yearly, as well. I've have also had FABULOUS luck using this product in my garden with composted horse manure, & a sprinkiling of dissolved diluted molasses (cheap livestock feeding type) 1x per growing season. I will most certainly look for & use it again - so I have nothing but good to say about this product or Medina products, in general. Also, the odor dissapates in 2 days if watered so that it breaks down from it's pellet form - after the watering the smell rapidly leaves after less than 24 hours. If you don't water, it will take a couple days more to dissapate . My only warning when using the product is to be sure to water it until it breaks down from it's pellet form (just needs to be saturated for this to happen) if you're using it in a pet yard - if you don't, your dog may eat it. It WON'T harm the dog (as it is pasturized against the bad stuff), but I just find this a pretty disgusting canine practice! (Also, for the equine uneducated, dogs LOVE dried road apples left behind from horses - yuk!)

I use fish emulsion for all my roses, both in the ground and in pots. Started doing this last year after a recommendation from one of my favorite rose nurseries, Greenmantle. I tried 3 different brands. The one I liked best is Gro-Tone made by Espoma. Gro-Tone is a nice balanced 2-2-2. It also smells better than fish emulsion often does. Gro-Tone certainly smells like fish but it's more like a fresh fishy aroma. Espoma added mint to make the scent less objectionable too. However it is pricey, and my local nursery doesn't intend to carry it as it didn't sell that well. I bought almost every bottle they had and stockpiled it.;) The other fish fertilizer I liked somewhat was Neptune's Harvest. The numbers on the bottle I have are 2-3-1. It also didn't smell bad though very fresh fishy(I think NH and Espoma use a cold processing method). The NH found at my local nursery is the mix which includes kelp, and I'd prefer not to give that to my roses as I don't think they need it based on soil and water conditions here--yours may be quite different. If I can't get the Gro-Tone, this is the brand I'll use, but their fish-only one which is 2-4-1. I can order direct from NH. The 3rd fish emulsion I used was made by E.B. Stone, fish emulsion with kelp, 4-1-1. It smelled ghastly, like rotten fish. Yuck, I did not enjoy applying it in the garden much less even opening the bottle. In addition, my roses did not respond as well to it as the other two. One reason may be that the water here can be very high in boron, and if the fertilizer also includes that micronutrient plants in this area may object (by showing boron toxicity). I've never seen Muskie in the stores so have never tried it. All the ones I used seemed to be in slightly different concentrations and thus the dilution rates indicated on the bottles were also different. I found this site on the web that carries Muskie: http://www.pthomeandgarden.com/product/9-muskietm-fish-fertilizer-5-1-1 It looks as if on that bottle at least there is some kind of info on the side. Perhaps it is application instructions???? Maybe they didn't put it on all the bottles which would be too bad. Melissa