Foliar feeding of the FE/SW would be one excellent way around the settling in the bottom issue. Weekly or at most bi-weekly should keep most of your plants thriving. From using seaweed over 20 years now (liquid form) I can see adding it to the resevoir sporadically should pose no problems. I agree the fish emulsion would settle and be a problem except maybe during the 2 a day fillings which should agitate and help keep more of it in solution form. Just a few thoughts. Don't forget to consider the calcium for BER problems and consider dolomite or gypsum mixed in the media before planting will help minimize some part of this problem. How to deal with feeding after fruit or veg is getting ready to harvest is a more a challenge I suspect. I don't care for fishy maters and so foliar at that point becomes problematic. Maybe this is where adding to resevoir makes more sense because the plants uptake will mean more frequent filling and more of the FE and SW kept in solution. Just some quick thoughts before I get ready for work:) Happy Growing David

Don't be a slave to numbers, unless it's fun for you. I get the impression from some of your postings here that you tend to stress out about all the little factoids of organic gardening and composting. (you've said you were going crazy over it in fact) People have been growing fantastic food without tracking the percentages of micronutrients since the dawn of time. The stuff that plants really need to grow can be found in...plants. They incorporate it into foliage, etc. Compost that stuff, and you should have what you need. You're right if you're thinking that some of those micronutrients are at levels that just probably won't help anything at the dilution rate for fertilizing as listed on the bottle (even "micro" nutrients have a level at which they're not really contributing). I love how everyone talks about the numbers of micronutrients in their products. Anyone know how many micronutrients are in a compost pile of shredded leaves and coffee grounds? How about just shredded leaves? I'm guessing lots. I'll guess "lots". I can't blame the companies that list numbers of micronutrients- from the number of people here that say "ooh- this one has 70!", or whatever- it seems to sell the product. Neptune's Harvest has a good reputation, so if they sell a little more, then good for them! I drove to Hampton Beach and picked up 2 kitchen bags of seaweed. Made a thick tea with some of it and composted the rest. Why did I get it at all? We were there (my little dogs love the beach). Free compostables. You could do the same and not worry about numbers- percentages matter little when you have lots of material (low percentage times larger amount still means more total nutrient added). Reports that I've read make all sorts of claims about disease resistance and other stuff for seaweed/kelp micronutrients. I don't have any plant disease problems, but hey- it was free and probably won't hurt.

I personally like to use fish/seaweed emulsion and blend in neem oil with an emulsifier (cheap soap). Neptune's harvest - which I personally prefer as it is a cold process type (retaining the moist micro/macros) and the least offensive smell. It's 2-3-1, but the thing is, you'll be applying it more often. It's also (supposedly) absorbed more effectively. I, personally, once a week mix up a tablespoon of neem oil with an emulsifier (I use dr. bronner's soap unscented), I generally use a tablespoon or less. I then mix in an 1/8 cup of fish/sea weed emulsion. This is then mixed into a gallon of water and I use it as a soak/spray for all my plants once a week. Usually late in the day towards sunset or first thing in the morning. I don't advise doing in the morning because the risk of photo-toxicity. I like the effect of neem mixed with it because it provides a harmful insecticidal defense as well as a pathogen defense and seems to keep the critters away from the otherwise tempting scent of fish emulsion. Here is a link that might be useful: more info than you can shake a stick at on the full nutrient profile of fish emulsion

I use it to give the plants a boost when I plant out. Also, I have some new beds this year that have quite a bit of organic matter that's still breaking down and could tie up nitrogen, so I use very diluted fish fertilizer when I water to try to make up for that while the organic matter breaks down (this is in addition to tomato/veg fert, which I apply regularly once fruiting starts). So far, plants seem happy, no sign of nitrogen excess or deficiency, but it's still earlyish. Because I just use tomato fertilizer on all my fruiting veg (just keeps thing simpler, fewer things to buy) I also use the fish fertilizer to supplement those plants that like a little more N than tomatoes. The fish fertilizer is good for leaf veggies. I don't foliar feed. I already do regular preventive spraying for fungal diseases and will spray if I have pest issues (thinking of adding a capsaicin product for squirrels and chipmunks), and too many things sprayed on the plants seems kind of silly, as it seems I'd constantly be washing off what I previously sprayed, etc., plus, more importantly, I'd spend ALL of my time spraying, which is not my favorite activity. Since I've never had problems with deficiencies when I apply fertilizer to ground/roots, I haven't yet felt a need to feed via foliage.