Hello Barbara:

Actually, it's not the brand name that is so important as the the numbers. Also any brand with more than 10% urea could damage plants.

The brand I use is Peters at the moment but I have used other brands found at the hardward store.

Nancy

Peters General Purpose fertilizer is the 20-20-20 I use most frequently. Miracle Grow also has a 20-20-20 formula -it is called "Nursery Select" - BUT, it has relatively high urea content - 8.1%
Sometimes I use Peters Specialties african violet food - 12-36-14 - it works well and has no urea

I have checked all my local sources for a 20-20-20 formula (I know it's the numbers) with no luck. I will probably have to order it online, but what I have found so far seems to have a pretty high urea content.

So, to streamline my question, if you use a 20-20-20 formula, what brand has the least urea?

Barbara

Wow thats unbelieveable that you cant find 20-20-20? Do you have a Walmart where you live? A Zellers, a nursery? One of those store has to have a fertilizer in their gardening dept? Maybe phone a few department stores in your area and ask for the gardening dept and ask them before you go in. Im sure you must have it. Golden

Hi Barbara,
I have used Dyna Gro with great success. It's a liquid formula without any UREA in it. They have a 7-7-7 formula which should give the same results as a 20-20-20. Chech the link I have included.
Fred in NJ

Here is a link that might be useful: Dyna Gro

Golden -

it is very doubtful we can find anything useful in Walmart - first 20 in 20:20:20 will be full of urea - which is bad. Walmart - is a low cost retailer - so what they will have available - will have urea - since it is the cheapest nitrogen source. The problem is it cannot be directly used by the plants - it should first be consumed by bacteria which converts it into the more plant friendly form. Means - it should be used on outside plants that grow in a real soil, not in soilless mix.

So nowdays - since the cost of no-urea nitrogen goes up and up - it gets harder and harder to find the balanced fertilizer without it. Peters's 20:20:20 and Miracle Grow - are full of urea - and you need to be real cautious - and alternate them with something else and flush the soil from time to tiome - otherwise the hhigh concentraton of unused urea will burn the roots.

I am using Peter's Specialty - which is not balanced - and the one that Fred recommends - Dyna Gro.

And I would really appreciate if somebody recommends something else too.
Irina

Ok well how do you know if it has this urea in it???? I have checked the back of my fertilizer and I see nothing noted there??? Should it not be labeled on the back if in fact this urea is in the product??? Golden

Yes, it would be listed under the nitrogen area on the list of ingredients.
Here is my question regarding the soil bacteria necessary to utilize the urea - isn't there some bacteria in the spaghnum peat? Unless you totally blast the soiless mix in the oven or microwave (to zap any bugs that might be lurking in the soil mix)- isn't that why it is recommended not to "bake" your peat higher than 180 degrees? - so as not to kill the beneficial bacteria?
And that brings me to my next question - how many of you sterilize your potting mix? I don't think the commercial vendors do it, do they? I have done it both ways and it seems like my plants are happier if I do not "cook" the soil less mix. Anyhoo, that has been my dilemma for a long time.

Well the brand I have is Home Gardener and I bought it at Home Hardware. It has nitrogen in it - 20% but nothing is listed on urea. So dragonfly - you are saying then that if there is urea in the product it should say UREA? Correct?

yes - here is how it is listed on the miracle grow package:
total nitrogen....20%
5.9% ammoniacal nitrogen
6.0% nitrate nitrogen
8.1% Urea nitrogen
and then the rest of the other ingredients - potash, etc. is listed.
I am not familiar with Home Gardener brand. Is it one of the organic fertilizers? Sometimes they are "urea free"

Dragonfly -

Looks like you are right on the not to sterilize your soil thing. I definitely for soil sterilizing for seeds and rooting the leaves - but for the mature violets - looks like we can get by very much OK without it.

Peat is not soil, more of it - it has some antiseptical quality - so it doesn't have the bacteria we need.

I just remembered - and dug out a link - Gary and Pat Dunlap at Pat's Pets are selling the soil with this bacteria added - may be it is a solution? Anybody used this soil? What are the results?

Irina

Here is a link that might be useful: soil with beneficial bacteria

Thanks, Fred, for the Dyna-grow suggestion. I called the one dealer here in Maine, and they don't carry the 20-20-20, but she told me about a brand called Grow More that they use for orchids, and it is a 20-10-20 formulation WITHOUT UREA. It would seem to me if they can do a 20% nitrogen without urea product, some of the other more common brands could too. Actually, I think I saw an Optimara tub of 20-20-20 without urea, 13 bucks a pound.

Barbara

I got a quart of Dyna Gro on wormsway.com for 13.75 plus shipping. The numbers are 7:9:5 - so I thought - let's try to use 1/4 teaspoon instead of 1/8th I usually use - and the large plants really apppreciated it- but the starters showed some orange salt crystals in a middle - so I reduced it to 3/16 of a tea-spoon - works OK. Do not think that I do it that precisely - for me it is about 1.5 tablespoons per 20 gallons trash can.

Looks like even it is not 20-20-20 - you can adjust the amount to make the plants happy.

Irina

I have heard Peters has been bought out and now sold under the name Jack's Classic. I read this on the violet showcase website but they don't have the 20-20-20 there.

That's what I was told too.

Jack's Classic African Violet food is 12-36-14. Personally, I like a high phosphorus number.

Jacks's:
3.39% Ammoniacal N
0.94% Nitrate Nitrogen
7.67% Urea Nitrogen

I've been using Gubler orchid food for years. The NPK ratio isn't great (19-8-16), but no urea.

I also use the Dyna-Gro, both Grow 7-9-5 General Purpose Formula and Bloom 3-12-6 Blooming Formula.

But I did find an orchid brand at Lowe's that is urea free. It is granular and comes in a 16 oz. bag. It's called Better-Gro by Sun Bulb Company, Inc. It comes in a 20-14-13 formula and bloom booster formula of 11-35-15. It's water soluble and supposedly has minor elements added to combat deficiencies in soilless mixes.

I rotate both of these in my fertilizing regiment along with the Dyna-Gro.

Elaine

In my gargage I have a lot of partially used fertilizers.
They aren't the balanced fertilizers that you are looking for, but the urea content isn't so much of a problem. Some were probably purchased more than a year ago, so it is possible that the companies have since changed their nitrogen makeup.

Those with no urea or low urea content are...

Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster is 10-52-10. The nitrogen content is listed as 10% Ammoniacal Nitrogen. No urea mentioned.

Peter's Super Blossom Booster.10-50-10. It has 6.57% Ammoniacal Nitrogen, 3.43% Urea Nitrogen.

I do plan to look for something more balanced with no urea, but think that I could use the bloom boosters occasionally too.

~Bunnycat

I have been using Peter's 20-20-20 for about 25 years on all my plants and it has worked out very well. It does wonders for geraniums too.

I have found it readily available at Home Depot, although it has been 2 years since I bought any.

bought some today from www.dripirragation.com

20-20-20 Water Soluable Fertilizer 5lb bag

20-20-20 Widely used in Agricultural, horticultural and landscaping application, Grow More is formulated for maximum solubility, designed for injector systems and foliar spraying. Depending on the formula up to 5 lbs of water soluble fertilizer is soluble per gallon of water, this means no deposits in the tanks, lines or equipment.
20-20-20 all purpose balanced, water-soluble fertilizer. Use to fertilize, feed, and maintain your lawns, landscapes, and gardens. It can be used with any of our fertilizer applicators.

High solubility and purity and the special forms of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium make Grow More Fertilizers the ideal product. Safe and quick acting, all our formulas are made with the highest purity technical grade plant foods available, the ingredients used and the quality of manufacturing are unduplicated in other fertilizers. Grow More contains no sulfates, chlorides, carbonates, excess soluble salts or other undesirable elements to damage plants. Each and every container of fertilizer is marked with a quality control number that insure that each batch has been continuously monitored for control of solubility pH, color, moisture, particle size, and content of chelated micronutrients.

Supplier: Grow More
Part#: A068
Price: $9.58

Hi Fred, I couldn't agree with you more! For years I have grown violets with Peter's and never had any problems either.

I think why everyone makes such a big deal about it today is that many use the soiless mixes. Before they were around what did people use? You got it SOIL! And what does soil have in it? Beneficial bacteria! That is why years ago there was not so much concern about urea.

Here is the mix I use in CT and have had beautiful violets blooming very young. You can buy this at Lowe's, or any garden center.

8 qts Miracle-Gro African Violet Mix.
You can also use the regular Miracle-Grow if not avaliable.
8qts Perlite
8qts Vermiculite

I use 2:1:1 ratio. To make it simple, here is a 1/2 batch.

4 qts Miracle-Gro
2 qts Perlite
2 qts Vermiculite

I use Miracle-Gro 20-20-20 at 1/4 strength every week, alternating the 3rd week with a bloosom booster.

If you live in an area with very hard water like I do, make sure you let your water sit for one day to let the chlorine
evaporate before watering or adding fertilizer. I have found the chlorine in the water does more damage than any fertilizer.

You can alway water from the top once a month to keep salts and excess fertilizer from building up. Many people who wick or bottom water need to do this as well. Fertilizer will eventually build up in the mix and ultimately kill the plant.

And did I mention,I grow mine in a north window, no lights!

Hope this will help.

davioletman

Forgot to add this to the post. This mix is very PH stable.

I used a soil tester to see how much the PH would be altered as the bag stated it's PH is balanced for violets 6.0-6.5. After mixing the proper ratio as I described the PH is 6.5. No wonder my friends are so happy!

davioletman

I also had the same experience as Irena using the 7-9-5 Dyna-Gro. However, I was using 1/8 tsp for my mini's and its a bit strong.

Peters and Jacks is the same guy I was told by a professional nurserymen. So thats Jack Peters in case you don't know. Jack's Classic 20-20-20 formula has a whopping 17.9 % urea.

Hello
I have a 25 lb bag of jack peters professional sitting in front of me right now. Its says: total nitrogen is:
4.1% ammoniacal nitrogen
5.5% nitrate nitrogen
10.4% urea nitrogen
This fertilizer has not given me any problems.
The peters name was sold to the Schultz's company and is now called jacks. I first found out about this through a local nursery that used it for all there plants. It works great for me.

Barbara -

it is too much urea. It depends on your culture - if your violets are potted in soil - the real soil has bacteria converting urea into more palatable form for the plants. If they are in soilless mix - then the urea is just not utilized.

Everybody has different ways of growing - if it works for you in your conditions - it is great.

Irina

Over the years, I've used many different fertilizers with some success. For many years, I did not grow AV's and when I started back a few years ago, I've made every attempt to get it right this time. I monitor my water and growing mix for the correct PH and fertilize every watering with Optimara AV food (no urea) at 1/2 strength. I have had the most beautiful and healthy plants that I have ever grown whether they are under lights or at the windows. I think you just have to find the right combination of all factors in your growing situation for the best results.

Terrilou -

I am envious. Since we moved to another house 2 years ago - my streptocapus collection performs like never before - and the violets are not that spectacular anymore. My last idea was to put a reverse osmosis system for the watering, i got it - but didn't install it yet. Usually my husband fixes everything for me - but for whatever reason he refuses to do it this time. Need to figure out how to do it myself - and in the middle of the mess hopefully he will pitch in.

Irina