Well - for anyone still following along here is some information. No clue if it's accurate. There's a freeware application that allows you to build custom fertilizers with a list of ingredients. You can input the list of available ingredients and their cost. You can then input a commercial formula (I put in the values for Dyna-Gro FP WITHOUT the micro nutrients). With a bit of tinkering you can get the program to give you the forumla for the fertilizer AND get a price estimate per unit according to the prices of the raw materials that you input. I just found the program today and I am not an expert. In fact I know nothing of fertilizers or this software but I did get it to give me a consistent answer for how to build the NPK + Mg + Ca portion of FP. I didn't bother with the micros because I will just buy a commercial formula and add it in. You can get the software here: http://scienceinhydroponics.com/2011/01/the-first-free-hydroponic-nutrient-calculator-program-o.html - again, I have no idea if it's safe or accurate. I installed it seemingly without issue. Here is the Dyna-Gro information I used to calculate the forumla: The MSDS for their line of fertilizers has the ingredients used: http://www.dyna-gro.com/Website%20pdf%20Files/MSDS%20Grow-Bloom-Pro%20Series.pdf The product information has the % of nutrients in Foliage Pro: http://www.dyna-gro.com/936.htm WARNINGS/CAVEATS: *There is almost certainly a mistake somewhere. *I know nothing about mixing chemicals. Just because this list is here doesn't mean it's safe to make. I put some numbers into a program and this is what it gave back to me. I might give this a try if I can find Ammonium Nitrate locally (haven't so far - probably won't since it can be used as an explosive, sigh). *A liquid acid is one of the components. No idea how safe this is to use or in what way it must be added to the other ingredients to be safe. Don't ask me, I do not know. *The ingredients list for the Dyna-Gro fertilizer list Mono Potassium Phosphate as an ingredient which makes up "*I guessed a price for ammonium nitrate. I put in 2$ per kilogram. This seems somewhat in line with the cost of the other nitrates but I have no idea what it actually costs. *All the other prices I based on retail prices available to me locally. INPUTS: I want 1 gallon of liquid fertilizer with an NPK of 9-3-6 with 2% calcium and .5% magnesium. RESULTS: Mono Ammonium Phosphate - NH4H2PO4 - 10.75g - $2.70 Calcium Nitrate (Tetrahydrate) - Ca(NO3)2.4H2O - 22.606g - $.80 Ammonium Nitrate - NH4NO3 - 80.891g - $4.60 Magnesium Nitrate (Hexahydrate) - Mg(NO3)2.6H2O - 9.137g - $.40 Phosphoric Acid (52%) - H3PO4 - 24.323g - $5.50 Potassium Nitrate - KNO3 - 30.082g - $1.90 Total Cost per Gallon at retail: $15.90. Approximate initial cost to buy materials retail: Mono Ammonium Phosphate - 4lbs - $17.00 Phosphoric Acid 52% - 2 gallons - $50.00$ Calcium Nitrate - 50lb bag - $29.00 (you can find smaller bags online) Magnesium Nitrate - 50lb bag - $36.00 Potassium Nitrate - 50lb bag - $50.00 Ammonium Nitrate - 50lb bag - $45.00 (assumed price) Total Startup Cost: $217 + chelated micro nutrients (easier to buy imo). I remember a thread where Californian was mocking us all for buying Foliage Pro rather than making it ourselves. He seemed hostile and aggressive to me so I didn't pay much attention. Looks like he was mostly correct. The retail cost of the ingredients is somewhere around $20 a gallon. The wholesale cost I'm sure is far less. The cheapest I can find FP locally is for about 60$ a gallon. Assuming I haven't screwed anything up that means that I could make back the initial investment after about 8 months (I go through a gallon of FP in about 2 warm-season months). Tempting... If anyone else is interested it would be great if you could check my numbers. If anyone knows if mixing these chemicals is safe/effective please let me know. I'm particularly concerned about the safety of mixing the acid and the ammonium nitrate - does that need to be done in a certain way to avoid nastiness? Can all of these things be safely stored? Etc. ---- Some further information to check out: the software gives: N:P2O5:K2O = 1:1.36:1.19 N:K = 1:0.99 N (NO3-):N (NH4+) = 1:0.46 Ca:Mg = 1:0.25 Do these look right?

The yellow color with the veining is classic chlorosis, which is almost certainly caused by an iron deficiency. I don't know anything about Grow and Bloom, but check to see if it contains iron. Potash won't hurt anything, but I don't think potash is your problem. A potash deficiency usually shows a fairly uniform olive drab color without the veining on the hyacinths. Potash deficient hyacinths usually have really long roots as well. Nitrate won't hurt anything either. I don't think you really want to add phosphate because of the algae risk. Add iron. Find a chelated micro-nutrient mix, like Fertilome Liquid Iron. You should see improvement within a couple days. Go ahead and add some potash too. It won't hurt.

Another topic that has so many variables that there is no one correct statement that can be made. I'm wondering whether you are pushing these products for some ulterior motive. I'm not calling those amendments snake oil, in fact I haven't looked at the links. I've just come to the opinion over 60+ years of gardening that expensive fertilizers and amendments are usually overpriced for what they are and there are usually less expensive ways to obtain the same results. Anyhow, here's my 2 cents, which is more than anyone is paying me for it! I don't get all hung up on whether my soil has every nutrient imaginable. IMO if one adds organic matter regularly, uses a good quality mulch, and perhaps uses an appropriate fertilizer/amendment for certain plants that may need that, the soil will be healthy and the plants will do well. I've found making teas and applying them a lot of work. I used to have up to ten 5-10 gallon buckets of alfalfa tea brewing at any given time and constantly applied it to my large garden as well as the lawn. Way too much work for me altho I did it for years. I now make one bucket and apply small amounts to various plants that may need more nutrients because they are heavy feeders. I mostly depend on the worms to fertilize my soil which requires me to *only* provide a healthy environment for the worms. As another poster mentioned organic molasses is a good amendment which is probably under-utilized. Every gardener has to find what works best for them but I know that expensive and/or extremely labor intensive methods are not self-sustaining. Gardening is a lot of work and it's worthwhile to find the easiest and cheapest methods or you'll soon give up. Best of luck to you blazeaglory with whatever you decide to do.

I personally fertilize with every watering at 1/4 strength. I do recommend that you use some fertilizer seeing that you haven't fertilized for a long time. For the first time around water with a full strength high Phosphorous fertilizer then reduce to 1/4 strength on the following waterings. Use the high Phosphorous fertilizer for 2-3 weeks then use a balanced fertilizer for 4 weeks, then back to the High Phosphorous one for 2-3 weeks,.... and so on. The high Phosphorous fertilizer helps induce flowering (no guarantees :) but continuous use can cause other deficiencies due to the high Phosphorous content and that is why I recommend the use of a balanced one in between. Use a fertilizer that contains chelated micro nutrients (Iron, Manganese,....) beside the macro nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium). Some folks will say not to fertilize during the winter time but I fertilize year round and Hoyas like carnosa will happily grow and bloom in the middle of our cold winters here ;) I saw another thread of yours where you where looking for Hoya suppliers. I don't know of any on-line stores in Spain but I know of a few in Holland, Italy and Germany. Drop me a message an I can give you the links if you're interested. Milan