Vegetable Gardening Tips, Advice and FAQ's

Searching for Fertilizers - Need Help

Q. I'm planning on doing a little bit of container gardening in my greenhouse this summer. I plan on using your soil-less mix as per your book "More Food From Your Garden" (out of print - I recommend The Mittleider Gardening Course) I also bought your Micro-nutrients (www.growfood.com - Materials) to mix in with my fertilizer. I have searched high and low for 16-8-16, 20-10-20, 16-16-16, 15-15-15, 13-13-13, 17-17-17. I did find 20-20-20 but it is very expensive. I also tried to find the 21-0-0 + 0-45-0 + 0-0-50 - with no luck either. I did find a bag of 18-18-18 and was wondering if that will work. And if so, how much fertilizer mix would I need for each container that is 12" round x 9" deep? My plan is to grow just cucumbers and tomatoes in the greenhouse. The rest will be grown outside in my raised (soil) beds.. Each bed is 24" wide x 10' long. Thank you very much for your help. A. Any combination from 13-13-13 up to 20-20-20 will work fine. And you can make your own by buying the three nutrients separately. There are several possibilities, just look at a Farm Supply store, if the big box and nursery stores don't have them. The 18-18-18 is good! Just mix it with the package of Micro-Nutrients according to instructions. For applications in small containers see my article in the FAQ section of the Foundation website under Containers or Grow-Boxes at http://foodforeveryone.org/faq/index.php?page=index_v2&id=309&c=1 Your 24"-wide beds in the garden are 6" wider than they should be for optimum planting, feeding, watering, etc. If you can't make them 18" wide I recommend you plant 4-6" in from the outside edges, so you don't waste fertilizers at least.

Last Modified: 2010-02-08 Number of views: 488