Topic: What Plant Food/Fertilizer do you use?

[Patty S]

My first year at flower gardening (in 2004) was an expensive & exasperating experience.  First, I learned that not everything works just because the label says so!  I got discouraged with the bugs & diseases that seemed to be more bother than a pretty flower is worth, & was tempted to replace everything with lawn... or rocks... or anything that wouldn't make me crazy! 

My garden shed was so full of insecticides, fungicides, & plant foods specifically formulated for various plants, that I barely had room for potting soil, containers & tools... & hardly had time to get around to using them all! Then my daughter-in-law gave me a little bottle of what she called "an amazing plant food", that she'd come across. She claimed that it did almost everything except fold her laundry, so I decided to try growing flowers one more time.

It's name is Eleanor's VF-11 Plant Food, & I must say that it eliminated several of my garden woes back then, & renewed my willingness to be involved with gardening!  It freed up my time because it's so easy to use, & took the worry out of gardening, because it's not necessary to wear latex gloves while using it, or be afraid of it mixing with another product that would make it dangerous to humans or animals.   My garden shed suddenly had room for tools & things that belong there, because I threw out most of the stuff that never seemed to work very well anyway! (I kept things like slug bait, sow bug & ant killer, etc.)

This VF-11 has revived sick house plants (REALLY sick ones!), literally overnight!  It has gotten rid of Black Spot on my roses, chased away aphids & plant mildews, & is just as effective in my veggie garden as Miracle GroŽ* (& less expensive).

On the bottle, it says, "Aids African Voilets to blossom frequently". Here are a few excerpts from Eleanor's VF-11 Plant Food Website:

  VF-11 can be used as a Foliar Feed or as a Root Feed, INDOORS OR OUTDOORS, & it's odorless, will not stain, it's environmentally friendly and non-toxic.
  Completely safe around pets and children.

  You can use it on all plants, including acid loving ones. It's is not a 'push' like other fertilizers.... think of it as a strength and health builder. It's loaded with the many minerals so lacking in in our soils. And it's in a form that your plants can absorb immediately. That's why you see lovely changes, so fast..... it's almost startling!

  For a marvelous experience... use it on your tomatoes, fruit trees, vegetables, grapes and berries.

  For best results, do not use with other fertilizers. VF-11 wants to work alone. Use it for houseplants, new cuttings & transplants. (Root tone is not necessary).

The Web site offers an 8oz. sample bottle of VF-11 plant food concentrate (makes 8 gallons) for $3.00 (to cover the cost of mailing). It also lists stores that stock VF-11, a toll-free number & an e-mail address... & they do answer e-mail!  In the beginning, it was only being distributed on the West coast, so I wrote to find out when it would be available in Hawaii, & got a reply a few days later.  (It's now available through Ace Hardware, Safeway stores, Long's Drugs & Rite Aid... more stores listed on the VF-11 web site.)

VF-11 Plant Food will give you that Green Thumb you've been looking for all your life. If you ever start using it, you will never use anything else.

        BELIEVE IT!
BTW, I do not sell this stuff or work for the company, & I don't even know Eleanor... I simply think it's a great product! Even though I don't know all there is to know about gardening, I do know what works, & this works for me.

*The store here that carries VF-11 is a little ways from me, & when I can't get over there to get more, Miracle Gro is my second choice for the gardens, but it doesn't take care of Aphids, Black spot, etc.

[Dianna]

I have used Miracle Gro, but that stuff sounds like it is really amazing! I am glad you have posted this. I have been wondering about it.

We do have an Ace Hardware around here, so I will look for it and let you know my results with it. I have a few African Violets that could use some fertilizing...

by Patty:

Miracle Gro is my second choice for the gardens, but it doesn't take care of Aphids, Black spot, etc.

This gets rid of aphids, too? That sounds great!

If it does everything but fold laundry, I need quite a few bottles of it! 

[Patty S]

This is what the web site says about aphids:
 

VF-11 builds so much strength and health that plant cells 'harden' and 'seal in' the amino acids which aphids feed on. You have merely eliminated their food supply. And you have done it without the use of poisonous systemic or pesticides. Pretty nice...huh?
  And mildew is eliminated because VF-11 changes the pH and creates a condition where mildew can not grow.

Look at the list of stores on the web site... some of them will have to order it in, so you'll need to give them the SKU number.

[Pharmerphil]

VF-11 contains:
potassium nitrate
Potassium Phosphate...look them up, still wanna use em??

personally, wouldn't use it, well maybe on non-food crops.
Ya'll need compost/manure tea.
this substance gives yer plants a "quik Fix" and does nothing for long term health.
ditch the chemicals, yer killin yer lil microbes off and soon, you'll have lifeless soil that will only support plant life with "quick fixes"..my two cents.

[Dianna]

Non-food crops were what I would be using them for, Phil. My houseplants could use a quick fix every now and then! I will make sure to keep it away from the vegetables garden.

BTW, Phil, I think your advice was worth more than two cents! Maybe even a nickel. Thanks for giving us food for thought...

[MassMama]

I use the "dirt" out of my worm bin to fertalize my flowers..worm dirt tea

[Pharmerphil]

worm stuff=good

Yeah, maybe 5˘  _{(laura would probably pay the 5˘ for someone else to listen to it tho)}

sorry if sometimes I come off a lil strong.

Just been there and done that, at one time, back in the...well ain't gonna date myself here...
My soil was dead, a baren patch of DIRT.
The corn/bean fields around here are the same, even for the "not-so-microbial" life...

thousand acres behind Us, birds NEVER out there eating...
less than three acres here..Me, chasing birds out of my garden.
shovel full of field "dirt" no signs of life (wish I had me ona them there icroscopes)
shovel full of Our soil..worms, lotsa worms, other lil "critters" wish I had dat microscope

The thing to remember is simple:
Chemical fertilizers Feed the plant
Organic fertilizers Feeds the soil, which in turn feeds the microbes that Feed your plants.
helps build organic matter and humus which builds soil 'tilthe'

Asked once at a Master Gardening meeting about the difference...I was tired and maybe a lil testy...
I said, Giving your garden a quick fix is like throwing Gasoline on your barbeque grill, you get a quick, hot  fire...However...

[duh]

I can't say I get the same results with fertilizers that I get with compost. 

Not that I don't have green sand, oystershell lime, and eggshell.  But for the best looking plants I've ever had before the weather and lack of water got to them I have to go with the compost.

If I had a camera I'd show you the front containers.  I added a couple of buckets of compost to them before I planted this year and the plants went mad.  They have overgrown themselves to an amazing extent and all because of the compost.  They got water while I was sick because the landlord waters them. 

[MassMama]

I do my best at doing things as organic as possible.. My only downfall is spraying grass killer on the crabgrass... my neighbors have a great harvest of it.. Never around my food ... but just by the road... it is maddening..