On Wednesday, September 7, 2016 at 10:19:58 AM UTC-4, Danny D. wrote:
On Wed, 7 Sep 2016 09:10:12 -0400, Frank wrote:

My pots drain from the bottom into a pan and if there is water in the
pan and roots deep than I add no water.

Fertilizer will be needed and I sorta determine how much by how growth
is going. Too much all at once might kill the plant. In my opinion
some potting soils that contain fertilizer have too much fertilizer to
start plants in.

The calcium needed for tomatoes was discovered when I had blossom end
rot and calcium cured it.

I have seen the wife sprinkle blue fertilizer beads on the *top* of the
potted plants, where I think, "what good is it gonna do on top?" but she
says it gets deep (I doubt it does so efficiently).

Hence, my plan is to mix the fertilizer throughout the soil. It should be
easy to do. I just layer cake a few handfuls of soil plus a spoon of
fertilizer, then a few more handfuls of soil and another spoon, and then I
mix it all up and then put some more layers in until I can't mix it anymore
because the bucket is about half full so I finish the job in a second
bucket and then combine the tally.

Wouldn't *that* be better than sprinkling fertilizer on top and hoping it
makes it to the bottom some day?

If she waters from the top, the fertilizer dissolves slowly, providing a
constant, small dose of its ingredients. Too much fertilizer will burn the
plants, just like what happens when the dog always pees on the same patch of
grass and kills it.

Cindy Hamilton