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Should I start fertilizing?

obeychase

obeychase

So I just transplanted all of my plants to new soil, as the original soil I had contained barely any fertilizer at all. Rookie mistake haha. Now my Brazil starfish is perking up and becoming greener in the 2 days it's been transplanted. When do I fertilize with plant food? I have a 14-14-14 fertilizer called Osmocote and it's slow release. My question is, should I wait longer? The fertilizer is slow release which makes me believe I should add a tiny tiny amount now and add more once it's more mature. Your take?



 
I'd wait until it has a couple more sets of leaves...
 
SadisticPeppers said:
I'd wait until it has a couple more sets of leaves...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input! I'll probably wait about another month or so. I really want to see if these guys start to take off. My potting soil is currently sphagnum moss, perlite, etc. it's whatever my store bought seed starting mix is. I picked it up at my local nursery. My previous mix was an old batch of "organic vegetable mix" and it is the shittiest quality I've had. Tons of mulch everywhere, barely any perlite, very dry. Not fluffy unlike my new soil.
 
add the osmocote now... its slow release, wont harm your plants unless you fail to follow directions.
 
osmocote will release at a much faster rate when the soil temperatures are very high, but otherwise its pretty difficult mess up with osmocote.
 
im not a huge fan of osmocote tbh. its mostly urea... theres better stuff out there, but it will work.

oh yea, and only the osmocote plus has micronutrients.
 
you will either need to buy osmocote  micromax, or feed micronutrients some other way.
 
The cotyledons (a.k.a. "seed leaves") are still attached. The purpose of cotyledons is to feed the sprout until it develops enough true leaves to get photosynthesis going and root system developed enough to absorb nutrients from the soil. You do not need to fertilize as long as the cotyledons remain attached. They will ultimately dry up, shrivel and fall off - that is the sign that you can begin fertilizing. Even at that point, use a starter fertilizer that helps develop roots and stems, and only use 1/10th the amount on the label. Very gradually build up to full strength - very gradually. After the plant gets several sets of true leaves you can switch to a foliage-producing fertilizer. Once the plant shows first signs of buds, you can switch to a fertilizer that promotes budding, flowering and fruiting. Note these are rough guidelines. 
 
I like to use the analogy of a human baby - you don't give human babies anything stronger than human milk to start with and you only give them small amounts. You then start introducing solids that are nearly liquid - wet cereal, pulverized peas, etc., and gradually increase the amount. Then you go to a mix of part soft solid, part liquid and eventually go to real solids. Even a 5-year-old eating real solids can't eat as much as an adult can eat. Everything has a time and amount when it is appropriate and a time and amount when it is not. Same with plants and every growing thing.
 
geeme said:
The cotyledons (a.k.a. "seed leaves") are still attached. The purpose of cotyledons is to feed the sprout until it develops enough true leaves to get photosynthesis going and root system developed enough to absorb nutrients from the soil. You do not need to fertilize as long as the cotyledons remain attached. They will ultimately dry up, shrivel and fall off - that is the sign that you can begin fertilizing. Even at that point, use a starter fertilizer that helps develop roots and stems, and only use 1/10th the amount on the label. Very gradually build up to full strength - very gradually. After the plant gets several sets of true leaves you can switch to a foliage-producing fertilizer. Once the plant shows first signs of buds, you can switch to a fertilizer that promotes budding, flowering and fruiting. Note these are rough guidelines. 
 
I like to use the analogy of a human baby - you don't give human babies anything stronger than human milk to start with and you only give them small amounts. You then start introducing solids that are nearly liquid - wet cereal, pulverized peas, etc., and gradually increase the amount. Then you go to a mix of part soft solid, part liquid and eventually go to real solids. Even a 5-year-old eating real solids can't eat as much as an adult can eat. Everything has a time and amount when it is appropriate and a time and amount when it is not. Same with plants and every growing thing.
Click to expand...
 
 
haha wtf? have you ever fertilized other than the manner described above?
 
if so what happened?
 
i have pictures of 6 week old plants in rockwool ... getting full blast ferts literally their entire lives... that still have both cots.
cots are the starter motor for photosynthesis. they can last for a long ass time before they fall off... usually because they get shaded to death.
 
i usually strip mine off regardless as they just litter up the place when they do fall off.
 
IMO, a dash of Osmocote won't hurt anything. As you've already discovered, even very young plants can experience nutrient deficit.
 
Osmo appears to lacks any minerals of any sort.  Depending on the soil you used, your plants might soon be needing Iron, Mangesium, Calcium, Boron, Manganese, Sulfur, and more...
 
Just because the Cotys are still attached doesn't imply that the plant can't start taking nutes through the roots!
 
you are supposed to... but it matters little.
 
you get better weed control by incorporating the osmocote under the surface during planting...
 
somewhere i actually have a interesting paper on methods of incorporation for CRF(controlled release fertilizers). turns out putting the CRF in the root ball gives the best performance and best control of weeds. only problem is that it burns the roots that come into direct contact with the mass of crf prills. 
 
I mix osmocote into my potting mix...even with young plants.
Mine is "osmocote plus trace elements" its pretty decent stuff i think. 
 
N total 15.3%
as ammonium N 3.8%
as nitrate N 2.8%
as urea N 5.9%
as organic N 2.8%
 
P
soluble in neutral ammonium citrate abd water 2.4%
water soluble 1.9%
 
K
as potassium sulphate 4.9%
as organic potassium 1%
 
Sulphur as elemental and sulphate 5.7%
 
Calcium 0.25%
magnesium 0.4%
 
trace elements mg/kg
boron 52
copper 131
iron 1175
manganese 173
molybdenum 50
zinc 46
cadmium 0.5mg/kg
lead 2.5mg/kg
 
anyway i think osmo is better mixed into the soil, and you would be better off with a weak fish emulsion or something if you want to use some ferts. that plant does not look like it needs it though.
I still apply liquid ferts even with the osmo mixed into the soil and i dont wait untill the cotys fall off to apply ferts...i have some pretty big plants that still have cotys that i dont believe they would be as big as they are had i not given them ferts.
 
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I prefer fish fertilizer and earthworm castings to get my babies going. Safe, effective, organic, doesn't burn the plants - but smells horrible. A dash of myco helps too.
 
Great responses. I really appreciate the input from everyone. ALSO can somebody tell me if my germination is correct? I currently have some seed starting trays with some soil that I bottom soaked completely for a couple hours. I placed the whole tray in a ziploc bag a left a small opening to allow some moisture to escape. The bag is on a heating mat and the soil looks soaked. Is this good? I know peppers don't like a ton of water but I was told to soak the soil.
 
@OP
 
I would agree with most, no ferts yet, but if you want to run some light compost tea through those roots, the plants should love it.
 
obeychase said:
Great responses. I really appreciate the input from everyone. ALSO can somebody tell me if my germination is correct? I currently have some seed starting trays with some soil that I bottom soaked completely for a couple hours. I placed the whole tray in a ziploc bag a left a small opening to allow some moisture to escape. The bag is on a heating mat and the soil looks soaked. Is this good? I know peppers don't like a ton of water but I was told to soak the soil.
Click to expand...
 
it certainly does not jive with my germination philosophy, but it will probably work.
some of these heat mats will heat far beyond 90+ Fahrenheit, just make sure you arent overheating the seeds.
 
and make sure the soil can drain to field capacity.
 
queequeg152 said:
 
 
haha wtf? have you ever fertilized other than the manner described above?
if so what happened?
i have pictures of 6 week old plants in rockwool ... getting full blast ferts literally their entire lives... that still have both cots.
cots are the starter motor for photosynthesis. they can last for a long ass time before they fall off... usually because they get shaded to death.
i usually strip mine off regardless as they just litter up the place when they do fall off.
Click to expand...
 
Something to keep in mind here is that most people who ask questions like the one that started this thread are new to growing, else they would already be familiar with this stuff. For new growers, it's often best to give them some basic guidance that will help them be successful early on, without a lot of maintenance and without killing their plants in the process. Once they decide if they are going to keep growing at all then it makes sense to become more technical and start getting into methods that create greater production and such - but they should be the ones giving the indication that they are ready to do so. Most newbies aren't ready to commit to the time and effort (and, often, expense) that seasoned growers are willing to commit - they need an intro period with basic instructions that anyone can understand. Heck, most newbie growers haven't even heard of rockwool, yet even an elementary school kid can be successful with sticking a seed in dirt and growing something with little expense or effort. Some catch the bug to grow from there, others are happy to just stick with the basics or even abandon growing entirely. There's no need to get offensive; just keep in mind the experience, or lack of experience, of the person asking the question in the first place.
 
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