Just got my STEM today. The % of micronutrients is very HIGH. Highest being sulfer @ 13%.
Sulfur makes a more acid soil doesn't it? (lower ph?)
It also has boron,copper,iron, manganese,molybdenum & zinc.
How come there's no magnesium??? Should I use a little epsom salt too?
STEM is supposed to be good for tomato plants,....my tom. food has magnesium.
Millet, how often should I use it???
Also, at expo, Flying Dragon Nursery said MACROnutrients are very important for citrus. What are macronutrients??
Thanks much.
Patty

Macro = NPK for plants. for peoples its Carbs, Fat, and Protein

Patty, like Garnetmoth said, macroneutrients are Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium. Patty, the micronutrient mgnesium, is rarely ever added to trace mineral mixes, because magnesium is usually added in a higher amount than the other micronutrients. You will just add Epson salts on your own. IF you are presently applying a fertilizer that already contains trace minerals then you will not use STEM. The reason that STEM contains 13% Sulfur, is because most all of the various trace element ingredients that make up STEM are sulfates. Example: Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate and so on. Go to this web site for STEM mixing directions.
http://www.scottsprohort.com/_documents/tech_sheets/H4078STEM.pdf

Millet

Thanks Garnet & Millet.
I just got back from Italian dinner & I'm full of MACRO's LOL.

Millet, I saw that when I was reading up on stem. I don't understand this part:

Continuous Feeding: apply lb (oz) stem per 100 lb. of listed % N fert.
Fertilizer% N----------15------------20------------25------------30
lb. (oz) STEM-------.5 (8 )-------.66(10.6) -----.83(13.3)-----1. (16)

Does this mean the more nitrogen you apply, the more stem?
Patty (confused AGAIN)

Maybe there is a problem with my math.

I'm looking at Osmocote PLUS (minors) 3-4 month 15-9-12 fertilizer.

I take the % minor times 7.1g/ft^3 (application rate for heavy feeders) for the Osmocote PLUS and I get the following grams of minors in a cubic foot of container mix:

S: 0.071g
B: 0.163g
Cu: 0.0036g
Fe: 0.032g
Mn: 0.0.0043g
Mo: 0.0014g
Zn: 0.0036g

Then I looked up STEM numbers and calculated with Millets rate of 36g/ft^3 to get the following grams of minors/cu ft of mix using STEM:

S: 4.68g
B: 0.486g
Cu: 0.828g
Fe: 2.7g
Mn: 2.88g
Mo: 0.144g
Zn: 1.62g

As you can see, the numbers aren't even close...a couple of orders of magnitude difference, in some cases. When I originally did these calculations a couple of months ago, I concluded that my Osmocote with minors was far short of that required for citrus in CHC and I went with Micromax (STEM not available locally) at a reduced dose. Is there a problem with my math? SB

According to labels on my ferts., they all lack the micro's compared to STEM.
Here's what's listed:
...............Expert Gardener ..............Acid Plus ...................STEM
......N...............24 ............................... 33
......P ...............8 .................................11
......K ..............16 ................................11
Boron...............-0- ........................... 0.02% .................. 1.35%
Copper...........0.07%......................... 0.07%................... 2.30%
Iron...............0.15%...........................0.33%................... 7.50%
Manganese..... -0-..............................0.05%....................8.00%
Molybdenum.0.0005%......................0.0005%...................0.04%
Zinc...............0.06%...........................0.07%....................4.50%
That's a BIG diff in numbers!!!!
Using every 2 weeks per gal water
..............1-2tsp per gal............... 1/2 tsp per gal............1/4-1/2tsp per gal.
So, here's what I will do. Every 2 weeks or more, mix 1 1/2tsp of Expert Gardener & 1/4 tsp STEM
per gal. water and, a small handful of Blood Meal (slow release Nitrogen) scratched in soil.

Patty, looking at the use rates that you listed above for STEM you can see it says to add 13.3 Oz. of STEM for every 100-lbs. of a fertilizer that has a 25% nitrogen content. Your Expert Gardner Fertilizer that contains 24% nitrogen (very close) so you would add 13.3 Oz. of STEM to 100-lbs. of Expert Gardner, only * IF* Expert Gardner did NOT ALREADY HAVE ANY TRACE MINERALS added to its mixture. But it does, although in extremely poor amounts. For the Acid Plus, because it has 33% nitrogen, you would add .90-lbs. (14.5 Oz.) of STEM to 100-lbs. of Acid Plus only *IF* Acid Plus fertilizer did not already contain any trace minerals. So you see 1/4 tsp with every other fertilizing would be to much. - Millet

Wow Millet, what was I thinking?? Thanks for explaining that part of 13.3 oz STEM to 100 lbs of fert!! On the bag it says "BOOSTER SHOT" for ailing plants, & then... "Mix 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. in 1 gal. water as a ONE TIME corrective dose for deficient plants...I forgot about that!
Yesterday, I put some Messenger & 1/8 tsp STEM in a quart water & sprayed all foliage on all plants. Now that sounds like a lot of stem.
Waiting for a warm day to leech soil on all plants--outside.
Now question is, when should I use it & how often? Maybe every month with 1/8 tsp per gal or is that too much?
I got it but don't know what to do with it LOL
Is calcium nitrate ONLY good for soaking in chc? Since I didn't use it for my soakings, should I put some on plants when I leech them (only chc one's)? Whew... Thanks
Patty

I have been using liquid organic ferts on my thai lime, but I have decided I want to switch to slow release dry fert and I cant find organic ferts with the right NPK ratio. I have reasons for using organics, but I am not a fanatic and with my citrus I am ready to try slow release chemical ferts. My tree is a thai lime, apparently a seedling, maybe 2-3 years. Not sure how old it was when I got it, but I have had it 1 1/2 years. Here's a pic.



I have it inside right now, cause I had to repot it (10" pot). Used small CHC, coir, compost: 3-1-1. Used epsom salts and calcium nitrate in the final CHC soak. Watered in with maxicrop for acid loving plants. For the next few days I am keeping it inside during the hottest part of the day and putting it out at night (temps are in the 90's and it can get over 120 degrees on my balcony). Once it recovers from the repotting I will start fertilizing.

I was going to try Osmocote Plus southern formula, but after searching the internet, it appears it is only available in 50# bags, waaaayyyy too much for me since I only have the one tree. But I forgot that I already have some osmocote I bought last year for ornamentals. It is 19-6-12, no micros or minors. I have epsom salts and calcium nitrate. Can the calcium nitrate be used to add calcium? And I guess I will need to use STEM. Any recommendations for how much? The instructions give amounts per 100 gallons. Also I am not real clear about how often to add it. They talk about continuous feeding. Is using osmocote considered continuous feeding? The osmocote says 4 mo feed, but since temps here are already in the 90's I assume it wont last that long.

I do not have a head for numbers and trying to calculate PPM and figuring out amounts based on grams per 100 gal, or amounts per sq feet is very confusing to me. If someone can recommend a basic regimen for a beginner (this is only my 2nd season growing anything), I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Lydia

Okay, I dug up this thread, and wow do I have a headache! I looked at my fertilizer, and it's quite similar to Patty's Acid Plus. It's at 30-10-10 (Patty's was 33-11-11). It also contains trace elements in similar quantities to Patty's Acid plus, although I have a lower Iron content at 0.1 where I believe Patty's is 0.33%.

Millet wrote:

For the Acid Plus, because it has 33% nitrogen, you would add .90-lbs. (14.5 Oz.) of STEM to 100-lbs. of Acid Plus only *IF* Acid Plus fertilizer did not already contain any trace minerals. So you see 1/4 tsp with every other fertilizing would be to much. - Millet

How does one make the above formula more user friendly? As someone who only has two plants and some seedlings, how on earth can I think in terms of pounds of ferts?? 0.9 lbs STEM per 100 lbs of ferts....this is crazy!!

Tell me if I understand remotely what to do here. Okay, so let's say it's 1 to 100 lbs ( to ease my headache for the example). So that's the same ratio for v/v right? And my fertilizer says to mix at a rate of 11 mL of ferts per 5 L of water. So I could use say 0.11 mL of STEM with 11 mL of my fertilizer, and dilute as per instructions on my fert bottle ? Therefore I'd have 0.11 mL stem to 11 mL ferts in 5 L water.....Am I right? Or completely off ? And if I am right, how does one go about measuring 0.11 mL of STEM? Even if I were to make 4 times that recipe, I would still have trouble measuring 0.44 mL of STEM. And I would have 20 L of solution ...wayyyy too much per application.

Also, Millet, you said *IF* your fertiliser did not contain trace elements. Well, this one does in small amounts, so how does that effect my calculation above ? (Obviously not rounding up the ratio to 1:100 would be a start for sure ; )

So confused, but I'll be darned if I stop trying to understand this. Baby steps Gen, Baby steps...

And now I am scared to ask how much epson to that mix would be appropriate. I understand now they should be in higher amounts than the other trace elements but how much is that??

*Grabs a Tylenol*

Good nite everyone, thanks for your patience.

Hi Gen, I hear ya loud & clear! It is very confusing...we are not chemists LOL.
As for the epsom salts, I use 1 Tbls. per gal about every time I water... esp in summer. Don't be afraid of that. It helps take up nitrogen that citrus really need. i have been using a fert 24-8-16 all summer but it has no micro nutrients, so I added 1/4 tsp of STEM to 5 gal of water every other time I watered this past summer. Might be too much, but the plants did well.
I hear that Miracle Grow now has a 24-8-16 (good for citrus) with micro's. I also used the Acid Plus 33-11-11 on occassion or just added a little....half & half, with the other fert.
I also have'nt fert'ld for about a month now as the temps are colder & the plant growth is slowing. I keep my plants in in sunroom & they are in 50's * temps now so that will slow down growth. In later winter I'm sure it will get down to 40's at night in there. If you keep your plants inside & give them more warmth & lites, then they are still activley growing so you can fert but maybe not as often as in summer (?).
The worst thing we can do now for winter is over water our plants. I lost a good one from this. I'm still learning too.
Keep in touch.... I brought all plants in after a rain & a forecast of frost last week & I think they are just too wet. I have a fan on in there but I saw mold on soil in couple plants. I'm worried. Next warm sunny day, I will bring them all outside & hose off the leaves -- in case aphids were there, & hope the soil will dry out some.

Hi Patty,

You said you used you acid plus only every now and then. I only used that this summer, but I don't think I fertilized as often as I should have. I was a bit scared to over feed. I think back and I maybe fertilized 6 times or so during the summer. I did give them epsom salt but I think maybe a total of 3 or 4 times this year (again the fear ruled). I fertilized last week. It was going to be my last one for quite sometime for the winter. But now I am getting STEM, and I wanted to give it a shot of that before I ease off almost entirely.

I have them in my kitchen, facing south. It is quite warm in my appartment, so there is no doubt in my mind they are active all winter long, just below the soil though, cause they don't show any signs of growth on top, except for the fruit getting a bit bigger that is. I was thinking after the shot of STEM I give it, I'd hold off on feeding till at least late january...don't know if this is wise or not.

I got to stop getting my nickers in a bunch over this stuff, I mean, I am doing well as it is, I just want to do better!! lol