amsterhamster
Well-Known Member
[Cliffs at bottom]
My soil is a healthy PH 6.5, but shows VERY LOW for n, p, and k. My question is.. I know everyone here says you shouldn't fertilize seedlings (seedlings being plants focusing on root growth rather than obvious foliage growth) because they have enough npk to support themselves in this early stage of life.. but.. is this truly just the blind leading the blind? Sure it has worked for everyone.. but is there profound evidence that fertilizing at a 1/10 or 1/8 of recommended dose is not beneficial?
The reason I ask is, I recently did an experiment.. I had 4 seedlings, all 9 days old (from breaking soil) and they weren't showing an outstanding amount of root or foliage growth. Just typical growth. Wanting more, I applied Grow Big at 1/8 strength to 2 of the 4 plants.. and over the course of 3 days, monitoring them through a "peephole" to not disturb any of their environment, I was able to see a large difference.
Both seedlings without nutes showed the same, slow growth. The seedlings with the nutes grew both underground and above. There was no evident side effect of the nuted seedlings.
10 days later, my nuted seedlings stand nearly 1.5x as tall and wide. Still no side effects. This is when I decided to take a look at the root growth, which was 3x as much as the unnuted seedlings.
Unfortunately, for safety reasons, these plants are gone, but out of curiosity, I ask:
Where did the "don't ever give seedlings nutrients in this first 1 or 2 weeks" arise from?
Cliffs:
-Soil test: PH 6.5, very low n, p, and k
-Nuted 2 out of 4 seedlings with 1/8 strength FF grow big
-Nuted seedlings surpassed unnuted vastly
-13 days after nuting and no side effects
-Why do we all say no nutes for first couple of weeks?
My soil is a healthy PH 6.5, but shows VERY LOW for n, p, and k. My question is.. I know everyone here says you shouldn't fertilize seedlings (seedlings being plants focusing on root growth rather than obvious foliage growth) because they have enough npk to support themselves in this early stage of life.. but.. is this truly just the blind leading the blind? Sure it has worked for everyone.. but is there profound evidence that fertilizing at a 1/10 or 1/8 of recommended dose is not beneficial?
The reason I ask is, I recently did an experiment.. I had 4 seedlings, all 9 days old (from breaking soil) and they weren't showing an outstanding amount of root or foliage growth. Just typical growth. Wanting more, I applied Grow Big at 1/8 strength to 2 of the 4 plants.. and over the course of 3 days, monitoring them through a "peephole" to not disturb any of their environment, I was able to see a large difference.
Both seedlings without nutes showed the same, slow growth. The seedlings with the nutes grew both underground and above. There was no evident side effect of the nuted seedlings.
10 days later, my nuted seedlings stand nearly 1.5x as tall and wide. Still no side effects. This is when I decided to take a look at the root growth, which was 3x as much as the unnuted seedlings.
Unfortunately, for safety reasons, these plants are gone, but out of curiosity, I ask:
Where did the "don't ever give seedlings nutrients in this first 1 or 2 weeks" arise from?
Cliffs:
-Soil test: PH 6.5, very low n, p, and k
-Nuted 2 out of 4 seedlings with 1/8 strength FF grow big
-Nuted seedlings surpassed unnuted vastly
-13 days after nuting and no side effects
-Why do we all say no nutes for first couple of weeks?
