Soil came with nutrients/ how to figure when & how much to fertilize?

Last year I over fertilized my plants when the symptoms of the yellowing leaves all looked like they needed nitrogen. I had yellow leaves ALL over the ground. It was awful. We had planted in 2-year old soil, so it had NO nutrients in it, and I thought it needed more.

So, this year, I had my husband go out & buy new soil. I told him NO nutrients....well, I didn't look at the bag; just trusted him, and didn't see until after all the seedlings were transplanted in the large pots (and, someone on the forum pointed it out when asked what I was using ) that it's full of nutrients....It's Strawberry Fields fruiting & flowering. It has:
Nitrogen .50%
Phosphate .30%
Potash .30%
Calcium 1.10%

I use FoxFarm Grow Big Fertilizer, and was going to use the smaller amount, 2 tsp per gal (it says 2-3); and fertilize once a week. That's much less than they say, but I want to make sure it's not too much, or not enough. I'm already getting some yellowing leaves. And, I've got some that have some odd spots on them. I'm going to try to get them. darn. I finally found my digital camera, took photos, put them in my photos, ..... and now can't figure how to upload them on the thread.
Help?

that actually doesn't sound too bad, i wouldn't call that "full of nutes". are the yellowing leaves on the bottom of the plant or the top? yellowing at the bottom usually means its hungry, yellow on the top can mean its just new growth, or it can be sulfur, or iron, depends on what it does. sounds like your plants have already eaten whats in that soil, and need some food, you might bump it up a little from what you're giving them now, and if they like that, give them a little more. if you start to see any clawing or tip burn, back off a little.

They're yellowing at the bottom. Actually the spots are worse than the yellowing so far. I'm trying to catch it before it gets bad. I also have a little tip burn, but I haven't fertilized since I put them in the new soil two weeks ago. The pots are 15 or 20 gallon (I'm not sure, but pretty large).

We had a lot of rain right after we transplanted them, so they were watered in and then soaked with a couple inches of rain, so I couldn't water & fertilize them yet anyway. I finally watered them for the first time yesterday, and they were transplanted 2 weeks ago. That's how wet they were. I didn't want to fertilize them yesterday due to what was told to me about the nutrients in the soil. I hadn't clarified that yet..

Could someone tell me how to get photos on here from "photos" on a Mac?

not sure about macs, theres a button on the bottom right that says "upload a file" right next to the post reply button. click it and navigate to your picture folder. guess it would be the same on a mac

thanks. I'll give it a try. I tried upload a file, but it never went anywhere. It may be my slow internet connection. Sometimes I can't send photos in emails. If I have more than one, I have to send more than one email . But, it's a trade-off for country living.....and, well worth it .

could be that, and this site is notorious for having a pic system that goes down monthly, if we're lucky.

photos ..2nd try...server crashed.....hmmm..... oops, my fault. I hit "full image" and can't get rid of it..... oh well, you get the picture .

my guess would be that that soil was too hot when you put the plants in it, and that it had a different ph than the soil you had it in before.
i'd water with 100 ppm nute solution a few times, let it dry out good between waterings, then start giving it a little more each time till it looks happy.
i know people say you don't have to ph soil, but it can't hurt anything to make sure your feed is in the proper range, should be between 6.5 and 6.8. in soil.
i looked up that soil, it looks pretty good, but pretty hot, its basically ewc, bat guano, oyster shells, and dolomite lime. so maybe mix it half and half with some peat or coco to start young plants in, then maybe 70/30 when you pot them up. they throw lots of good benes in it, might want to look into some recharge or something like that to keep them healthy

I've been planting for several years now, but am not up on the terms very well. What do you mean by "hot"? Just curious.
I'll see what I can do to make them happy .

thanks!

Susanne said:

I've been planting for several years now, but am not up on the terms very well. What do you mean by "hot"? Just curious.
I'll see what I can do to make them happy .

thanks!

Click to expand...

too much nutrients for young plants. you need to cut it by about half to make it suitable for seedling.