Fertilizing Once a Week vs. Fert Injector System w/ Continual Fertilization

[Apex37]

I’m curious if any BNutters have tried experimenting or going from a once a week fertilizing routine, to an injector system, fertilizing with each watering.

I recently picked up a fert injector system and a couple of my fellow club members were talking about how they fertilize with it on the low setting with every watering. One could argue this would be very beneficial for us in this hobby using such aerated mixes that drain so freely.

I currently fertilize everything once a week during the spring and then back off to every 2-3 weeks during the summer as things slow down. I keep things fairly simple. I water plants in development (which is 98% of my stuff) with a 1.5 dose of Miracle-Gro weekly. My other 2% I water weekly with an organic fish and kelp emulsion blend. Once summer hits, I back off frequency and switch everything over to all organic. Currently, it takes me about 6-7 1 gal jugs of fert mix to get through my trees. This can kind of be time consuming and hoping the fertilizer injector will save me time.

My thought becomes though would it be better to keep my current routine and implement it with the fert injector or switch over to a small amount of fertilizer with each watering?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I don't see why it wouldn't work well. But the main issue I would see is that all of my plants require something different.
That'd mean in practice that I would have to set up three systems; one no fert, one light and one heavy. Or one no fert and one light, then do the rest by hand.
That would kind of defeat the purpose, I think. Switching up the system (an hour?) would take as much time as fertilizing all of my trees.

If you're growing veggies, weed or seedlings all at the same pace, then it would be a good system I think.

 

[rockm]

My friends who have owned a bonsai nursery for the last 30 years use one. They swear by it. Don't know if having one for a couple of dozen trees makes sense, though.

 

[BobbyLane]

I feed a heavily diluted dose at every watering, been doing this last few seasons, I use a watering can. I see good results

 

[luvinthemountains]

I feed a heavily diluted dose at every watering, been doing this last few seasons, I use a watering can. I see good results

I'm curious how often you water? In my climate it can sometimes be two or more times a day.

 

[BobbyLane]

I'm curious how often you water? In my climate it can sometimes be two or more times a day.

1-2 times a day in the summer months. I can often get away with once a day, or once every second day depending on sun exposure. freak conditions like heatwaves might cause me to go 2-3 times a day. I also use a moisture retentive mix, so my routine works for me. Might not for others.

 

[luvinthemountains]

1-2 times a day

I was doing this for a while with 2-gal watering cans, and it was exhausting! That led me to using a hose & wand, still time-consuming which has led me to start planning an automatic irrigation system. Thus my interest in this thread, as low-dose fertilization by injection would be a game changer.