How I Made The BEST FERTILIZER For Christmas Trees
Hey guys welcome back to wood street Farm i’m phil and today we’re going to Talk about fertilizer what is the best Fertilizer for christmas trees we’re Going to talk a little bit about that What kind of fertilizer i use why i use What i use those are all of the most Common questions that i get every time i Even make a mention of fertilizing our Trees i get messages on facebook Comments on the videos and Emails and everything else you guys Reach out across all the different Channels and that’s completely fine but I get questions probably about Fertilizer more than anything else so I’m going to dedicate this video to Share with you everything that i know About fertilizing christmas trees so Today we’re going to be mixing up our Own custom blend of fertilizer this is Because i want to buy as little Fertilizer as possible and i’m going to Fertilize each tree when we first set Out and we first started with our farm We had a massive Batch of custom fertilizer mixed up for Us and delivered and spread by the Fertilizer company and i mean it cost a Lot of money and i forget exactly how Many tons of fertilizer they dropped at Once but it was considerable and that Was supposed to get our soil in pretty Good shape what we found out though is
That it didn’t have as immediate or as Lasting of an impact as we thought it Would so we’re now going a different Route and adding fertilizer When we plant our trees and each year When the trees are in the ground and We’re just dropping a ring of fertilizer Around each tree and we’re doing that Primarily like i said as a cost saving Measure so when you buy fertilizer There’s three numbers on the bag those Represent the npk or nitrogen phosphorus And potassium and it the numbers Represent the percentage by weight of What’s in that bag so for example if it Says 10 10 10 10 of that weight is Nitrogen 10 is phosphorous and 10 is Potassium what i have here today are the Three ingredients separate so i bought Urea as my nitrogen source and it’s 46.00 Have Triple super phosphate at zero forty Four zero And i have murieta potash zero zero Sixty for this next step you’re going to Need a calculator your soil test and a Scale of some sort i have a kitchen Scale here this is a kitchen scale that Does up to 30 pounds a postage scale Works really good but you need something That can handle some weight because the Fertilizer is heavy So if you look on your soil test that’s
Going to have a recommendation Particularly for the phosphorus and the Potassium the nitrogen typically doesn’t Have a recommendation on the soil test But i’ve talked to a number of different Farmers and they expect that their field Needs at least like 50 to 70 pounds per Acre so you can use that as maybe a Rough guideline So with the ingredients that i have here If i’m shooting for 50 pounds per acre i Can break that down into how many pounds Or ounces per square foot that is Because there’s 16 Ounces in a pound and there’s 43 560 square feet in an acre so you just Have to do that math so i’ve got a Spreadsheet that will do all the Calculations for me so i can actually Put in what the soil test recommendation Is in terms of pounds per acre for the Phosphorus and potassium and then i can Also plug in what my fertilizer Percentage is based on the ingredients That i pick up and that’s probably Another thing that you should know about This is that there are a number of Different sources for these key Ingredients and they’ll be labeled Differently on the bag depending on Which source you get your soil test Might also have some recommendations for Some other nutrients like sulfur or Calcium or magnesium or manganese or
There’s half dozen other things and You’ll want to make sure that you’re Keeping track of those as well and pick Up any of those sources that you need Our soil is low in calcium last year we Spread a whole lot of gypsum over the Entire field this year we’re actually Waiting on fresh soil test results In order to figure out if we need to add More than that i’m sure that we do but For today we’re at least going to focus On that core npk fertilizer When you use the calculator You figure out you take the first Ingredient for example the nitrogen Which i’m using the urea source which is 46 The calculator says that if i want to do 50 pounds per acre that’s Uh Zero one eight ounces per square foot And i figured my smallest seedlings i’m Probably only doing about four square Feet when i put a ring around that tree And then the larger trees you gotta Measure what it’s gonna be but i figure It’s about uh six square feet for a Larger tree from let’s say a medium tree And then the largest trees i have now Are about four feet tall and probably Getting closer to eight or ten square Feet on a tree of that size so once you Break everything down by the amount of Fertilizer you need per square foot then
You can multiply it by four by six or by Eight or by ten however many square feet You think you need to cover with that Application of fertilizer and then you Can get the amount of fertilizer per Tree and then what i’m doing is mixing It up in batches and i just kind of Played around the numbers to get a about A 10 pound batch that’s about how much I’ll fit in a bucket of this size and It’s a good size to carry around the Field now ideally you’d have a lot more Prep especially if you have many Hundreds of trees to do you’re going to Need a lot of this prep and you don’t Want to have to keep coming back and Mixing up 10 pounds at a time but for This example that’s what we’re shooting For is a 10 pound batch so if i um kind Of take all these numbers and i just Like multiplied them by a hundred and That basically means for this batch i Need Where did it go i lost it i need one Pound of nitrogen so i’m going to use This turn my scale on Put that on that’s a two and a half Ounce container by weight we’re going to Zero it out so we’re not counting the Container and i use one of my cups And i’m looking to put one pound Okay that’s 13 ounces You just need three more ounces One smidge over let’s go ahead and dump
The second ingredient is my phosphorus And since this is only Uh forty four percent zero forty four Zero i actually need six pounds of this To get the 300 Pound per acre equivalent So I’ve done this before i need a whole Container about five pounds and then i’m Going to need some more See what that says Four pounds eight ounces [Applause] Okay that’s just over five pounds i need One more pound That’s 12 ounces A little bit too Much there we go And then the final ingredient My little recipe says 1.84 Pounds which is equivalent to One pound thirteen and a half ounces [Applause] One pound ten There we go And then you can just use whatever you Got mix that up real good I tend to do a little bit of mixing like This And then i’ll go ahead and turn it There’s my measure cup [Applause] And the final step is just figuring out
How much you need per tree and for this You’re going to need a couple different Containers to try to figure out what the The right measure is and depending on Your exact fertilizer mix this might be Different for you because these Different components have different Densities and the container this size Could weigh more or weigh less depending On what you got in the ingredients so I’m going to use this little cup last Year when i did a measurement like this I figured out that this was right around Two ounces uh so that’s what i’ve been Using to apply fertilizer and i know That my tiniest trees actually only need About one and a half ounces so i’ll do About three quarters of one of these and My larger trees need closer to Uh four ounces so i can do two of these Go ahead and zero that out I don’t know if this comes out for you Guys but this blend when i do a full cup Of this size scoop It comes out to be right around 3 ounces That says 3.6 And That’s higher than it was last year when I used just a simple blend of triple 13 Or i’ve done triple 19 as well so since This has so much more of that uh I’m guessing because it has so much more Of that phosphate in it that phosphate Is a more dense material so i think that
Is What’s caught driving the weight up but That’s why you want to go ahead and Double check this so now that i know um That my trees like i said the smallest Ones need about an ounce and a half for A for four square foot coverage And the bigger ones need closer to four Ounces i can Go back at it with this cup and know Exactly what i’m applying When i get out there and do this In this video’s description there’s a Link to an online version of the Spreadsheet that i was using you can put Your own inputs in there for the Different npk components and you can Easily come up with your own fertilizer Blend and hopefully that’s helpful for Some of you guys and of course you can Always reach out to your agriculture Extension office in whichever state you Live in and they can help you interpret Your soil test as well and if you belong To a christmas tree growers association Wherever you live different association Members can probably uh offer up their Experiences and their knowledge on this Topic as well so reach out through your Associations to Get assistance with some of this tricky Stuff in the early days of your Christmas tree farm Thanks for watching thanks for spending
A little bit of time with me hope this Was useful i’ll see you on the next Video bye
