Four Methods to Feed Plants with AgroThrive Liquid Fertilizers

An article by Travis Key from Lazy Dog Farm

Liquid fertilizers like AgroThrive General Purpose and AgroThrive Fruit & Flower provide an easy way to feed plants effectively in your backyard garden. These liquid fertilizers are great because they work faster than granular fertilizers, and they’re easier to apply to plants. Below we’ll discuss four simple methods for feeding your plants with these biologically active, organic liquid fertilizers.

The Bucket Method 

The “bucket method” is an easy way to feed your plants on a small scale. It might not be feasible for a larger in-ground garden, but it works very well for container or small raised bed gardens. This method is as simple as it sounds -- dilute liquid fertilizer in a 5-gallon bucket and then give it to your plants.

We use this method frequently on our peppers and indeterminate tomato plants, which appreciate frequent fertilization during their long growth cycle. We’ll pour approximately 8 ounces of AgroThrive General Purpose or AgroThrive Fruit & Flower fertilizer in a 5-gallon bucket and then fill the rest of the bucket with water. We like to use a long watering wand to fill the bucket because it allows us to stir the contents while filling the bucket.

After mixing the fertilizer solution in the bucket, we’ll take a 2-quart pitcher and pour the liquid around the base of each plant. It’s important to pour slowly so you don’t wash away too much soil. We usually apply one 2-quart pitcher of the solution to each plant and do this every 2-3 weeks throughout the growing season. This ensures that long-term plants like peppers and tomatoes have what they need to continue producing fruit throughout the growing season.

Siphon Injector 

A siphon injector is a great way to feed your plants if you’re hand-watering with a wand or a spray nozzle. The siphon injector is a great tool to have for a greenhouse or other “short-hose” situations. These siphons typically don’t work well if you’re using a water hose longer than 25’ but work great for smaller backyard applications.

The siphon attaches to your water faucet and has a tube that you place into a bucket of liquid fertilizer solution. The tube siphons the fertilizer solution so that it is applied through your watering wand or spray nozzle. We usually dissolve 8-10 ounces of AgroThrive General Purpose or AgroThrive Fruit and Flower in a 5-gallon bucket, which is then applied to plants as we water. This easy system allows you to fertilize your plants as frequently as you’d like.

We use a siphon injector in our greenhouse to feed vegetable transplants once they have formed a second set of leaves. It’s also a handy way to fertilize containers or pots in a patio garden. If you don’t want to fertilize each time you water, you can simply keep a bucket of clean water beside the fertilizer bucket and move the tube to the “clean” bucket when just want to water. 

Tank Injection 

The tank injection system is similar to the siphon system, but more practical for larger-scale applications. If you use drip irrigation or have a larger in-ground garden, a tank injection system works great to keep plants fed and happy. As opposed to mixing liquid fertilizer in a 5-gallon bucket, you add the fertilizer to a pressurized tank. The contents of the tank are then injected through your watering system.

There are many different variations of these tank injection systems on the market. There are some simple tank injection systems for backyard gardeners and more complex systems for market farmers and large-scale farmers. But the concept is the same. You have a pressurized holding tank of fertilizer solution that can be injected through your watering system whenever you choose.

For these systems, we usually add 12-14 ounces of AgroThrive General Purpose or AgroThrive Fruit and Flower to our 1-gallon injection tank. Our mixing ratio is higher when using the tank injector because we’re using this type of system for larger in-ground garden plots. This works great for injecting fertilizer through our drip irrigation system or even through an overhead sprinkler. 

Pump Sprayer 

Using a pump sprayer is another easy way to feed plants in your backyard garden. This method is helpful for foliar fertilizer applications where the leaves of plants are coated with a low dose solution of fertilizer. Foliar feeding plants can help plants withstand heat stress and also improve their ability to deal with harmful plant pathogens that tend to be more prominent as temperatures warm in the summer months.

You can use a basic 1 to 2-gallon hand pump sprayer or a backpack sprayer for this. We usually mix 4-6 ounces of AgroThrive General Purpose or AgroThrive Fruit & Flower in our 4-gallon backpack sprayer. We’ll then be sure to coat the entire leaf surface of each plant to the point where it begins to drip off the leaves. This works best if you have a fine mist or fan spray nozzle on your hand sprayer or backpack sprayer.

If your plants look stressed during the middle of the day due to intense summer heat, this is a great way to relieve some of that stress. Just to be sure to do this type of feeding late in the evenings and not during the heat of the day. We like to foliar feed at dusk or after dark.

Use What You Have! 

Feeding your plants doesn’t have to be complicated. As mentioned above, you can use something as simple as a 5-gallon bucket and a water pitcher. But if you have a larger garden or want to feed your plants more frequently, an injection system is a convenient way to accomplish that goal. Regardless of the method you use, AgroThrive fertilizers will ensure your plants have all the nutrients they need to grow and produce delicious, nutritious harvests in your backyard garden.

Thousands of gardeners have been tuning in to The Lazy Dog Farm YouTube channel where Travis covers a variety topics ranging from how to successfully start seedlings to how to make a flavorful hotsauce that packs a punch. Accompanied by his wife Brooklyn and their two boys, the gardens on their 2 acre homestead in southwest Georgia are always filled with a wide variety of vegetables that are enjoyed fresh or preserved for later.