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Re: liquid fertilizers



James Fuller wrote:

> Perhaps a stupid question : why use liquid fertilizers in stead of
> tablets ?

Several reasons.  Mostly I suspect that it's because the liquids are
easier to dose and many of us haven't tried to do much with tablets.

There are other reasons, though.  First, tablets in the substrate don't
do much for your attached plants like Java Fern or for floating plants
like salvinia.  For those, you have to use a liquid fertilizer.  Second,
I don't think I've ever seen a tablet that has the nutrient balance you
can get with liquid fertilizers.  Also, I've sometimes wondered if the
concentrated salts in some substrate tablets could actually damage plant
roots.

There are also reasons why you would want to use tablets of other
substrate fertilizers rather than liquids.  Some plants - swords in
particular - seem to respond better to substrate fertilizers than to
liquid fertilizers.  Iron tablets provide a pretty effective and
long-lasting way of getting iron to your plants; no mess, no fuss and no
test kits.  Also, with a substrate fertilizer you can fertilize with
high-grade nitrogen sources like urea or ammonia that can't be used in
liquid fertilizers.

I don't think this is a case where you have to use one or the other.  I
use both liquids and substrate fertilizers.  I use the liquids for
general fertilization and substrate fertilizers for those plants that
need more of one thing or another.


Roger Miller