CHOOSING THE RIGHT WATER SOLUBLE FERTILIZER By ICL Specialty Fertilizers
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s a grower, choosing the right water-soluble fertilizer (WSF) for your operation is one of the most important decisions you make. Choose wisely, and you can optimize your fertilizer investment, improve operational efficiencies, reduce inputs and labor costs, and improve retail performance for the customers you cultivate. But the water-soluble fertilizer industry has changed a lot since the late 1940s, when Bob Peters first started testing soil for cut flower growers and developing prescriptive fertilizers to meet grower needs. Since commercial production of Peters brand water-soluble fertilizers began in 1952, options for the grower have flourished. But choosing the best water-soluble fertilizers for your operation is not as hard as it may seem. Discovering your starting points No one knows your growing operation like you do. But the more you learn, the better decisions you can make when it comes to WSFs. Identifying what your crops really need starts with knowing your irrigation water and growing media quality. Accurate, reliable testing eliminates
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APRIL 2021 BWI COMPANIES, INC.
the guesswork, reveals your true starting points, and puts you ahead of the game. Irrigation water – Water quality is the single most important factor affecting your WSF success. Solubility and nutrient availability depend on it. Without knowing where your irrigation water stands on key measures such as alkalinity and soluble salts, fertilizer performance comes down to trial and error. Water testing provides you with crucial information to keep your crops and profitability on track. Testing is especially important if you use well water or multiple water sources. Heavy rains, melt-off, flooding and drought can impact water quality significantly as well. That’s why it’s a good idea to always test new water sources, and retest existing sources twice a year. Growing media – Growing media quality can vary considerably from the start, but media pH and nutrient content also change over time. Depending on your management practices, those changes can be significant. To manage nutrition effectively, you need to know where your media quality stands all season long. This is especially important if you mix your own media. By testing your growing media as a regular part of your quality assurance program, you can keep an eye on root zone nutrient status at critical points. Rather than guessing what your crop needs, you can rest assured in your knowl-
