Fertilizing continer grown potatoes...

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tombaak High Desert, NV(Zone 5a) Jun 06, 2006

I am planting a late crop of potatoes in 25 gallon nursery pots. I was reading a website that suggested planting with a time release fertilizer... Now i have used Osmicote occasionally in the past on tomatoes and such, but the idea of using a granular fertilizer with potatoes bothers me. I know the roots of a tomato suck the stuff up and to some degree it ends up in the fruit i eat, but i would think that those little granules touching the potato would put the fertilizer directly on the tuber. Does it really wash off?

What do you all think of this type of fertilizer with root crops?

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PeggieK Claremore, OK(Zone 6a) Jun 06, 2006


I'd probably just sprinkle it on top of the dirt and let it dissolve and soak down to the tubers.

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Eggs_Zachtly Washington, MO(Zone 6a) Jun 06, 2006

Interesting question, and something I'm hoping to find the answer to, myself. I did the Osmocote thing on my potato plants this year too. Mostly just to see what'd happen. The thing about Osmocote is, the capsules don't really dissolve. Only their contents are absorbed into the soil.

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reubenT Spencer, TN Jun 07, 2006

in general, fertilizers are not toxic, it's the chemicals used for fungasides and insectasides and herbasides that are toxic.
However i stay away from those fertilizers with murate of potash as a potasium source, it's a term for potasium chloride, they put chlorine in the water system to get rid of those microscopic bugs that make people sick, but the same stuff in the soil kills the good microscopic bugs that help digest minerals and feed the plant roots. The main farming systems have ignored the presence of soil microbes and their roal in a healthy soil, but a few entaties are beginning to pay a little attention to it, I see a few fertilizer mixes coming out that use potasium nitrate for the potasium source.
As i recall, potasium nitrate is good for root crops.

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