Make a Fertilizer Concentrate to Simplify Dispensing

[Ray]

I feed my plants a 100 ppm N solution weekly, but to do so, I'd need to figure out how to measure fractions of a teaspoon per gallon, which is a pain, so... Solve that problem by making a fertilizer concentrate in a "Self Measuring" bottle!

These are one-quart dispensing bottles that deliver one ounce/30 ml of liquid at a time. Preparation is simple:

1. Decide what fertilizer concentration you want to apply to your plants. That will be related to your feeding frequency. For example, 100 ppm N is a good level for weekly feeding.
2. Using the nitrogen content of your fertilizer, use my Simple Fertilizing Mixing Calculator to determine the teaspoons-per-gallon needed for the chosen concentration. For K-Lite, which contains 12.9% nitrogen, that is 0.62 teaspoons/gallon for 100 ppm N.
3. Multiply that result by 32 to get the total amount of fertilizer to add to the dispenser bottle. Using our current example, that's 32 x 0.62 = 19.84 teaspoons. Feel free to round up or down for convenience - I'd just use 20 in this case.
4. Remove the cap to the larger volume of the container (on the left in the image), pour in the fertilizer powder, fill with water to the 32-ounce mark, reseal the bottle and shake to dissolve all of the powder.

Now you have enough concentrate to make 32 gallons of final solution. Keep it sealed and store it at room temperature. When you're ready to dispense the concentrate to feed your plants, do this:

1. Shake the bottle well to fully disperse any sediment that may have formed.
2. Remove the cap from the smaller dispensing chamber (the one on the right) and squeeze the larger side until you have filled the chamber to the 1-ounce (30 ml) mark.
3. Pour that into your mixing container - one, 1-ounce volume for every gallon you need.
4. Replace the cap and store until the concentrate is needed again.