Richard

Last fall I purchased over a dozen 20 lb bags of Alfalfa meal on clearance sale from my local nursery. The N-P-K is 2-0-3, almost perfect for bananas and many other plants. To obtain a minute amount of phosphorus and trace minerals, I am supplementing with kelp extract. The performance has been great. All of my subtropicals are thrilled -- and in part because of the nearly perfect sub-tropic winter we just had, but the tell-tale sign is that my Leptospermum continentale has never been so happy. There appears to be a flower bud at every single node on the plant!

One negative to alfalfa meal is that after wetting it clumps and dries in mats similar to the behavior of ground peat moss. I found it necessary to either mix in with mulch before applying or break up the mattings with a cultivator afterwards.

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bencelest

Where can you buy those Richard? Is feed store carries them?
That's what I need. Not concentrated but small those.

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Banana Nut

Richard

Consider dosage:
For most of the plants we've seen pictures of in Benny's newly constructed Pergola, he will need 10 lbs of 2-0-3 alfalfa meal per plant, per year. For Benny's mature semi-dwarf multi-graft fruit tree or a mature banana corm you'll need 50 lbs per year to achieve 1 lb of nitogen per year. Be sure to mix it with mulch or compost or it will "mat up" (clump) on you.

The Whitney Farms brand distributes 20 lb bags, sold in feed stores, independent nurseries -- I've also seen it in Armstrong nurseries here in California. I happened to catch it on sale, normally it is $5 to $10 per 20-pound bag.

Being ever dilligent about volume, I just weighed a sample from a bag in dry storage. I found 2 cups (1 pint) weighed 10.5 ounces. So one pound of alfalfa meal is about 3 cups.

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bencelest

Thanks! Richard

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Banana Nut