# 12-12-12



## Plow Boy

I bought a bag of 12-12-12 for my vegetable garden... After reading the bag it talks about putting it on your grass and flowers... Nothing about vegetable gardens..Can I use it and is it save to use on Vegies??

Bill


----------



## Callieslamb

Yes, you can use it on your veggies. It's what I buy every year.


----------



## Belfrybat

Yes, I use triple 13 on all my ornamentals and vegetables. Just be sure to use the appropriate amount so as not to burn the plants. My soil has very little nutrition, and even though I've put down compost and bunny poo, I use triple 13 at half the normal rate to help boost growth. Hopefully in a year or so I will have built up the soil enough not to use it, but for now, it's a lifesaver.


----------



## geo in mi

12-12-12 is a chemical, granular fertilizer. You will get 12 pounds each of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium in that order, in every 100 pound bag of it. Usually it is broadcast over the total garden area before planting, and worked into the soil by tilling or raking. It can be used as a sideband application during the season by carefully putting a band of it about two to three inches from the vegetable stems and lightly working and watering it in, to prevent burning of the foilage.

Triple twelve, or triple ten, are each general purpose fertilizers. Okay for quick use and easy gardening, but without knowing the needs of specific vegetables, and without knowing the nutrient levels already in your soil, using that fertilizer type for very many seasons, on a shotgun approach, could give you problems with nutrient balance, leaching out into your water table, and waste of money by buying too much fertilizer power. Also, organic gardeners tend to stay away from chemicals because of some destructive effects from the salt compounds involved--loss of living organisms, earthworms, etc. Also, since they are chemical salts, they are hygroscopic--they attract water out of the air and begin to get oily and soupy. Thus, a fifty pound bag may end up in a puddle of chemicals unless you keep it very dry and airtight.

If you may be interested, here's a pretty good website on the subject of pH, vegetable requirements, and fertilizer analysis http://elkhorn.unl.edu/epublic/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=750

geo


----------



## fishinshawn

I use 10-10-10....


----------



## Paquebot

geo in mi said:


> Also, since they are chemical salts, they are hygroscopic--they attract water out of the air and begin to get oily and soupy. Thus, a fifty pound bag may end up in a puddle of chemicals unless you keep it very dry and airtight.


Actually, the opposite is true. Rather than becoming a liquid, it becomes a solid. 

For vegetable application of 12-12-12, use 1 pound per 120 square feet or 120 running feet of row planting. 

Martin


----------



## frankva

Or it becomes a slurry. Then a brick glob. Either way it becomes less than wonderful. Roll down the bag and clothespin it. 

I would use any number of NPK combinations, but would never use a lawn type fertilizer that has herbicide or pesticide in the garden.


----------



## geo in mi

frankva said:


> Or it becomes a slurry. Then a brick glob. Either way it becomes less than wonderful. Roll down the bag and clothespin it.
> 
> I would use any number of NPK combinations, but would never use a lawn type fertilizer that has herbicide or pesticide in the garden.


Thanks,

geo


----------



## Paquebot

10-10-10 will set up harder than 12-12-12 due to more limestone in the formula. That acts like cement. 12-12-12 was always a nice easy one to granulate with just a little steam due to the triple superphosphate and muriate of potash melting to form even granules. (I worked 11 years for Royster's, 7 of them as second shift manufacturing foreman.)

Martin


----------



## Plow Boy

I just read the bag "GreensKeeper Secret" 12-12-12. No where on there does it say it has any herbicide or pesticide. Just phosphate nitrogen 12%, pot ash, ammoniocal, urea.


----------



## Paquebot

Plow Boy said:


> I just read the bag "GreensKeeper Secret" 12-12-12. No where on there does it say it has any herbicide or pesticide. Just phosphate nitrogen 12%, pot ash, ammoniocal, urea.


Not every lawn fertilizer is bad for gardens. The ones to avoid are the "weed and feed" types. Those are generally clearly identified on the front of the bag.

Martin


----------

