Mixing solutions correctly in hose end sprayer

[Henderson]

The last 2 years I've been fertilizing my outdoor planters and hanging baskets weekly with a 2 gal watering can and mixing the solutions, which takes at least 6 can fulls and lugging it around, probably more this year as I've added a few more planters, and it takes quite awhile to do. So you can see why I'd love to be able to use a hose end sprayer with the mixture, but I want to be sure my thinking is right about how to do the mix.

The lowest setting on the sprayer is 1 teaspoon per gallon mix. I have 2 solutions I want to combine and do at once. One requires 1/2 teaspoon per gallon, the other 1/4 teaspoon per gallon.

So my thinking is to dilute the 2 mixtures and combine in the container to use in the sprayer. The solution needing 1/2 teaspoon per gallon would be diluted 2 parts fertilizer and 2 parts water. The one needing 1/4 teaspoon per gallon would be diluted 1 part fertilizer and 3 parts water. Mix both in the container, then set the sprayer to 2 teaspoons per gallon flow.

Is my logic and math right about this? I don't want to burn the plants and kill them.

Nor do I want to dilute the mix too much so that it's not effective and I'll just be wasting my time and product. I originally thought the sprayer should be set to 1 teaspoon per gallon, but the solutions are actually being diluted twice by the fact that there are 2 of them, correct?

Thanks for any advice and help.

 

[DirtMechanic]

What psi or pressure is at your hose pipe? How much product do you want on each plant?

 

[Henderson]

I have absolutely no idea what the psi is, but that shouldn't matter when mixing the solutions to be watered into the soil in hanging baskets and planters for this particular sprayer. It mixes the solution by so much per gallon of water, just as if you mixed it in a 2 gallon watering can.

PSI might matter if I was trying to mix the proper amount to cover X sq ft of lawn for instance. But I just want to do a dozen hanging baskets and planters and replace the tedium of doing it with a watering can with the correct mix that waters into the soil.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Thank you for explaining. I would use a 2 or more gallon pump sprayer with a incremental trigger. Many have wheels and are 10 or more gallons. I have a 25 gallon that I use with my mower.

I apologize, it is so hard to know. Extremely often, outside water lines are not allowed through a pressure regulator such as enters a house. At that point I have seen my properties exhibit pressures of 85psi. Of course dishwashers- as other appliances with small rubber O-rings- are 50psi more or less. The problem is that is this value is 60% higher than what might be called average, but you could not blame the water company for failing to extend their pipes a strong distance past your house. However, the simple device you have not exactly described simply has a hole drilled in it, of a certain size, and if one cared to increase the gallons emitted it would be by increasing pressure if the orifice setting were to remain true. It makes a mess. Better to have 3 tank sprayers. Food, fungi and Insect, and kill it all.

 

[Henderson]

Using a 2 gallon container is what I want to get away from. With the amount of watering needed, I need to mix and fill more than six 2-gallon containers to get it done weekly, probably a couple more since I've added a few more planters and baskets. So that's not an option. For the heck of it I checked out larger sizes, and they're just too expensive. Even if I did get a 10 gallon, I'd have to fill it up more than once each week and lug it around, that's really not better than just going back to the 2-gallon watering can.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I certainly would not want to carry myself. Perhaps this 9 gallon battery powered roll around?

We used to tote 5 gallon buckets before we installed a second water meter for the irrigation lines. Even so my hose lengths can be long, the hoses nasty and dirty. They need a cart themselves.

I have 4 or 5 hose end sprayers, some fancy. They will not tell you how many gallons you have sprayed. I would favor food coloring as Scotts uses blue for Miracle Gro, telling us to spray until the blue color is out of the container.

 

[Henderson]

I looked at those too, and much too expensive and elaborate for my needs. I don't need anything fancy that tells me how many gallons I have sprayed. With outdoor hanging baskets and planters, you water until it drips out the bottom, as simple as it gets. Some days it will take 2 gallons in one planter, some days only 1 gallon, even less, that really doesn't matter.

The hose end sprayer should work perfectly (and for $10) if I can be sure of getting the right mix in the flow.

 

[DirtMechanic]

The only way I can imagine is having a visible color that goes to clear or perform a test with a stop watch to understand how long it takes to clear the siphon jar of mix.

Only suction siphon will work in a straight graph line delivery. Injection siphons will dilute the mix and the delivery graph will curve downward over time.

So if you found it took 30 minutes to deplete food coloring from the mix bowl you might conjecture 75% of that time is delivering the acceptable quantity of mix where 25% at the end is too weak to meet the needs of the plants.

Suction siphons wont and they have to be vented to release vacuum pressure. Which brings us back to a bucket.....

 

[Henderson]

When I mention getting the right mix in the flow, I don't mean at all how fast or slow or whatever speed the water flow is. I'm assuming that when the sprayer says it mixing what's in the container at a rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon, that it is accurate. If the mix in the container though is too strong or too weak, I end up with burnt plants or I'm wasting my time. I'm only referring to the proportions of the mix put into the container.

It would be simple if I stuck to using only 1 solution at a time, but there must be a mathematical way to determine what is the correct amount of fertilizers to put into the container. I'm just not certain if I should be using the 1 or 2 teaspoon per gallon setting at this point.

 

[DirtMechanic]

What are these precious materials that such a small amount is used per gallon? teaspoon is 5ml, and a gallon is 3785 ml. Are you underserved?

Also, if the machine will mix, why are you bothering to premix? It seems to cause confusion. Just dump it in there adjusted per the gallons you expect to flow...oh wait....no way to know gallons...only mix per gallon..sorry

I must say that I have refined scales that can do tenths of a gram, because laboratory equipment is underappreciated on ebay. I really do not use my hose ends unless I know the size of earth being watered, because at that point I can simply say the weight per 1000 square feet.

 

[Henderson]

One is Monty's Joy Juice (renamed to Monty's PlantVantage now) and the other is Superthrive. And adding them both to Miracle Gro Bloom Booster weekly has made a huge difference in the size of the plants and the amount of blooms on them. My neighbors keep talking about them every season and coming over to just look at them, so I'm sticking to what works. I'd just love to stop having to use a watering can weekly.

 

[DirtMechanic]

You are using highly concentrated hydro chems on potted plant. LOL I do that myself. Mainly kelp solution and silicone though. You just are getting more challenging to me by the moment. You are fun!

Ok so now that we know you are smart enough to extract hydro tech into the real world it gets easier. What you are missing is in the metric system as that system is the easiest as it relates to mass. In plant words, the mass of the target vs the mass of the nutrient charge and in the mix is the mass of the carrier water. I am going to take a small break and consider some details, talk to my hydro guy, and get back to you. It is a radical transition from the concentrated world of hydroponics to the outside, and your baskets might fit best in the ebb and floww scenario where you are the flow and the draining away is the ebb part.

 

[Henderson]

I still get the feeling you're overthinking this. I'm not concerned with X amount of either ingredient getting on each planter or covering a certain amount of flowers. I'm only concerned that the water mixture that comes out of the hose end sprayer is the equivalent of 1/2 teaspoon Monty's and 1/4 teaspoon Superthrive per gallon of water.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Right- I get that... and the sprayer will handle that part as long as its design is a vented siphon instead of the kind you seal up tight. That sealed type will dilute the mix with water to make up for what comes out and thereby prevent a vacuum lock and what flows out over time will be increasingly diluted at the rate setting. No big deal if you are spraying by the square foot, but you are specific about a ratio a regular hose end sprayer cannot continously provide unless you provide an undiluted mix. And by letting it spray until water drips out of the container it seems like it would be fine if you mixed up more than you needed so that it is not too diluted as you finish. I am just curious about how much to put in the mix bottle or how to keep up with it given the highly concentrated nature of those products. They are not cheap so wasting it should be prevented.

If you were to spray 12 gallons worth, you would start with a mix of 6 teaspoons Montys and 3 tsp Superthrive. So with a regular unvented hose end sprayer the only gallon that would come out at the correct ratio would be the first one. The next gallon would be sprayed at a ratio that would be reduced by what was lost into the first gallon, and replaced by water. It seems so little that it would not make a material difference but it is the incredibly small amounts of product that I was going to enquire about.

I found this on the web:

"The amount of product that gets sprayed out is determined by both the sprayer hole (oz per gal) setting , and by how many gallons of water you actually spray as you do an application."



What length and diameter hose are you considering? Here is why I ask.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/flow-rate-garden-hose-82928.html

And what if....you had your nutrient tank at the faucet end? That is how I do it mostly. It is an inline siphon. I run a plastic tube into a bucket and it just sucks it out. The hose is lighter and I can use any attachment I choose. Like a lawn sprinkler.

 

[Henderson]

I was going to measure the size of the hose (I'm guessing it's the standard 5/8" and 50') and then measure how many gallons flow per minute, keeping in mind that each sprayer head I use probably will change that somewhat, so do that measuring a few different times. But it really doesn't matter at all in my instance how many gallons flow per minute.

Nutrient tank at the faucet instead of the hose end sounds like more expense, more lugging it out there each week, so I don't think that's an option for me when the simplest method is simply spray it through the hose with the hose end sprayer I have.

I'm going to have a little faith in the manufacturers of these gadgets that when they say what is in the container will come out at a ratio of 1 teaspoon per gallon (or whatever it's set to), that it really will be close to coming out at that ratio, whether the container if 100% or full.

The only reason the fertilizers are diluted in the container is to first equal out the proportions since one takes 1/2 teaspoon and the 2nd takes 1/4 teaspoon. You have to equalize that formula. And because the lowest setting is 1 teaspoon per gallon, so I can't put even the Monty's in at full strength, it has to be diluted in half or else I end up doubling the amount of Monty's and might possibly burn the plants (although I don't think it would with Monty's, but I don't want to waste it either).

Am I making sense? All that matters is that the ratio of fertilizer in the container is being mixed to 1 gallon of water in the amounts required, which is 1/2 and 1/4 teaspoon of each per gallon.