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Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer – Item of the Day

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Modern Survival| Leave a comment

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer.  This is part of my 4 core item regime for producing healthy and heavy bearing plants.   I have written about this before but my four core items are, GS Plant Foods Liquid Kelp Fertilizer, Garrett Juice Plus, Endo Mycorrhizae Fungal Inoculation and of course Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer.  You can find them all under the tag “fertility” in one place.

So given there are many fine quality organic solid fertilizers, why have I settled on Dr. Earth Premium Gold?  First is that it is a balanced fertilizer, with an NPK ratio of 4-4-4 and what that means is that you are always giving your plants a good boost of all three primary nutrients.

Next is the make up, here are the ingredients: Fish meal, fish bone meal, mined potassium sulfate, soft rock phosphate, kelp meal, seaweed extract, and earthworm castings. Also contains humic acid (5%), aloe vera (2%), and yucca extract (1%), and prebiotic microbial food – soluble sugars (7%). In other words it doesn’t rely on any single source and hence you get a much more balanced source of nutrients for plants.   Also note the humic acid included here, this goes beyond just fertilizer, it helps build soil and make all nutrients easier for the plants to absorb.

Of course you know that I am big on building soil as well, which is one reason I recommend a fungal inoculation in addition to fertilizers and foliar sprays.  Well Dr. Earth Fertilizer builds upon that, because it contains seven strains of beneficial soil microbes plus ecto and endo mycorrhizae to build up even more soil biology.

To really dive home how well this combination works take a look at one of my wicking beds.  These beds were planted with small plants about 5 weeks ago.  On planting the roots were dusted with fungal inoculation, I put a small pinch of Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer into the hole with them and they have been twice sprayed with a mix of Garrett Juice and Liquid Kelp.  I think you will agree the vigor, growth and health are all very evident.

Click for Full Sized Image

So give Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer a shot on your garden today.  You can get a 4lb bag for only 12.00.  And two bags will serve most vegetable gardeners well over a season, possibly two. Again I just drop a small amount into the hole when I plant and about once a season I pull back mulch, add a pinch around my plants and water it in after replacing the mulch.

If you want to load up though they now have 50 pound bags on Amazon as well.

When I establish a new bed I also scatter a small amount across the entire surface before adding the mulch layer.  If you want to really push things into super high biological activity, sprinkle a small amount of dry molasses on the soil at that time as well.   Due to shipping costs I recommend  you source dry molasses locally, most garden and landscape shops will have it.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

 

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Endo Mycorrhizae Fungal Inoculation – Item of the day

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Modern Survival| 12 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Endo Mycorrhizae Fungal Inoculation from Sustainable Agricultural Technologies, Inc.  I have tried a lot of mycorrhizae products and settled on this one due to quality and price.  So exactly what are mycorrhizal fungi?

Mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic associations with over 90% of the world’s plant species. They are particularly effective for agricultural plants that have high water and nutritional needs. Mycorrhizal fungi make nutrients available to growing plants, absorb water, retard disease, and condition soil.

Research has documented improved plant nutrient and water uptake and resistance to a wide range of soil diseases and environmental extremes. Plants establish and yield more abundantly and require less intensive care. Over 50,000 University studies have highlighted the benefits of mycorrhizal colonization on the health and yield of plants. What is Mycorrhizae? “Mycor” – “rhiza” literally means “fungus” – “root” and defines the mutually beneficial relationship between the plant and root fungus.

These specialized fungi colonize plant roots and extent far into the soil. Mycorrhizal fungal filaments in the soil are truly extensions of root systems and are more effective in nutrient and water absorption than the roots themselves.  Translation when you use this stuff it makes your plants more productive and more resistant to stress.

This product is available in two different package…

Think really hard before going for that 2 pounder!  This stuff goes a long way.  I just use a sprinkle on the roots of transplants, and about two tablespoons on the roots of larger trees when I am planting them.  To put it in perspective if you wanted to broadcast it on a full acre for land restoration, (not a terrible idea) you would use a rate of 10 pounds to the acre.  If we take that down to the typical garden, a pound or two goes a long way.

I’ve not found anything that makes as dramatic a difference on a plants ability to develop massive and healthy roots as this stuff does.  This particular product is a combination of 4 species endo mycorrhizae which I prefer to single species varieties.  It is also one of the most cost effective products by price per pound I have found.  If you want to give your plants a tremendous advantage this season give Mycorrhizae Fungal Inoculation from Sustainable Agricultural Technologies, Inc. a shot this season.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

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Etekcity Lasergrip Digital Laser Temperature Gun – Item of the Day

Posted on August 8, 2018 by Modern Survival| 10 Comments

tempgun

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Etekcity Lasergrip Digital Laser Temperature Gun.  This thing is cool it is basically a very accurate digital thermometer you use by just pointing it at a surface and pulling the trigger.  It emits a small red lazer dot, you put that dot where you want to know the temperature and just like that you know the temp.

So what can you do with that, oh so much.  Here are just a few things you can do with a temp gun.

The other day my buddy and I were working on my new aquaponics system and were wondering how much water the rain tanks were holding off of my barn.  Point this thing at it and look for where the temp falls off, there is your water line.

Cooking something that says to saute at say 220 degrees for your pan temp, how exactly do you get that info, well point, pull the trigger and done.  Same thing with your grill, find those cool and hotter spots on that grill for cooking and moving food to cooler safe spaces.

Want to know how much cooler that area under shade or shade cloth really is, not just the air temperature but the surface temps where say your live stock is living, point and pull and you know.

How about finding either warm or cool micro climates for planting trees, shrubs, etc on your property.  Or how about finding out how successful your micro climates you create on purpose are?  For instance the berms we put in our west pasture are on average 20 degrees cooler than the ground surface of the surrounding area, how do we know, with one of these.

What about finding hot or cold loss areas around your house so you can shore up energy losses.  As we all know the best ROI on energy isn’t solar panels, it is increasing efficiency of what ever system you have for energy.

Do you know how well your AC is working.  Try this take this and point it at your air intake and get a reading.  Let your AC run for a few minutes than take a look at the temps on your ACs output vents.  The difference in temps is the amount of cooling your AC is currently giving you.

Is your wood burning stove hitting a solid 400-600 degrees for a good efficient burn, are you sure, you could be sure you know.

So how many things in the world do this much for under 20 bucks?  Seriously?  One word of advice is measure temps at about 1 foot from the surface for best accuracy.  That is how the unit is calibrated to work best.

So check out the Etekcity Lasergrip Digital Laser Temperature Gun today and let me know your thoughts on other things that it can do in the comments below.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

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Marine Metal Aeratr Bubble Box – Item of the Day

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Modern Survival| 4 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Marine Metal Aeratr Bubble Box.  Yes this is another item for your fishing kit, but it is more than that, a lot more.  In the end what this is comes down to a battery powered aerator that runs about 40 hours on 2 D-Cell Batteries.  Again 40 hours!

So sure I keep one in my Fishing Kit, because it can keep bait alive or fish that I want to bring home alive in a bucket.  That is what most people use this for.  Yet there are other things one may need this for.

Let me ask you, do you keep fish at all?  Like do you have an aquarium?  Or an aquaponics system?  Now I am not suggesting that this little box can keep your 55 gallon tank or 300 gallon IBC running like a top long term, but what if you power goes out for a day or two?

Like many of you I have a generator but you can only run so many things and like many of you I am all about running what you can on batteries when it makes sense.  So consider with a 12 pack of cheap D-Cell batteries and two of these boxes you could keep two tanks aerated for 120 strait hours.  Folks that is 5 days!

Again long term this is not a solution for larger tanks but during an outage this could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in lost fish!  And what does this little magic box set you back, a whopping 8 bucks.

Oh and hey what about you high gravity beer and mead brewers?  Those of you wanting to push things to 16-20% ABV, one key to that is oxygen, so you hook this little bad boy up to your carboy, (sanitize the hose and stone of course) and run it for 6 hours before setting your airlock into place!  Note if you plan to do this you should get one dedicated ONLY to this use.

Again my main use for this is keeping fish alive in the field, mostly for bait and it is outstanding for that, but for 8 bucks it does a lot of other things.  So consider adding the Marine Metal Aeratr Bubble Box to your kit today.

Remember you can always find all TSPAZ Items of the day by just going to TspAz.com along with a link to Amazon’s top deals of the day.

 

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Hydro Organics Cal-n-Mag Plant Food – Item of the Day

Posted on May 24, 2018 by Modern Survival| 2 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Hydro Organics Cal-n-Mag Plant Food.  This review rounds out my 6 items for my fertility program for my vegetable growing.  It addresses the most common mineral deficiencies in plants, which is calcium and magnesium.

When it comes to Calcium and Magnesium.  These two are often deficient and you really need both in order for the plants to absorb them and use them well.  Calcium deficiency is usually caused due to low calcium availability or due to water stress which results in low transpiration rates. The symptoms of calcium deficiency include curling of young leaves or shoots scorching or spotting on young leaves, poor growth, leaf tip burns, stunted roots, and damage to fruit.

Magnesium deficiency, like any deficiency, leads to reduction in yield. It also leads to higher susceptibility to plant disease.  Since magnesium is mobile within the plant, deficiency symptoms appear on lower and older leaves first.  The first symptom is pale leaves, which then develop an interveinal chlorosis, which is yellowing of the leaves between the veins with the veins remaining green. In some plants, reddish or purple spots will appear on the leaves.

The expression of symptoms is greatly dependent on the intensity to which leaves are exposed to light. Deficient plants that are exposed to high light intensities will show more symptoms.   Any of that sound familiar to you?  Now as plants need calcium and magnesium together to effectively utilize both, most supplements come as a combination.

The best product I have found for this need is, Hydro Organics Earth Juice Cal-n-Mag Plant Food.  Again this is a liquid form, and that makes it available instantly.  We are also going to use it first as a drench and then in follow up treatments as a foliar feed.  You can even just mix it with Garrett juice and do it all at one time, how simple and easy is that?

Now for a bit of a note, one reason many people have Cal-Mag deficiency is due to very alkaline soils.  Now using a product like this helps a lot, because the plant can access it immediately but a bit of acidity with it is helpful.  The good news is if you are using it with Garrett Juice you already have some Apple Cider Vinegar in it, so you have a naturally slightly acidic plant feed.  If for any reason you are using it without Garrett Juice just add about 1 tsp of ACV per gallon, I use a half gallon hand sprayer so I would use a half a tsp (note teaspoon, not tablespoon).

This is also a great product for aquaponics systems, specifically ebb and flow beds.  Rather than dump it into your system, just mist ebb and flow beds if they show any signs of deficiency.

A reminder on any foliar feeding, do it when the sun is low.  That is either early morning or late evening.  I prefer late evening, because you know the sun won’t be back until morning.  Foliar feeding when the sun is high is at best a waste of your time and money and at worst can damage your plants and even burn them.  So stick again to either very early or in the evening as the sun is setting.

Again I want to point out the issues with alkaline soils can be a real problem.  You can dump all the egg shells and ground up shells you want into alkaline soil, and it may help but you will still likely see some cal/mag deficiency.   Just a small bit of a liquid, instantly bio available cal/mag supplement is a solution to a chronic problem many people never even identify.  Since they bury say and egg shell with every plant, they don’t even consider it.  Again if you have alkaline soils, it is going to be difficult for your plants to get enough calcium without some help and if you have a magnesium deficiency, you are sunk on calcium, as the plants need both minerals to effectively make use of either one.

So give Hydro Organics Cal-n-Mag Plant Food a shot, in fact start using my entire fertility program this year and I promise you will be amazed at the results.  At only 12 dollars a quart it is a great deal, I only use about 1/2 – 1 oz. to the gallon of this stuff, so a quart lasts a long time.

Generally I use about 1/2 ounce to the gallon at regular intervals (once plants have full leaves and about half way into the growing season, and when plants flower) and up it to one ounce if I see anything that appears to look like a deficiency.  So 12 bucks is buying you 16-32 gallons of feed for your plants.  By the way this stuff is also 3% nitrogen so it gives you a little boost of N as well.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – I noticed this item was in low stock volume this morning so when I feature it, it may very well sell out.  It should come back in stock fast but here is an alternative I have also used that works very well.  Bloom City Cal-Mag Growing Supplement.  It contains a bit less Calcium and Magnesium then my preferred brand so it doesn’t quite make as much per quart but it is a solid second choice and it is what I would buy if I needed it now and could not get my preferred option.

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Liquinox 3032 Iron Zinc Chelated Solution – Item of the Day

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Modern Survival| 2 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Liquinox 3032 Iron Zinc Chelated Solution.  This product is a mineral boost to my personally developed fertility program that I spent over a decade developing.

I selected this product because, iron and zinc are best utilized together by plants, and people too for that matter.   Liquinox 3032 is as the name implies a “chelated form” of these two minerals.  What that means in simple terms is it is in a form where the plants can instantly absorb and use these two minerals.

This also addresses two of the four most common mineral deficiencies in plants.  Those being iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium.  Today we will stick with iron and zinc but will cover the other two soon.

The most obvious symptom of iron deficiency in plants is commonly called leaf chlorosis. This is where the leaves of the plant turn yellow, but the veins of the leaves stay green.

Typically, leaf chlorosis will start at the tips of new growth in the plant and will eventually work its way to older leaves on the plant as the deficiency gets worse. Other signs can include poor growth and leaf loss, but these symptoms will always be coupled with the leaf chlorosis.

And what do you think zinc deficiency looks like?  It is mostly chlorosis.  Some other symptoms are, necrotic spots where leaf tissue has died due to chlorosis.  Stunted plants including stunted leaves, leaves that are smaller than normal and malformed leaves are also symptoms.  And when people send me pictures of problems with their plants, over half the time, this is the exact problem.

So there were some other things that made me settle on this brand, again back to cheleation, it allows a folliar feed.  This is where we add the product to water and spray it on the plants leaves.  This is best done early in the morning or late in the evening so the plants can absorb the liquid without being beaten on by the sun.

I use this specifically in the ebb and flow beds of my aquaponics systems, where I simply mist the plants with a half gallon sprayer where I add this to my other folliar fed items.

While this may seem complicated and expensive it isn’t.  You just add some stuff to a sprayer and mist your plants every 2-3 weeks, you don’t use much.  A small bottle of this stuff is 13 bucks and has 16 ounces in it.  You use one ounce to the gallon for folliar feeding so a 13 dollar bottle makes 16 gallons.  I mix up half a gallon at a time and it easily lets me spray 6-10, ebb and flow beds.

For my wicking beds or in ground beds I generally do a soil soak at the beginning of spring and about mid season.  I don’t use it any more than that unless I see signs of deficiency.  To put it bluntly I just ordered a bottle today, I did that because the bottle I bought two years ago ran out yesterday when I dumped the last 10% into my new aquaponics tank to kick start the system.

Oh and another nice feature of this product is it includes some aloe gel, this acts as a soil wetting agent and gets the supplement well into the soil so it doesn’t wash away the next time you water or it rains.

This post and the one that will come next on Cal/Mag supplementation will round out fully my personal program that again I spent over a decade developing.

I have for a long time used a 4 pillar core fertility program for my vegetables and perennials.  These include GS Plant Foods Liquid Kelp Fertilizer,  Garrett Juice Plus, Dr. Earth 4-4-4 All Purpose Fertilizer  and Endo Mycorrhizae Fungal Inoculation as the core of the program.  With a bit of mineral supplementation added to this your gardens can produce more then they ever have before.  So give Liquinox 3032 a shot and you won’t be disappointed.  You can always find my full fertility regime here.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. if you use the links above for Liquinox 3032 you will find it goes to a search result with the 16 ounce option at the top.  The reason is for some reason Amazon won’t let me link directly to it, but I can link to the search result.  Just pick the 16 ounce bottle and you are good to go.  They also have a one gallon option you can find here.  While it is more than I need at one time, it is a good deal and since we are talking iron and zinc, it is shelf stable for many years.  So if you have a huge garden you may want to consider that option.

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GS Plant Foods Liquid Kelp Fertilizer – Item of the Day

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Modern Survival| 4 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is GS Plant Foods Liquid Kelp Fertilizer.  I have tried a variety of liquid kelp fertilizers and this one has become my go to for quality and value.  First this stuff is highly concentrated, for instance a 16 ounce bottle will make between 16-32 gallons depending on how you dilute.  I generally go with 1 ounce per gallon myself for a soil drench and 1/2 ounce per gallon as a foliar feed.

Since I use a lot of it I buy it by the gallon, that comes to about 39 dollar with shipping but it still beats the price of 16.95 for a pint with free shipping, yet again a little goes a long way and many of you will be better off with the smaller size.

So what is the big deal with liquid kelp, at first the NPK ratio may seem like well, not so big of a deal.  As it is Nitrogen 2% Phosphorus .23% and Potassium 5%.  The key is all of that is 100% bio-available to your plants at application.  Again a little goes a long way.

The real key though is the minerals, Liquid Kelp gives your plants access to over 70 different minerals and they are all easily absorbed.    Here are some of the well established benefits of liquid kelp.

  • Improves seed germination and increases root development.
  • Increases bloom set and size of flowers and fruit.
  • Increases and stabilizes chlorophyll in plants, which results in darker green leaves and increased sugar content in plants.
  • Relieves stress in plants caused by extreme weather conditions.
    Increases plant vigor, and thus imparts a greater resistance to disease, insect attack, drought, and frost.
  • Increases microorganisms in the soil that can fix nitrogen from the air.
  • Increases mineral uptake from the soil and into the plant.
  • Increases the storage life of fruits and vegetables by retarding the loss of protein, chlorophyll, and RNA.
  • Retards the aging process in plants (senescence), thereby lengthening the production season.

The key with this stuff is how you use it.  In general about three times a season, early, middle and late I apply a soil drench of this stuff at 2 ounces to the gallon to my plants.  And about once every two weeks, I use it in a foliar spray directly on the plants at 1/2 ounce per gallon, I also use Garrett Juice at the recommend rate in this spray.  I combine this spray with Howard Garrett’s “Garlic Pepper Tea” every other application to control pests.  You just mix that up yourself, here are the instructions for that.

Let me tell you if you take two plants and do this with one and not the other for a single season you will be a big time believer really fast!  In fact I bet you won’t make it though the season without starting to use it on your control plant as in a month you will have all the evidence you need.

So check out GS Plant Foods Liquid Kelp Fertilizer today, along with Garrett Juice Plus and Dr. Earth 4-4-4 All Purpose Fertilizer it forms the core of my go to for plant fertility.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com 

P.S. – If you need a sprayer for your garden and trees, this one by Chapin is likely the best bang for your buck on the market.  If you need a large Back Pack Sprayer I own and love the Solo 475-B.  Since I bought mine Solo has released the Solo 475-B Deluxe Model.  It has more comfortable straps, a pressure regulator and brass nozzles.  It is likely worth the 50 dollar premium but the standard model at 90 bucks has served me well for a number of years.

 

 

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Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light – Item of the Day

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Modern Survival| 29 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Note – This is an encore item and one I am bringing around for the second time this year the reason is they just dropped the price to under 29 bucks.  Since I first reviewed this item over 700 of them have been purchased by TSP members and I have only had 100% positive feedback on them.  At the time in my view they are the best deal on grow lights you can find.  It is getting later in the season for indoor plant starting but I am still getting questions about it.  After using these for two years for starts I still think they are the best deal on the market.

We are also headed into the fall and winter gardening season, time to get those greens, broccoli, etc plants started before it is too late.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light.  I just discussed this item yesterday on the show but I am so impressed with the value of it I am featuring it for the TspAz item of the day.

To grow well plants need full spectrum lighting and as LED technology has advanced it has become the go to choice of professionals in the indoor farming market.  Not only does it grow plants with greater vigor than florescent lighting it has a massive cost savings in electrical use and LEDs last a long longer so the longer equipment life cycle further drives down total cost.

Still the cost of quality LED grow lights has been quite high and it has held back the small time and hobby gardener for quite a while.  Recently some low cost lights have come along and worked okay but were made so cheaply that they would often fail in 90-180 days for many users.  And with that any savings was gone.

Over the past two years a company called Kingbo began producing some smaller LED grow lights and developed a good reputation with them, but they were two small to be useful to me for starting flats of seeds.  When they came out with the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light I was pretty happy but figured I would wait a while and let others try it out and see what kind of reputation it had after some use by the market.

It has now been around about 9 months and seems to have maintained a good reputation.  I also like that they offer a full 12 month warranty and a 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee.

The big thing I like is how well it works, see the video below of one youtuber who tested his on basil and watermelon.  When you hear me talk about healthy and stocky seedlings this is what I am talking about.  I like this light so much that I recently ordered 4 of them for my own seed starting this year.  I’ll be putting together my system and sharing it with you soon.

In any event if you are looking for a great grow light to start your own plants indoors, of do indoor farming with a grow tent, check this one out, at 29 dollars with 4.6 stars with over 160 reviews it is hard to beat on the current market.   I do expect over the years for this technology to continue to improve and become more affordable, but at present time the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light is my current top choice of what is available.  I have waited long enough to adopt LED grow light technology.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. Check out these videos testing testing the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light.

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Bloody Dock – “Blood Veined Sorrel” – Item of the Day

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Modern Survival| Comments Off on Bloody Dock – “Blood Veined Sorrel” – Item of the Day

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is two sources to get growing a plant called Bloody Dock, also known as “Blood Veined Sorrel”.  I first learned about this plant in doing research for pond plants that are edible.  While sold as a pond plant it is more accurate to say that Bloody Dock needs fertile and moist soil and can be grown in a pond on the edges as well.

Your choices to get started with this plant amount to slow and cheap or fast and expensive.  I went the expensive route but I am now  going to also go the cheap route with seed and try to make a ton of plants that way too.

Side Note – You may really want to check out Ohio Heirloom Seeds full line up of stuff, they have some really cool hard to get things.  And check out the other offerings from Florida Aquatic Nursery as well, again cool stuff you just don’t find everyday.

Okay so back to Bloody Dock and why I love this plant, well because it hits my big four.

  1. Hard to Kill
  2. Tastes Good
  3. Perennial
  4. Looks Good

What else can you ask for?  So when I got my 4 plants they looked great, I planted them and by that evening I was pretty angry, they all looked dead.  The leaves just went flat.  The next day a few perked back up, I cut the other leaves off, kept them moist and in shade.  By the end of that week they were going full on again.  Today about a month later, this is what they look like!

That one plant will produce well over a dozen divisions in early fall making the 20 dollar price tag easier to swallow.  But I like this stuff so much I am going to get some seeds and see how they go, because I would like to plant a ton of this stuff in the margins around my ponds.  Mind you ducks and geese (and I am betting chickens) think this stuff is wonderful, so make sure to provide critter protection for it.

So should you go with seeds or plants?  The choice is yours really, my understanding is propagation from seed is about as easy as seep propagation gets.  I am thinking at 20 bucks a plant I may end up with a nice little cash flow from digging them up around my pond and selling them to our egg customers at half price, 10 bucks a pop!

Using this plant as food is easy as well.  You can use it raw in salads or gently sauteed like spinach or any other green.  While this stuff is good eating like many greens it is a bit sharp on its own, but blend it with a few others and it is just amazing.

It is a spreading perennial so making more plants is easy, dig up a well established plant, separate it into smaller parts (divisions) and replant.  Even if it looks bad, new growth will soon pop up.   Note that this is best done in spring or early fall after the high heat is done for the year.  But you can do this in summer too, the key is do it in pots, and keep it in shade until the shock passes.

Again this stuff is tough to kill, what it needs though is constant moisture, which is why it is so great as a pond plant but it will do great in a well watered garden, on a shady edge that gets morning sun, etc.

So consider picking up some seeds or plants today and again check out both Ohio Heirloom Seeds and Florida Aquatic Nursery as well. I have ordered from both sellers with great results.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

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Garrett Juice Plus – Item of the Day

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Modern Survival| 1 Comment

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Garrett Juice Plus.  I realized that while Garrett Juice is part of my 4 part primary fertility program I have never reviewed it individually.

First right up front I will tell you that you don’t have to buy Garrett Juice, Howard Garrett (aka The Dirt Doctor) publishes the recipe to make it yourself right on his site.  In fact for many years he didn’t even have a commercial product available.  Eventually he realized that not everyone has all day to garden and some of us would be happy to pay 30-40 bucks for a gallon of his stuff.

It may seem expensive but one gallon of concentrate makes 64 gallons of spray.  Consider if you wanted to spray an acre you would use 35 gallons and for the home gardener buying it pre made starts to make a ton of sense.

Over the years I developed my own approach to this, you can see I have zero brand loyalty here, each of the four products is from a different company, why, I found the best of each category.  The four products are…

I also want to be totally upfront about something.  Garrett Juice being shipped by the liquid gallon makes it cost more online then it does in a local store.  So if they sell it where you live, in local stores (Lowes and some garden stores carry it in my area) you may be better off getting this item locally.

So how do I use Garrett Juice?  I spray everything with it, my trees, my plants, etc.  I also add garlic pepper tea when I spray it often to help with pets.  I do a soil drench in my garden beds with it twice a year as well.  If you saw some of the videos of this last season you know my plants blow and go like crazy on this regime.

There is another great use for this stuff and I have confirmed it to be as simple as this.  Get some orange oil, add two ounces to a gallon of water with two ounces of Garrett Juice and you have fire ant killer.  There used to be a product called Antifuego that you could by for this, but due to the cost of shipping they no longer ship.  So now Garrett Juice plus some orange oil does the same thing.

The way you use it is put 2 oz of Garrett Juice (I use the plain version for this to save money and buy it locally) and 2 oz of orange oil into a gallon of water, and slowly soak mounds, this will melt all the ants and queens and you should have a dead mound in a day.  We have tons of fire ants here, this has been a God send in controlling them.

Okay so there are three levels of Garrett Juice, so what is the difference…

  • Garrett Juice – Is made with compost tea, apple cider vinegar, molasses and liquid seaweed.
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  • Garrett Juice Plus – Is made with all of the above plus liquid fish emulsion.
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  • Garrett Juice Pro – Is made with everything above plus beneficial soil organisms that are alive.  Hence it has a maximum shelf life of 18 months, but I try to use it up in a year or less for maximum effectiveness.  I do personally have some doubts about the long term viability of the living microorganisms in a sealed liquid product.  Hence I no longer recommend this one.

So give Garrett Juice Plus or Garrett Juice Pro a try today, gardening season is upon us.  For maximum success this year I recommend my full four part fertility regime, and remember out of those four it is quite possible that even though I am linking to Amazon here, you can save money on Garrett Juice by buying it locally, specifically if you want the base formula or the plus, again I can’t seem to find the pro version anywhere around here and Howard lives in Dallas!

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

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