Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


history of the land to be planted. In Area 3 this 6% formula
has proven desirable up to this time.
 To sum up the effects of phosphate fertilizer briefly, then,
either single or triple superphosphate should be suitable, but
on unburned lands domestic basic slag may be even better.
A 6% phosphate fertilizer, properly balanced with nitrogen
and potash, applied at the rate of one ton to the acre before
setting the plants on land to which the strippings of previous
crops have been returned, is probably about optimum for Ever-
glades organic soils to be cropped annually with celery. The
final ratio of these fertilizer materials suggested for commercial
use is 1:2:4 (nitrogen, phosphate and potash).

METHOD AND RATE OF APPLICATION OF FERTILIZER
 The method of applying fertilizers has been found to be some-
what dependent upon the rate of application, so that these two
factors are probably best discussed together.
 Fertilizers applied in considerable quantity in a band below
the roots may "burn" the young roots unless applied several
days before the plants are set. Experiments have shown that
celery in the Everglades, planted in 30-inch rows, four inches
apart in the row, gives growth response to fertilizer applied
broadcast before planting as high as or higher than to a similar
quantity of fertilizer applied in a band beneath the row, pro-
vided a suitable analysis fertilizer is used at a rate of 2,000
pounds per acre. The 3-6-12 formula evolved and presented in
the previous sections of this paper is such a fertilizer. Broad-
casting (or distribution with a seed drill) is satisfactory for
celery because of the tremendous spread of root growth of
celery in these organic soils, and because very little fertilizer
is lost by leaching processes during the winter months. The
celery roots are continually growing into fresh soil which holds
an additional supply of fertilizer. Therefore, no side-dressing
need be applied to celery in a normal year on these soils. There
has been found to be no response to side-dressing applications
when enough fertilizer was applied before planting to carry the
crop through to harvest. Only when this original application
of fertilizer was too low did the celery respond to side-dressing,
and then it never produced as high yields as it did when it
had an ample amount of fertilizer from the start. When side-
dressings were applied in treatments discussed in the earlier
pages of this bulletin, the cost of the fertilizer was included