Last year I looked at Home Depot and Osmocote fertilizer was 32 dollars. I did not buy any because it looked like we had a lot. Mother must have fertilized a bunch because I come to fertilize the trees in my pots and there is a few drops left. I go to Home Depot to buy more 8 pound bags. 37 or 38 dollars now for a 5 dollar increase over winter. Gardening getting really expensive.
It’s $28 at walmart.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Osmocote-Smart-Release-Plant-Food-Flower-Vegetable-8-lb/39914139?from=searchResults
There’s also cheaper “Plant Tone” or “Tree Tone” 35lbs for $47 listed on Walmart as well.
I ordered a 35lb bag of “Plant Tone” and it came fine through shipping. Hard to damage fertilizer.
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I ordered my Holly and Plant Tone from Walmart, I think 50lbs for $42.
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Sounds like a great deal. I don’t think I got it for that cheap.
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And wholesale fertilizer prices have gone down a lot in the last 6 months…
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@eliving1, sounds like you might live in a rich neighborhood and home depot has an up charge there. 
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It’s still available today with free delivery.
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I always assumed Home Depot was the same price everywhere. I think their stock changes though. This was the first year I saw the ultra dwarf Elberta peaches and Weeping Santa Rosa plums at my local Home Depot despite hearing the ultra dwarf Elberta peach tree was for sale at Home Depot in 2020 for example. I kind of felt disappointed because I spent around 60 dollars for my Weeping Santa Rosa from Raintree and I could have gotten it for 38.
Stores (even shopping online) often set the price based on location. They are sneaky.
I hear ya. I bought some dogwood trees last year and planted them. Now this year, the ones available in stores are are larger than the ones I planted last year.
Luckily Raintree sells big trees. My Comice trees were bigger when I got them last year than Home Depot’s today. I was surprised on their selection because they had 2-3 trees I would have picked out. They had a Weeping Santa Rosa, Comice and a Bing cherry. 2 of those I have or will have in a few weeks and 1 I had buy did not make it with the one not making it being Bing. Our local garden extention said Bing would be the reliable cherry tree. I have had bing and it is a good cherry. I have just replaced it with better ones at this point like black gold for it’s cold hardiness, white gold for the disease resistant and a multi graft for the montmorency on it. That being said I still have the ones that lived that year being the Utah Giant and the Rainier. I did see some why do they have this like Babcock peaches or Tilton apricots that are only hardy to zone 7. Like I said though I am not used to Home Depot having variety. I did my ordering all online this year and they are all shipping this week or next week so I did not jump on them but like I said they had pretty good varieties for those who did not order a year ahead of time.
You got to give them credit when it’s due. I bought santa rosa and methley from home depot blindly before knowing anything about fruit tree growing. They got me started. Those trees are still alive, albeit wobbly as anything because I think I amended those trees too heavily. I’ll try to fix the roots them next winter in dormancy.
Recently, I’ve taken to using Real Chemical Name nutrients.
I had both my soil and my wood-chip based compost tested.
Turns out I’m mildly short in Zinc, Copper, Sulfur and Boron. Easily remedied by cheap sources of chemicals.
Why pay for all this Snake Oil stuff?
The coating on Osmocote means steady release over several months, but so what? People like us are fooling with the plants in almost a daily basis, so that’s not a big concern for us.
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