Steve -
I found the problem - now I know how our poor Governor Perry must have felt the other night!
I just opened the tank and there were large pieces of a dead leaves in there. I't obvious that the leaves were restricting the little screen on the suction tube, reducing the flow of fertilizer by a very substantial number!
I should have thought of that - I have to frequently clean out the filter on the tractor sprayer - always a lot of leaves, grass and stuff in there.
What happens is that the fertilizer gets rock hard in the bag in just a couple months in this humid climate. We have to cut the bag off the solid block of fert and put it in a big tub, and then beat it with the end of a 2X4 until it's usable. Obviously, a lot of junk is going to get in there. It was never a problem with the sprayer - big filter - but it just about shut-down this little unit! I'm going to have to keep that fertilizer clean, very clean, which may be a major problem - time consuming!
We've actually had it get so hard that we had to use a chisel and hammer to break it into pieces that would fit into the fill opening on the sprayer. I may have to dilute this with water in a bucket and then strain it into the injector tank. It dissolves quickly, no matter how hard it is.
Al the plants are doing well, now that we have some water. We plant Sugar Snaps around Christmas and they mature in April. I would think you could plant them anytime in that fantastic climate y'all have. I was stationed in San Diego in the service - springtime year-round.
Jack
PS _ Gov Perry is embarrassing us, but he's not as dumb as he seems. He's just out of his comfortable, chummy, good ol' boy environment. The sooner he gets back on the job in Austin the better for all of us! I have met him personally several times - nice guy and an honest to goodness, real Texas cowboy, raised on a cattle ranch near Paint Creek, TX. Maybe it's time to bo back to the ranch, Rick.