Natural Garden Fertilizer
Are you getting impatient for your plants to grow?
Well, it’s a natural reaction so you don’t need to tear your
hair out over it. There are dozens of natural garden
fertilizers on the market and while it’s always good to give
your plants a little encouragement along the way,
it's also a good idea not to try to kill them with
kindness.
Use these tips to help ensure
you're using the correct amount of natural garden
fertilizer for the right amount of
nutrients.
Question: How do you know what’s
inside the bag?
There are certain
rules that makers of natural garden fertilizers must
follow when they label their products. Understanding these rules can make
comparing natural garden fertilizers much
easier.
 First, identify the
major ingredients commonly found in natural garden
fertilizers. Have you noticed that most fertilizers
have three numbers found on the front label? The numbers are
separated by dashes, so you have something similar to this:
5-10-5. This is actually the fertilizer analysis or percentage
weight of the three major nutrients that your plants
need — nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K).
Therefore, if you've purchased a 10-lb. bag of natural
garden fertilizer with a label that
reads 5-10-5, it means the bag contains 5%
nitrogen, 10% phosphorous, and 5% potassium. That’s a total of
20% of the major nutrients plants require.
What does the rest of the 80% consist of? Most
makers include additional nutrients to their natural
garden fertilizers, plus filler material.
Natural
garden fertilizers containing all three of these major types
of nutrients are often called complete
fertilizers. For most people, complete fertilizers
are the best to use when growing plants, because the
three nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium,
work synergistically with each other to help plants grow and
stay healthy.
One of the
mains benefits of nitrogen in natural garden
fertilizers is that it helps to encourage foliage
growth. Phosphorous, on the other, hand contributes
to many fundamental plant processes, such as rooting and
setting flower buds. And finally, potassium contributes to the
overall health and vigor of plants.
However, plant needs may vary, so it doesn’t
always mean that complete natural garden fertilizers
should always be the one you choose. Purchasing a natural
garden fertilizer may depend on a number of factors,
not least of which is the nutrient content of your soil.
That's why, before buying and applying natural garden
fertilizer, the one suggestion that experts always have for
gardeners is to conduct a soil test
first.
Having your soil tested before starting
to add amendments is the best way to find out what you
actually need. If your soil pH is too high or too low, your
plants won't be able to access some nutrients, even if they're
present in the soil. Soil, after all, is the most important
part of gardening. Natural garden fertilizers are only an aid and a means,
so you shouldn’t consider them as the messiah for a dying
garden. It could be that the soil in your garden is just bad
and needs to be replaced or treated.
Finally, the
fertilizer you choose will depend on the type of
plant you're growning. When you choose a natural
garden fertilizer, don’t assume that just because the bag
says 20-20-20, your plants will immediately take to it. There
is no "one size that fits all" solution. You'll need
to consider several other factors.
|
