Everyone has to eat to continue to exist. With out a regular supply of starch, protein and other nutrients we would all very quickly die. Flowers have a different procedure. They use carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from the air as well as the water in the soil so as to produce their unique starch and sugars. All they will require from the dirt is a number of simple chemicals that they then use to create all the amino acids, proteins, vitamins and enzymes et cetera.
All soils possess a stock of these vital chemicals commonly known as plant nutrients, they come from the mineral part of your soil (sand, clay, etc) and from the humus it contains (fallen leaves, dead roots, etc). When the soil is cultivated and garden plants grow in it, the balance is often upset. Essential elements in the soil are diminished more rapidly than they are replaced by natural means.
Probably the most serious loss involves three key elements - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These are known as the major plant nutrients, and are necessary in large quantities if the plants are to grow as expected. This means that these major plant nutrients must be replaced on a regular basis. A proportion will be supplied if organic dressings like compost or manure are applied, but we have to use fertilizers for the main source of supply. A fertilizer is the substance which supplies appreciable amounts of one or more of the major plant nutrients without adding considerably to the humus content of the soil.
A bewildering variety of fertilizers are available in garden centres these days - organic and inorganic, straight and compound, liquid and solid. The decision is all yours. Do remember, however, there is no 'good' and 'bad' fertilizers, all of them have a job to do and the right choice depends on the plant, soil type, area concerned, the time of year and so on. The golden rule is to feed plants on a consistent basis, but no greater than what the container recommends. If you are in any doubt whether to feed or not, then let yourself be guided by the vigour of the plants. Fertilizer test kits are readily available, but the interpretation of the results can be tricky for your ordinary gardener.
By law the maker of a product which is described as 'fertilizer' must declare the nitrogen, phosphates and potash content on the package. The content of most other nutrients must also be declared when they are added to the product.
The meaning of the words and figures on the package:
N = Total Nitrogen
P2O5 = Total phosphates
P2O5 soluble in water = Phosphates which are immediately available
P2O5 soluble in neutral ammonium citrate and in water = Phosphates which are immediately or very quickly available
P2O5 soluble only in mineral acids = Phosphates which are available slowly
K2O = Total
As an example: You buy a bag of fertilizer, on the front it should have three numbers on display, in this instance let's say, 3:6:9 typically in red. What does this mean; number 3 refers the nitrogen content, so this fertilizer contains 3.0% N (nitrogen). The number 6 refers to phosphorus content, so this fertilizer has 6.0% P2O5 (phosphates or phosphoric acid). The number 9 refers to potassium content, so this fertilizer contains 9.0% K2O (potash).
Author Resource:
A fantastic quantity of my time is spent in my garden, but as I am getting older and things are becoming harder to do, I have decided to use a firm called Home Repair . So far they have given me all the help and advice that I have asked for. I still do a bit of pottering around my own garden.
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