Everyone needs to eat to live. Without a regular supply of starch, protein and other nutrients we would all very soon die. Flowers have another procedure. They make use of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from the air and the water in the soil so as to manufacture their very own starch and sugars. All they want from the soil would be a quantity of straightforward chemicals that they then use to produce all the amino acids, proteins, vitamins and enzymes etc.
All soils contain a stock of these vital chemicals 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 earth is cultivated and garden plants grow in it, the balance is often upset. Essential elements in the dirt are diminished more rapidly than they are replaced by natural processes.
Probably the most serious loss includes three key elements - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These are known as the key plant nutrients, and are required in large amounts if the plants are to grow satisfactorily. This means that these major plant nutrients need to be replaced on a regular basis. A proportion will be provided if organic dressings like compost or manure are applied, but we must rely on fertilizers for the main source of supply. A fertilizer is the substance which supplies appreciable amounts of a number of the key plant nutrients without adding significantly to the humus content of the soil.
A confusing number 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 carry out and the correct choice depends on the plant, soil type, area involved, the time of year and so on. The golden rule is always to feed plants on a consistent basis, but no more than what the container recommends. In case you are undecided whether to feed or not, then let ones self be guided by the vigour of the plants. Fertilizer test kits are readily available, but the analysis of these results can be difficult for your normal 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 purchase a bag of fertilizer, on the front it has three numbers on show, in this instance let us say, 3:6:9 more often than not 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 have become 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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