Feeding Garden Plants

The best time to start feeding your garden is in spring. At this time of the year the ground is still moist from the winter and early spring rains.

As the ground warms up with the hotter spring weather you get ideal growing conditions in your garden.

This is a crucial time for growth in the garden and you will need to ensure that your plants have the necessary nutrients to benefit from this period.

The small feeder roots that will be developing will seek the nutrients that you need to supply them.

By choosing the correct foods for your plants they will have better foliage, they will be stronger plants and will also have more abundant flowering.

There are three key factors that are needed in a balanced plant food and they are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

A plentiful supply of nitrogen will ensure that your plants have healthy foliage.
Phosphorus improves the plants root health and potassium will encourage the plant to bloom and fruit.

As you can see they are all needed for the overall health of the plants and you should always check on the packaging of the fertilizer to see whether the chemical analysis is suitable.

These fertilizers usually come in three forms - controlled release, liquid and soluble.
Controlled release formulations have the nutrients inside a semi-permeable membrane that allows the nutrients to be released into the soil in a controlled manner once it reacts with the soil moisture and temperature.

One application can last months and it is ideal for containers and indoor plants and established plants and trees. Liquid formulations are similar to the soluble ones but they have been mixed with water and can be sprayed on the plants leaves for rapid response.

Soluble formulations and applied dry and dissolve once the area receives water, which will dissolve the salts and make the nutrients available for the roots of the plant.

All applications have their benefits and you need to decide which is best for the plants you are feeding.

Editor
Peter Charalambos

Author: Peter Charalambos

Granted Expert Author Status