Plant Nutrients

The big three, famous nutrients plants need are Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium, otherwise known as N,P, and K.

Nitrogen, as any lawn enthusiast will tell you, promotes greenery.  Phosphorous is necessary for roots, flowers and fruit.  Potassium will promote a healthy immune system in plants, helping them resist damage from frost and pests.

Organic sources of NPK have the bonus of also containing micronutrients.  Micronutrients are a variety of other nutrients also necessary for good plant growth, but in far lower quantities.  By organic fertilizer, I refer to raw materials rather than chemical products.  Here are some examples:

• compost
• liquid fish by product
• manure
• canola, kelp, alfalfa (pellets are easiest to use) or meat/blood/blood meal (Granular bone meal is safer to use, because it's less dusty.  There is concern over ingesting bone meal laden with mad cow disease.)
  

Organic fertilizers work in tandem with microbes in the soil to make their component nutrients available to plants.  In essence, organic fertilizers feed microbes and microbes feed plants.

Compost may be the gold standard of organic fertilizers.  Not only is it alive with microbes, and contains all the micro and macro (NPK) nutrients, but it also doubles as a soil conditioner, improving the aeration, drainage and moisture retention of the soil (a magical combination)!  Because plants actually manufacture some of the nutrients they don't get from the soil, a compost made of your own yard waste, and kitchen waste, can be better than purchased compost.

Of course, it may still seem necessary to fertilize with extra goodies.  Here is a short run down of a few extra goodies:

• Manures are chiefly a source of nitrogen (N).  Manures must be fully composted before spreading around plants, to avoid nitrogen burn.  Like compost, they're also soil conditioners.  Chicken and Fish compost are VERY high in nitrogen.
• Bonemeal, preferably granulated, is VERY high in phosphorous (P).  Any transplanting or bulb planting holes are perfect places to sprinkle some.
  
• Kelp and alfalfa meal contribute potassium (K).
• Meat and blood meal are high in N.  Blood meal is also rich in iron, a limiting micronutrient that is necessary for nitrogen uptake.
• Lime or wood ashes, in small amounts, is great for adding the micronutrient calcium, and raising the pH.  It's applied to lawns and veggie patches yearly.  Be careful to keep it clear of rhodos, raspberries, blueberries, evergreens, heathers and any other acid loving plants.
• Epsom salts, yes bath salts, contain magnesium that aids in photosynthesis.  Roses, camelias, rhodos etc. will have fewer yellowing leaves with a little of this.

Organic fertilizer mixes, such as the organic mix from Borden's, save you the trouble of formulating your own.  Being mixes of a variety of meals, they provide a diversity of both micro and macro nutrients.

Liquid fertilizers almost always need dilution before application.  You can spray it on the leaves as a foliar feed, or simply water around the drip line or in the root zone.  Liquid fertilizers act quickly, which can come in handy.  For instance, liquid fish fertilizer used to water in a transplant, maximizes growth recovery.