Fertilizers are very misunderstood by gardeners and for good reasons. Most books and videos repeat myths about fertilizers and manufacturers create even more myths in order to sell products you don’t need. Even experts, like plant societies, provide the wrong information about fertilizer.
I have assembled 10 of the biggest fertilizer myths in this post and once you understand them better you will save money.
One of the most hotly debated questions in vermicomposting is this: Is vermicompost leachate good or bad for plants? Some say it is great for plants and use it all of the time. Others warn that it should not be used because it contains phytotoxins (plant poisons) and pathogens.
What I find most interesting about this debate is that both sides claim to be correct and yet neither side takes the time to do a search for some scientific evidence to support their position. I guess I approach things differently and the science in this case is easy to find – one Google Scholar search will do it.
Let’s look at the facts surrounding vermicompost leachate.
Over the last 20 years, there have been a number of news reports about herbicide-contaminated manure, compost, straw, and organic fertilizer. This is a real problem for gardeners because such products will harm and even kill your plants. The danger is real!
I’ll answer all of these questions in this post. Every gardener should read it
Gardeners have been using fertilizer for many years and everyone recommends a particular ratio for each plant type. The rose society suggests, “6-12-6 is considered a Balanced Rose Food, as it supplies the basic ingredients in proportions beneficial to roses on a continual basis.” For tomatoes Burpee recommends, “such as 10-10-10, or where the middle number (phosphorus) is larger than the first number (nitrogen), such as 2-3-1″. Which is it, a 10-10-10 or a 2-3-1? I guess they don’t really know?
If you look at fertilizer supplies at your local nursery you will find numerous products labeled as rose fertilizer and each one has a different ratio. The same for tomato fertilizer – each manufacturer has their onw formula. Fertilizer for house plants or orchids is just as bad.
Here is a fundamental question:
Do different plants need different fertilizer formulations?
Almost everything you have read certainly suggests this is true, but does the science support this? Or is it more correct to say that most plants use exactly the same ratio of nutrients? After all, the biochemistry of all terrestrial plants is very similar.
In this post I will try to answer the question, what is the best NPK fertilizer ratio for plants?
I read about weed tea many years ago and I made some. It stunk so bad that I never made it again.
With all the interest in natural gardening it is making a comeback and the internet is full of gardening advice that says fertilizer tea made from weeds is great for plants. Let’s have a look at the science behind this gardening practice. Is it worth making weed tea fertilizer? What kind of nutrients does it really provide? Are there better ways to use your weeds?
Just to be clear – I am talking about the weeds you pull from the garden – not the kind you smoke!
What do you give plants to drink besides water and plant food? This question was asked on Facebook and I was surprised at the number of household kitchen products that are given to plants. What did not surprise me was that not a single person provided any evidence that any of them actually worked.
A very common expression people use to justify their actions is, “my plants love it”.
I hate that phrase. Plants do not show love – they don’t even say thank you. If you give something to a healthy plant you have no way of knowing if it is harming the plant or doing some good, unless you see huge changes in the plant, and even then the changes could be due to any number of other causes.
In this post I discuss 13 items people feed to plants.
People struggle with clay soil and try all kinds of quick fixes, including gypsum, which is regularly touted as a clay buster, but does it really work? Will gypsum make clay soil easier to dig? Will it improve drainage? Should you add it to your soil?
Maybe!
There are good reasons for using gypsum, but you have to know when and when not to use it. Most gardeners should not use it. Don’t listen to marketing hype about this product – much of it is wrong.
It’s planting time and most fertilizer manufacturers and nurseries are pushing their high phosphorus products, usually under names like Plant Starter, Root Booster and the one I really like “MegaMass”. These fertilizers claim to “supply the high phosphorus needed for rapid root development”.
Who doesn’t want good roots on their newly planted babies? Are roots not the key to great plants?
Let’s have a look at this extremely common myth.
Despite its name, Bokashi composting is a fermentation process for handling kitchen scraps right in the home. It is fairly easy to do and produces few odors. The majority of the material ends up as fermented kitchen scraps and some is drained out the bottom as a brown liquid, commonly called Bokashi tea or Bokashi leachate. Advocates of this process claim that the Bokashi tea is a good fertilizer, full of all the nutrients your plants need.
In my previous discussion about Bokashi, I speculated that the tea contained few nutrients. At the time I found no chemical analysis of Bokashi tea, not even from proponents of the process. One of my readers has now found such a study and I will have a close look at the data in this post.
There is a lot of information floating around about fertilizing orchids, but much of it is wrong. For example, the whole concept of “orchid fertilizer” is a myth because there is no such thing.
It’s time that orchid growers understand fertilizers better. It will benefit your plants and save you money.
Everybody wants to grow nutrient dense food that is more nutritious, but what methods produce the best food? There is lots of talk online about organic gardening producing healthier food but is that really true? Are heirloom varieties better for you than hybrids?
In this post I’ll look at some interesting studies that try to answer these questions and the answers will surprise you.
Fish fertilizer is a common organic fertilizer that is recommended for both houseplants and the garden. It has a strong following and its proponents feel that it is better than any other type of fertilizer, but how does it really stack up against the most common organic fertilizer; compost?
Fish fertilizer – are the accolades true, or a bit fishy?
