Container Gardening

So, you know the basics about vegetable garden fertilizer.  Now that you understand what your plants need, how can you get it to them?

If you’ve made the decision to use solely organic fertilizers, you will need to do a little mixing and matching to give your plants all the nutrients they will need.  As a caution, most organic fertilizers are not pH-neutral.  You will need to test your soil to make sure you are not making it too acidic or alkaline for your plants.  Here is a quick guide to organic fertilizers.

1. Blood Meal – Blood meal is a byproduct of the meat industry, and a good source of nitrogen for plants.  It is what it sounds like, the dried, powdered blood of animals.  It’s around 12-14% nitrogen, and can be used as a fertilizer by sprinkling it on the soil.  It will have an acidic effect on the soil.  Note: blood meal is a very fast-acting organic fertilizer, and the effects won’t last very long.  If you apply too much at once, the nitrogen can burn the plants.  Don’t overuse.

2. Bone Meal - Bone meal, like blood meal, is produced by the meat industry.  Bones are sterilized and ground up.  Bone meal has some nitrogen, but it is mainly a source for phosphorus and calcium.   Bone meal is slow-release, and should be worked into soil before planting.  You can add more once your vegetables start to set fruit for an extra boost.

3. Fish Emulsion - Fish emulsion is made from waste fish products.  It is a source of nitrogen, though it contains all three major nutrients in varied balances.  It can be very smelly, but is not as hard on plants as blood meal.  If you have tender plants, fish emulsion may be safer than blood meal.  It is fast-acting.

4. Liquid Seaweed – Liquid seaweed is a source of nitrogen and potassium, but more importantly, it contains many of the micronutrients plants need to thrive.  Regular applications will help your plants thrive.  With such low N-P-K levels, you can add it to almost every watering and not need to worry about micronutrient levels.

5. Rock Phosphate – Perhaps predictably, rock phosphate is a rock that is high in phosphorus.  Its phosphorus is not as accessible to plants as some, but this makes it useful for container gardening: it is very slow release, and can be mixed into the soil at the beginning of the season.

6. Greensand – Greensand is a kind of sand which is not green, but is a good source of potassium and micronutrients.  It also helps keep soil loose, which is useful for containers where you won’t have as many insects in the soil to aerate it.

Tags: Fertilizer, organic

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Fertilizer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.