What Fertilizer to Use in Spring at Your Garden

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Why Fertilizers for Garden Plants

Contents

Plants need to have lights and moisture along with nutrients. The sun is the prime source of light. Rainfall and irrigation contribute to the amount of moisture. On the other hand, nutrients for plants come from fertilizers as well as compost and even manure. Again, a well-managed soil with rich amounts of organic materials is an essential for better growth of plants. By the time, you will get a good production from those plants as well. So, you have to know about fertilizers according to your garden type and also when to use them.

Generally, fertilizers are either organic or even inorganic. Organic fertilizers like bone meal, manure, and other natural materials. If plants of your garden don’t grow well due to lack of nutrients present in the soil, then use fertilizers. But for plants that grow in poorly drained soil or in the excessive shade or in a competition with tree root don’t respond to fertilizers. It is also an important factor what fertilizer to use in spring at the garden.

Best Time to Fertilize Plants

In general, fertilizers come with the constituents for better production. It works for root and general plant health, bloom formation as well as fruit production. However, your fertilizing time is a crucial factor regarding your plants. The best time for annual application of fertilizers is to apply in early spring. It is because at that time most plants remain at their peak growing cycle. This is the time for plants to leaf out for deciduous species and flowering or even putting on the new natural growth of leaves. This not only enhances leafy growth but also increases production of the flower. Thus it helps to have a greater number of fruits as well.

Prime Chemical Elements for Plants

There are about 16 elements which plants need to consume for proper health. But among them, 3 elements are most important that are essential for plants.

  1. Nitrogen (N): It is the most important of all chemical elements. Nitrogen promotes an appropriate healthy leaf growth with the encouragement producing Chlorophyll. In fact, Chlorophyll is the main ingredient for photosynthesis process by which plants make their own food.
  2. Phosphorus (P): It is also necessary for good and vigorous root growth. Apart from this, it helps to have a proper stem, blossom and fruit development. Phosphorus is also necessary for cell division.
  3. Potassium (K): This element controls the sugar making and its movement throughout the entire plant. Again, it also contributes to the plant retaining water inside cells. It plays a major role in digesting as well as producing food.

What Fertilizers to Use in spring at the Garden

Most of the fertilizers come with all three inevitable elements – Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium or N-P-K. These are put on the package as per their corresponding proportioning number. Along with these 3, most fertilizers contain other elements as well important for plant nutrition. Different plants in your garden need fertilizers with a variety of proportion. Best suitable fertilizers for different types of plants are mentioned below.

  • Fertilizer for Lawns

A 5-10-5 N-P-K or identical complete fertilizer work fine for lawns. Provide your lawn with 0.5-2 pounds of fertilizer for per 100 square feet. Furthermore, you need to apply it at the very beginning of the spring before major growth takes place.

  • Fertilizer for Garden Rose Plants

A 5-10-5 N-P-K is pretty good enough along with lime supply and humus-forming things. You need to apply at a rate of 0.5-2 pounds per 100 square feet at early spring. You should go for another one of the same amounts after the first crop.

  • Fertilizer for Annual Flowering Garden Plants

A 5-10-5 N-P-K complete fertilizer works well for annual flower plants in the spring. You have to apply this at the time of autumn.

  • Fertilizer for Perennial Flowering Garden Plants

A 5-10-5 N-P-K or similar fertilizer is good enough for perennial flower plants in early spring. You should apply it at a rate of 0.5-2 pounds per 100 square feet.

  • Fertilizer for Root Crop Garden Vegetables

A 5-10-5 N-P-K along with additional magnesium as well as lime for acidic soil holds good for these vegetables. You should apply it at a rate of 2-3 pounds per 100 square feet while preparing the soil in early spring.

  • Fertilizer for Leafy Garden Vegetables

A 5-10-5 N-P-K is essential to every 100 square feet while preparing soil during spring. Apart from that, continuous supply of moisture and other nutrients will help to have a good and continuous growth.

  • Fertilizer for Bulb Garden Plants

A 5-10-5 N-P-K will work good in case of tulips and daffodils as well. You need to apply this at a rate of 0.5-2 pounds per 100 square feet while planting in spring.

  • Fertilizer for Deciduous Shrubs

A 5-10-5 or similar N-P-K fertilizer will work well for deciduous shrubs in your garden. Apply the fertilizer in early spring. For shrubs, per 100 square feet needs 0.5-1 pound of fertilizer.

  • Fertilizers for Evergreen Shrubs

A 5-10-5 or fertilizer with identical chemical compound holds good for evergreen shrubs. 1 pound for every 100 square feet works right.

  • Fertilizer for Deciduous Trees

Deciduous trees need a boost of fertilization with 10-8-6 N-P-K or identical fertilizer in order to ensure slow action. 2 pounds of 5-10-5 will also work for each diameter trunk.

Needless to say, this is for the gardens with moderate and general soil. Although, almost for all type of garden plants, 5-10-5 N-P-K is suitable to work with. But this may vary depending upon the soil type as well. You have to look for something other than 5-10-5 if the soil contains much acid or base.

As a matter of fact, you can go for some other fertilizing formula than above one. In that case, fertilizers like compost and similar materials will help you. Regarding what to use in the garden, these are very useful. These natural fertilizers are not only easy to get but also highly eco-friendly.

  • Homemade Compost

Both composting and mulching work very good for gardens. Especially for that one with vegetables, compost offer a lot of nutrients. The addition of organic material to the soil of the garden will develop the overall condition for better plant growth.

  • Animal Manure

Applying manure is a traditional way to provide 3 major nutrients to the garden soil. Again, fresher farmyard manure delivers plenty of N through Ammonia. Urine of most domestic animals also contributes to level up the amount of potassium.

  • Natural Component

The addition of seaweed works great to unleash nutrients from soil particles. Peanut shells containing carbon contribute to aerating compost piles as well. Also, powdered dust of rock reduces the mineral scarcity of the soil.

  • Plant Manure

Plantation of covering crops to get green natural manure is an age-old practice. You can even store plenty of fallen leaves of trees inside a compost bin. It will provide the soil a highly nutrient mulch.

Final Words

When it comes to what fertilizer to use in spring at the garden, different persons got different usage. Many gardeners prefer fertilizer of solid granular particle, while others prefer to have liquid. On the other hand, some others like to use manure for their garden. Which one you choose is less important than how you use them for the plants. Excess of anything doesn’t pay well at all. And the same thing is applicable for garden plants as well. So, make sure you give the plants these boosters just as much they need.

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