PLANT HUSBANDARY

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

As a grower what bothered me the most was FEEDING of my plants. What to feed, when to feed and how much to feed.
In various forums, I find others are as confused.
Plant Food /Fertiliser
Plants basic intake is through ROOTS, it can also absorb some through leaves.
Foliar feeding is resorted to as a booster or when the roots are not performing well.
All plant foods organic or inorganic are taken up by the plant as inorganic chemicals.
The organic fertilisers take longer time to break up in to absorbable form so are longer lasting on the other hand water soluble fertilisers (commonly used for containers) get leeched down in soil to an in-accessible depth. The granular forms are in-between.
The organic fertilisers are also good soil amenders.

The requirement of plant is divided into MACRO and MICRO nutrients.
The elements required in larger quantity are macro nutrients. These are Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (commonly referred as N P K).
Micro nutrients are essential but required in very small quantity. These are Sulphur, Magnesium, Iron, Copper, Zinc, Boron, Borax, and Molybdenum etc.
Most soils have adequate micronutrients and some inorganic fertilisers also have them as impurity. The organic fertilisers are the end product of plants so they have all, a plant requires.

REQUIREMENT OF PLANTS
Almost all plants have their own choice of food, qualitatively/quantitatively.

The requirement in same plant also varies according to its life cycle, seedlings, growth, blooming and fruiting.
Seedlings
There is a myth that roots require Phosphorus to grow so seedlings must be fed with fertiliser having higher P ratio, NOT TRUE the Seedling require less than 10 PPM of Phosphorus and the best simple NPK ratio is 4-1-4 to be applied at the rate of 50 PPM Nitrogen fortnightly.
After transplanting
An all purpose fertiliser simple ratio NPK 2-1-2 at the rate of 200 N PPM twice a month should be adequate (some plants require up to 800 PPM N).
Blooming / fruiting
Some gardeners increase ratio of N&K at this time, I don’t.
Conclusion
Most bedding plants have shown to develop best when the Nitrogen and Potassium levels are similar.
Nitrate is the best form of Nitrogen for the plants.
PH of soil is important for the uptake of nutrients, most will do well in PH 6-7, only few require more acidic or alkaline soil.
Further discussion on the subject is welcome/expected.

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

There was a reply to this post by Omar, to which I replied yesterday. Where have they gone and who has removed them? and why?

[khabbab]

There was a reply to this post by Omar, to which I replied yesterday. Where have they gone and who has removed them? and why?

http://www.gardeningpakistan.com/viewto ... =674#p4527

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

The post that got lost;
AoA,
Thank you OMAR.
Inorganic fertilisers are being sold as raw material like Urea, Dap, Nitrophos, Potassium sulphate etc, or in compounded form as Grow Mores, NPK 20-20-20, 20-10-20 or any other combination.
NPK 20-20-20, means that the product has 20% Nitrogen,20% Phosphorus and 20% Potassium and NPK 17-17-17 means 17% N, 17% P& 17% K. Both have a simple ratio NPK 1-1-1 but different quantities of N,P&K
PPM, the term is used like % but donates Parts per Million.
17% N means 17 grams of Nitrogen in 100 grams of mixture and 10 PPM N means 10 grams of Nitrogen in 1000,000 grams of mixture or solution.
The requirement of a plant is calculated on the bases of Nitrogen. First you select the ratio of N, P, K (that is the choice of food) and then the strength calculated as PPM on the bases of Nitrogen.
For example, Petunias require NPK 2-1-2 at the rate of 200PPM Nitrogen twice a month and Amaryllis NPK 2-1-2 at the rate of 800 PPM Nitrogen.
The above regime also caters for the total quantity of each element required by the plant
The PPM of elements in soil will increase or decrease depending upon the amount of water in the soil (nothing to bother about).

In addition to the Nutrients the other important elements to be considered are LIGHT and TEMPERATURE.
Here again the requirement of each plant is different.
Unless you can provide a controlled environment go for those plants only which will survive with a little adjustments in your local climatic conditions. Full sun recommended by an expert of UK will burn the plant in Lahore unless provided some shade and plants of Nathiagali will not survive in Lahore.

Please feel free to contact me by E-Mail brigarif@hotmail.com

[Hamad]

Thank you for increasing our knowledge and sharing important piece of information I do appreciate that

[UMARKHANMARDAN]

Aoa Brig sb.i have read in so many articals that 1-2-1 ratio is meant for roses.is it correct.if its correct how can i get 1-2-1 ratio for roses as NPK available on the market is normall 20-20-20 or 17-17-17,i mean the middle no is same as the other two.