PLANT HUSBANDARY
Posted: February 25th, 2012, 12:17 pm
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.
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.