Each year I get a little better at this vegetable gardening thing. But fertilizer continues to allude me. I have a double- barrel compost bin that when one side is ready I’ll spread a bit around everywhere. I have gypsum, blood meal, and bone meal, and I’ll add it periodically, but I’m not sure I’m doing it right?
What do you do to fertilize your garden? Do you have a schedule? Things you look for? Books to recommend?
Picture of my cute pumpkin for attention. Isn’t it cute!
by On_my_last_spoon
13 Comments
This is my first year and I bought poor quality “raised bed” soil. I did two things to amp up the nutritional value. First was fertilizer tea to water early in the season, second was doing some foliar fertilizing using a few liquid fertilizers. They both helped a lot.
I also bought a testing kit to see what my NPK values were in the soil.
Looks like a watermelon! And I need to get better with overall fertilizers and a schedule. I know higher N for leafy growth and higher P/K for fruiting, but that’s it
Can you post a pic of that entire trellis?
Only using compost. I only use fertilizer in things that are in pots.
NPK – more nitrogen rich fertilizers when they are young, switch to bloom nutrients (lower N, higher P and K) when they start to flower.
Can use liquids or top dressing. Follow the label and start with low dose if they have it on the instructions. Leaf color guides on the internet can help you to show if you’re in the ballpark for correct nutrients!
The most important thing is looking at the back of the package and learning and understanding the NPK mix.
N-P-K
N for Shoots;
P for Roots;
K for Fruits;
Another way to know where in the N-P-K is used is this little diddy:
N, up;
P, down;
K, all around.
It’s a really good idea to send your soil off to a testing lab. You might find out you don’t need a whole lot. Or you are adding something you already have plenty of.
I started testing about 4 years ago, and found out I have massive nitrogen (22mg/kg NO3 and 112mg/kg NH4!) and plenty of phosphorous and potassium. My garden is in, what used to be an old orchard, and then it sat fallow for 40 years and the neighborhood used to dump leaves in it.
That being said, I was (and still am) wildly calcium deficient, and my pH was fairly high (7.9) so I ended up adding a bunch of gypsum and sulfur to correct the pH. I also was deficient in magnesium, so I added some Epsom salts.
I’m due for another test this year, but judging by my beans and peppers, I still need to incorporate more calcium.
TLDR: Test your soil. Adjust what you need to.
I like to use Alaska morebloom and the fish emulsion. One a week or once every two weeks. Depends on how the plants are looking and how hot it is.
Just compost and worm castings while in-season. I amend with some bone and blood meal in the spring
I see your beans have spider mites, too.
Top dress with compost and an organic pellet fertilizer mixed in, then regular feedings of an organic liquid fertilizer twice a month. I use agrothrive for liquid and the pellets are made by Medina
Got to be honest, I have never fertilized routinely, though I do mulch which breaks down into organic matter. I have mostly good results. This year I had my first homemade compost and put it on my pepper bed because my bell peppers are one of my worst veggies each year. I also did one application of fish emulsion on the peppers soon after planting. And whether it’s the compost, fish emulsioN or the drip irrigation I put in, they are much happier this year.
I really do have good results with almost everything though without fertilizing. Planning forward, I bought a leaf shredder and have been building a high volume compost this year. I wouldn’t mind doing a granular application if a general balanced fertilizer but I have woods and a ton of organic matter I need to make use of in terms of composting.
I assemble the fertilizer recipe in the book, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, 35th Anniversary Edition: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening. It has about ten ingredients. It is formulated for NW soils so it may not be perfect for others. It’s not just NPK, there are minerals.