All About Fertilizing and Watering

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium

Fertilizers are made from these 3 nutrients. The bag will tell you the percentage of each nutrient that is in the using the first letter of the word and in this order.

N P K are the chemical names and they are used on the bag.

N P K is a balanced fertilizer Fish Oil Emulsion is an organic fertilizer

10 10 10 5 1 1

Sometimes your soil has plenty of one of these nutrients so there will be a zero for that nutrient.

This is a fertilizer used for corn (a heavy feeder; needs a lot of nitrogen)

33 0 0 As you can see there is a lot of nitrogen with no other nutrients in the bag.

Feeding the plants

1.Mix the fertilizer into the soil when planting.

2.Later add additional fertilizer by mixing liquid or granular fertilizer in water

and apply to the base of the plant.

3.Or side dress by adding granular fertilizer beside the plant without touching the leave and water it in.

Follow the directions on the fertilizer bag.

Wear gloves and safety glasses when you handle fertilizer.

Wash your hands when you finish working with fertilizer.

There are two kinds of fertilizer: Chemical and Organic

Chemical is man made. Organic is a from nature: examples are Manure, Mushroom compost, and Fish oil emulsion.

You can choose whether you will choose Chemical or Organic. Both are good for plants. We can make our own fertilizer by composting plant debris from the garden and plant based kitchen scraps.

Watering

Plants need about 1 inch of water weekly. A rain gauge is a handy way to be sure that your plants are getting enough water weekly.

Watering with a soaker hose is the best way because the water gets to the roots.

Watering can also be done with a sprinkler.

You can water by hand with a hose or watering can.

Keep your plants growing by watering and fertilizing properly.