What is the best fertilizer for your plants?

What are Fertilizers?

Fertilizers are nutrients given on plants to increase their productivity and to boost overall health. 

Why do we have to apply fertilizers?

Plants consume nutrients in the soil and eventually would have it depleted over time. Lack of nutrients would give your plants problems such as stunted growth, sucesptibility to pest, and possibly death. To help prevent these problems, applying fertilizers is highly recommended.

What kinds of fertilizers can you use?

Nitrogen based

These are fertilizers containing large amounts of Nitrogen. Example is UREA (46parts nitrogen) and for those using calcium nitrate, it also contains 17parts Nitrogen. Nitrogen is considered one of the most crucial component for encouraging faster plant growth.

Potassium based

Potassium strengthens the body of the plants and promotes healthy root system. Potassium chloride (0-0-60) and Potassium sulfate (0-0-50 +18S) are commonly used in the market.

Phosphorus based

Phosphorus helps in the fast development/growth of new cells in your plants. It also aids in the process of flower and seed formation.

Diammonium Phosphate (DAP), Monoammonium Phosphate (MAP), NPKs, and SSP are the most commonly used phosphatic fertilizers in gardens and farms.

Balanced fertilizer 

These are fertilizers which contains the 3 major nutrients needed by plants: Nitrogen (symbol N), Potassium (symbol P), and phosphorus (symbol K). They provide equal amounts of these nutrients and are seen in labels such as 14-14-14 (commonly used) and 10-10-10. This means that they would contain 14% N, 14% P, and 14% K respectively. Commonly known are the "slow release" balanced fertilizers like Osmocote and nutricote.

When should you use fertilizers for your plants?

Before buying fertilizers, you have to know first what your plants really need.

If you want your plants to become lush and improve their color, use nitrogenbased fertilizers.

However, during flowering season, it's best to use phosphorus-based or foliar fertilizers because they help the plant form flowers and fruits. Using nitrogen-based fertilizers wouldn't give the needed nutrition for your plants and instead would trigger the plant to grow.

Balaced fertlizers are commonly used by growers all year round as nutrient maintenance. They are considered safer than the usual fertilizers that are dissolved in solutions.