How to Choose NPK Water Soluble Fertilizer?

NPK fertilizer is a fundamental component of modern agriculture, providing plants with essential nutrients to grow, thrive, and produce healthy yields. The term "NPK" refers to three key nutrients: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K). These macronutrients play crucial roles in plant development and are vital for crop health. In this blog, we will explore the importance of NPK fertilizer, its benefits, types, application methods, and how to select the right formula for your plants.

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What is NPK Fertilizer?

NPK fertilizer is a blended or compounded fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Each element in NPK plays a specific role in plant health:

• Nitrogen (N): Nitrogen is responsible for promoting leafy growth and is a key component of chlorophyll, which is essential for photosynthesis. It helps plants convert sunlight into usable energy, resulting in vigorous foliage.
• Phosphorus (P): Phosphorus supports root development, flower and fruit production, and overall plant energy transfer. It also plays a role in seed formation.
• Potassium (K): Potassium helps with water regulation within the plant, strengthens cell walls, and enhances disease resistance. It improves the plant's overall hardiness and ability to withstand environmental stress.

These three nutrients work in harmony to support different stages of plant growth, making NPK fertilizer one of the most popular choices for gardeners and farmers alike.

Importance of NPK in Plant Growth

1. Nitrogen (N) – The Growth Booster

Nitrogen is crucial for the vegetative stage of a plant’s life cycle. It encourages the development of lush, green foliage and stems. Plants deficient in nitrogen may exhibit yellowing leaves, stunted growth, and poor development. It is particularly important for crops like lettuce, spinach, and other leafy vegetables that rely on strong leaf production.

2. Phosphorus (P) – Root and Flower Developer

Phosphorus is essential for strong root development and is particularly important for young plants. It also plays a role in the formation of flowers, seeds, and fruits, making it critical for fruiting crops like tomatoes and peppers. Phosphorus deficiency can lead to poor flowering, weak root systems, and delayed growth.

3. Potassium (K) – The Health Enhancer

Potassium regulates water balance, enhances disease resistance, and improves overall plant vigor. It strengthens plants, making them more resilient to drought, frost, and diseases. Potassium deficiency can lead to wilting, weak stems, and an increased susceptibility to disease.

Benefits of Using NPK Fertilizer

• Balanced Nutrition: NPK fertilizer provides a balanced mix of essential nutrients, ensuring that plants receive all they need for optimal growth.
• Improved Yield: With proper application, NPK fertilizers can significantly increase crop yields by supplying the right nutrients at the right stages of growth.
• Enhanced Soil Health: NPK fertilizers improve soil fertility by replenishing nutrient levels, especially in soils that have been depleted by continuous planting.
• Customizable Formulas: NPK fertilizers come in different ratios, allowing you to choose the best formula for your specific plant needs, whether you need more nitrogen for leafy greens or more phosphorus for root crops.

Types of NPK Fertilizers

NPK fertilizers come in various types, each suited to different plant needs and growing conditions. Here are the most common types:

1. Granular NPK Fertilizer

Granular fertilizers are dry, solid pellets or granules that are spread over the soil. They are slow-release fertilizers, meaning the nutrients are released over time, providing long-term nutrition to the plants. Granular NPK fertilizers are ideal for large-scale farming and long-growing crops.

2. Water-Soluble NPK Fertilizer

Water-soluble fertilizers dissolve in water, making them easy to apply through irrigation systems or as foliar sprays. They provide nutrients quickly, making them suitable for fast-growing plants and situations where plants need immediate nutrition. These fertilizers are popular in hydroponic systems and for greenhouse crops.

3. Liquid NPK Fertilizer

Liquid fertilizers are applied directly to the soil or sprayed onto plant leaves. They are fast-acting and provide immediate nutrient uptake. Liquid NPK fertilizers are often used for precision agriculture, where specific nutrients need to be applied at precise times during the growth cycle.

4. Organic NPK Fertilizer

Organic NPK fertilizers are derived from natural sources such as compost, manure, bone meal, and seaweed extract. They provide a slow, steady release of nutrients and improve soil health over time. Organic NPK fertilizers are ideal for sustainable farming and gardening practices.

NPK Fertilizer Ratios

One of the key features of NPK fertilizers is the ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The numbers on an NPK fertilizer label (e.g., 10-10-10 or 20-20-20) represent the percentage of each nutrient in the fertilizer by weight. Choosing the right ratio depends on the type of plant you're growing and its specific nutrient needs.

• High Nitrogen Ratio (e.g., 30-10-10): Ideal for leafy vegetables, lawns, and plants in the vegetative stage that require more nitrogen for foliage growth.
• High Phosphorus Ratio (e.g., 10-20-10): Best for flowering plants, fruiting vegetables, and root crops that need more phosphorus for strong root systems and better fruit production.
• High Potassium Ratio (e.g., 10-10-30): Suitable for crops that require improved disease resistance, stronger stems, and drought tolerance.

How to Apply NPK Fertilizer

Applying NPK fertilizer correctly is essential to avoid over-fertilizing or under-fertilizing your plants. Here are a few common methods:

1. Broadcasting

Broadcasting involves spreading granular NPK fertilizer evenly over the soil before planting or during the growing season. This method ensures that all plants receive the nutrients, especially in large farming operations.

2. Top-Dressing

Top-dressing involves applying fertilizer around the base of plants after they have started growing. It is a common method for crops that need additional nutrition during the growing season, such as corn or tomatoes.

3. Foliar Feeding

Foliar feeding is a method of applying liquid or water-soluble NPK fertilizers directly to plant leaves. This method is useful for providing immediate nutrition, particularly when plants are showing signs of nutrient deficiency.

4. Drip Irrigation

In drip irrigation systems, water-soluble NPK fertilizers can be added to the water supply and delivered directly to plant roots. This method ensures efficient nutrient delivery and minimizes waste.

Common Mistakes When Using NPK Fertilizer

While NPK fertilizers are beneficial, improper use can lead to negative effects on plants and the environment. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

• Over-Fertilizing: Applying too much NPK fertilizer can cause nutrient burn, where plants become damaged from excessive nutrients. This can lead to poor growth and even plant death.
• Ignoring Soil Tests: Without testing your soil, it's hard to know which nutrients are already present and which ones are lacking. Over-fertilizing certain nutrients can harm soil health in the long run.
• Wrong NPK Ratio: Using the wrong ratio for your specific crop can lead to imbalanced growth, where plants may develop lush foliage but fail to produce flowers or fruits.

How to Choose the Right NPK Fertilizer

Selecting the best NPK fertilizer for your plants depends on several factors:

1. Plant Type: Leafy greens, root crops, and flowering plants have different nutrient requirements, so choose a fertilizer based on your crop's needs.
2. Growth Stage: Plants have varying nutrient needs at different stages. Use higher nitrogen formulas for early growth and higher phosphorus formulas for flowering and fruiting stages.
3. Soil Condition: Test your soil to determine nutrient deficiencies. If your soil is low in a particular nutrient, choose a fertilizer that compensates for that shortage.

Conclusion

NPK fertilizers are essential for ensuring healthy plant growth, increasing crop yields, and maintaining soil fertility. By understanding the role of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, you can make informed decisions on which NPK fertilizer to use and how to apply it effectively. Whether you’re a home gardener or a large-scale farmer, choosing the right NPK formula and applying it correctly will help you achieve optimal results in your plants and crops.

Selecting The Right NPK Ratio

We eat 3 times a day and the food we eat provides all of the nutrients we need to live. The chemicals in food are used by our bodies to grow and maintain our body parts. The protein you eat helps build muscles. Carbohydrates provide energy that is used for all kinds of things such as moving, breathing, thinking and eating more food.

Most of the food we eat is in the form of large molecules such as protein, carbohydrates, DNA, and fats. Our digestive system takes these large molecules and breaks them down into smaller molecules like simple sugars and nitrates. Our bodies then use these small molecules as building blocks to build new large molecules. Our bodies are actually a very efficient recycling plant. We take food in, break it down into basic building blocks, and then use these building blocks to create complex body parts.

Plants differ from humans and other animals in that they do not have a digestive system. Therefore, they are not able to break down large molecules. Plants must start with small molecules like nitrate and phosphate and build the large molecules they need.

Plants Use Fertilizer to Build Large Molecules

Plants take small molecules such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and dozens of other minor nutrients, and use them to build large molecules such as sugars, carbohydrates, oils, protein, and DNA. These large molecules are used for everything that happens in the plant. Carbohydrates are used to build cell walls, which in trees, eventually turn into wood. Enzymes are proteins that make all of the chemical reactions in a plant work. Sugars and carbohydrates are the energy source that allows the plant to grow. The production of flowers and fruit require many different types of large molecules and all of these are made by the plant using the small molecules we call nutrients.

The figure below shows a list of some of the large molecules found in plants along with the nutrients used to make the molecules. All of the molecules contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Nitrogen and phosphorus are also common. Other nutrients are used less often, and in smaller amounts, but they are critical for building the large molecules.

If a single nutrient is missing the plant will not be able to produce all of the large molecules it needs, and plant growth will slow down or even stop. A gardener’s job is to make sure that plants always have access to the nutrients they need. That seems like a daunting task, but it is easier than you think. There are two important concepts to understand:

Plants need much more than just the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium found on fertilizer labels.

They need to eat all of the time—not just once or twice a year when you fertilize.

What is NPK?

It is time to feed your plants and you go to the store to pick up some plant food which is called fertilizer. Most packages of fertilizer show the letters NPK followed by some numbers, for example: NPK 10-5-5. NPK stands for nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium which are three of the most important nutrients required by plants. The numbers following NPK are the percent amounts of each nutrient. An NPK value of 10-5-5 means that the fertilizer contains 10% nitrogen, 5% phosphorus and 5% potassium.

NPK is the common way to describe fertilizer in North America but some countries use an NPKS value where the S stands for the amount of sulphur. Sulphur can be as important as the other three nutrients.

For my techi readers: The above statement “10-5-5 means that the fertilizer contains 10% nitrogen, 5% phosphorus and 5% potassium” is not totally correct.  For a detailed explanation see my Garden Myths blog post called Fertilizer NPK Ratios – What Do They Really Mean?

The letters N, P and K are the symbols used by chemists as a short hand to describe the elements. N is used for nitrogen and P for phosphorus. The letter K is used for potassium and stands for kalium, the original Latin name for potassium. If you have trouble remembering whether P is for phosphorus or potassium, remember that the three nutrients are listed in alphabetical order. Phosphorus comes before potassium alphabetically and so the last letter in the list, K, is short for potassium.

A bag of plant food that contains 10% nitrogen, 5% phosphorus and 5% potassium, also has 80% of some other material, but you can ignore it since it has no effect on your plants. If the fertilizer is in a dry form like lawn fertilizer the 80% may be small stones or other dry inert material. If the fertilizer is in liquid form the extra material is water.

The History of NPK Ratios

To understand fertilizer it is worth while looking at the history of the NPK ratios. How did they develop? Who decided that a formula of 10-5-5 was the right formula? Is it the right formula for every plant?

Quite a few years ago a company providing fertilizer decided to market the concept of a balanced fertilizer and decided, arbitrarily, that a 10-10-10 formula would work well. This was a marketing tactic that was not based on any kind of science. Customers bought into the idea and so you now see a lot of references using the term balanced fertilizer and recommending a 10-10-10 formulation. On the surface it seems to make sense. Plants need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium so why not give it to them in equal amounts.

To be competitive, other companies decided that they would start promoting a fertilizer that was based on the actual nutrients required by plants. Scientists took various plants and analyzed their content. For example, lawn grass is high in nitrogen relative to P and K, and the company developed an 18-10-10 fertilizer for grass. A new marketing approach was born. Make fertilizer specific to the needs of the plant.

Over time, more research showed that plants used a lot of phosphorous to make blooms and roots, and so manufacturers developed bloom boosters and starter fertilizers with formulas like 10-52-10. This idea also seemed to make sense. Give plants the fertilizer they need, at the time they need it. Starter fertilizer is used when transplanting a new plant so that new roots grow quickly. Once established, a plant could be given a fertilizer higher in nitrogen since the plant is now focused on growing new leaves. At bloom time go back to a 10-52-10 to give it another phosphorous boost.

Start Fertilizers and Bloom Boosters are a myth – they don’t work. For more details on this see Bloom Booster – Nonsense #5 on my GardenMyths.com blog.

These advances in fertilizer development resulted in an avalanche of different fertilizer formulations and gardening experts were eager to buy into the idea. They started recommending the right fertilizer for each type of plant and for various times of year. These recommendations are still popular in today’s books and websites, and they are extremely confusing.

Don’t worry – I will make fertilizer simple for you in this and the next couple of posts.

How Does a 10-10-10 Fertilizer Compare to a 5-5-5 Fertilizer?

This is a very common question. Should I use a 10-10-10 fertilizer or a 5-5-5? What is the difference? The answer is simple. It doesn’t matter which you use because they provide the same relative amount of nutrients. It is however important that you use the correct amount of fertilizer.

When dealing with fertilizer there are two things that are important: the actual amount (the weight) and the ratio of nutrients.

The ratio is the relative amount of each nutrient. In the two examples above, there is an equal amount of each nutrient and so the ratio is 1:1:1 for both of them. In comparison, an NPK value of 20-10-10 has twice as much nitrogen as phosphorus or potassium and so the ratio is 2:1:1.

A 10-10-10 fertilizer has 10% of each nutrient and a 5-5-5 has 5% of each nutrient so a bag of 10-10-10 contains twice as much fertilizer as the same sized bag of 5-5-5. The 10-10-10 is more concentrated, but both have the same ratio.

Which one is best for your garden? It doesn’t matter since they have the same ratio. If you need to add equal amounts of N, P and K, either one works just as well. However, you will have to use twice as much of the 5-5-5 to provide the same level of nutrients as the 10-10-10.

The most important thing when buying fertilizer is to buy the correct ratio so that you get the correct relative amounts of nutrients. In general, a fertilizer with higher numbers is cheaper. Many of the liquid fertilizers on the market are very dilute, in the range of 1-1-1, and they are also some of the most expensive fertilizers you can buy. From a price point of view, always buy the one with the higher numbers, provided it has the correct ratio.

What is the Correct NPK Ratio For My Plant?

Fertilizer is now available in many different NPK ratios and knowing which one to use can be very confusing. As you begin to understand fertilizers and plants you will start to realize that the answer is actually very simple. It is however very instructive to look at the question in more detail.

A million web sites and thousands of books give you recommendations for fertilizer. Lawns need one formula, tomatoes need a different one. Tress and perennials are different again. It all gets very confusing and it is all bad advice.

Statements such as the following are always wrong:

Use 5-10-5 fertilizer for tulips.

Use 34-10-10 on grass in spring and a 15-5-5 in fall.

Use 5-7-3 for vegetables.

Let me repeat the last statement—the above advice is always wrong. The advice is wrong for several reasons.

Tulips might in fact need more phosphorus—the middle number—but it is just as likely that this advice is based on old myths and not on actual science. At best these recommendations are based on plant tissue analysis and not on nutrient levels in your soil.

The main reason the above recommendations are wrong is because you don’t add fertilizer to plants – you add it to soil. Read on and this will make sense shortly.

You Don’t Add Fertilizer to Plants

The idea that we feed the plant what they need seems to make perfect sense but it ignores one very important point. Plants get their food from the soil. You don’t add fertilizer to plants—you add it to soil. This is an extremely important concept that is not well understood and is best explained by a simple example. Assume that your soil is naturally very high in phosphorous. The fertilizer you use at transplant time, or for tulips, or to get more blooms does not need a high amount of phosphorous because your soil already has more than your plants can use. The fertilizer you add to the garden should be a supplement to what is lacking in your soil.

If your soil has high phosphorus levels, any fertilizer you add – for any type of plant – should contain no phosphorus because you already have too much.

Plants absorb the nutrients they need from the soil. If grass needs more nitrogen, it takes more nitrogen from the soil than a plant that needs less nitrogen. If a plant is ready to make flowers and it needs more phosphorus, it takes more phosphorus from the soil.

Matching fertilizer to what a plant needs does not make sense. Instead you should match the fertilizer to what the soil needs. If your soil is low in nitrogen and high in phosphorus you should use something like a 20-0-5 fertilizer for all of your plants no matter what type they are.

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For more NPK Water Soluble Fertilizerinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.

The author that recommends a 5-10-5 fertilizer for tulips has no knowledge about your soil. So they can’t make correct fertilizer recommendations for your soil.

Consider this example. For years the common lawn fertilizer recommended for North America has been some thing like 34-10-10, high nitrogen and fairly high P and K. Over the years we learned to understand two facts. First, most urban garden soil in North America has lots of phosphorus – it does not need any more to grow grass. Secondly, the excess phosphorus ends up polluting rivers and lakes. So now many states have banned phosphorus in lawn fertilizer. In Ontario, I noticed 2-3 years ago, that many brands have now eliminated P from lawn fertilizer.

But people still recommend adding extra phosphorus for their bulbs! That is dumb. If our soil has lots of phosphorus for grass, then it also has lots of phosphorus for bulbs. I grow over 200 different kinds of spring bulbs and I have never added phosphorus – they grow and flower just fine.

In my next post I’ll have a closer look at specific plant nutrients.

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What is NPK Fertilizer? And What Does NPK Do for Plants?

What to do when: Monthly gardening checklists

What Is NPK Fertilizer?

The letters "NPK" on a fertilizer label stand for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, the three primary nutrients plants need to grow. The numbers on the label indicate the ratio (by percentage) of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the fertilizer container.

Even if you do not see the letters N-P-K, but you see a set of three numbers, for example, 5-10-5, you can correctly assume it stands for 5% nitrogen, 10% phosphorus, and 5% potassium, always in that order. This fertilizer contains 20% nutrients; the remaining 80% is minor nutrients or fillers. Plants need about 16 nutrients; some they get from the air and water, and others are nutrients like iron, calcium, and chlorine from soil.

How Ratios Work vs. Fertilizer Quantities

A smaller quantity of fertilizer with higher ratios can be the same as a larger quantity with lower numbers. For example, a five-pound bag of 10-20-10 fertilizer has the same nutritional value as 10 pounds of 5-10-5 fertilizer.

What Do the Ingredients in NPK Do?

Here's a brief look at what each nutrient contributes to plant growth.

Nitrogen

Nitrogen, the first number referenced in an NPK sequence, plays a key role in a plant's coloring and chlorophyll production, making it an important factor in leaf development. Fertilizers high in nitrogen are often used for grass or other plants where green foliage growth is more important than flowering. At the opposite end of the spectrum, gardeners sometimes encounter the problem of nitrogen depletion—the yellowing of typically green plants often indicates a nitrogen deficiency.

Phosphorus

The middle number in an NPK series refers to the percentage of phosphorous in the fertilizer product. Phosphorus plays a key role in the growth of roots, blooming, and fruiting, which is why it is an essential nutrient for your plants in spring. Phosphorus contributes to many fundamental plant processes, such as rooting and seed formation.

Potassium

The final number in the major ingredients listing gives the percentage of potassium in the product. Potassium contributes to the overall health and vigor of plants. It is known to help strengthen plants' ability to resist disease, assist in the movement of water and nutrients in the plant, and can be especially important in areas that experience cold or dry weather.

Other Ingredients

In addition to the major nutrients that are usually noted on the front label, most fertilizers also include additional ingredients that are listed on a side or back label. This may include other nutrients like calcium, magnesium, iron, micronutrients, and even the percentage of organic matter and fillers. Although the minerals and micronutrients are less critical than the major nutrients, a good fertilizer product will include small amounts of other ingredients as well. 

Types of NPK Fertilizers

Balanced Fertilizers

A fertilizer listed as "10-10-10" is considered a balanced or "complete" fertilizer because its nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium proportions are equal. Meanwhile, a fertilizer labeled "10-0-10" is an "incomplete fertilizer."

Incomplete Fertilizers

An incomplete fertilizer is not necessarily inferior to a complete fertilizer. Identifying the right fertilizer for your needs depends on a variety of circumstances. If your soil already has an excess of one of the three nutrients in NPK, you could be harming some of your plants by adding more of it to the soil—in this case, an incomplete or unbalanced fertilizer may be the right choice.

For this reason, it is important to test your soil before applying fertilizer. Otherwise, whenever you add anything to your soil, the effect (whether positive or negative) is left to chance.

Organic Fertilizers

Organic fertilizer ingredients are soil nutrients from plant, animal, or mineral sources. Products labeled as "organic fertilizers" must specify which nutrients are organic and must be identified as synthetic or natural by percentage. For example, the label might read, "20 percent of nitrogen (6 percent synthetic, 14 percent organic)."

Organic fertilizer sources might include manure, alfalfa meal, kelp, blood and bone meal, fish emulsion, cottonseed, sewage sludge, soft rock phosphate, and green sand.

What Does "Organic" Mean in Fertilizer

Technically speaking, "organic" material is anything that contains carbon atoms. The modern definition of "organic" means it doesn't contain anything synthetic; however, "organic fertilizers" may have natural or synthetic materials, but the percentages of each must be marked. So, if what you want is "non-synthetic fertilizer," read the label carefully for all ingredients before purchasing since the term "organic" does not cover it.

Worthy of note: Organic fertilizers made wholly from natural ingredients often have lower concentrations of the three major nutrients, so you will often need to use larger amounts. The upside is they usually contain many additional nutrients that feed the plant and the soil. It is strongly recommended that if you are only using commercial synthetic fertilizer, supplement it with some type of organic matter, such as compost or manure, for more holistic soil health.

How to Choose the Right Fertilizer

To properly give your plants the nutrients they need, you need to evaluate what they currently have (or will have if doing a new planting). Not all types of plants have the same nutrient requirements, and you can cause ill-wanted effects when applying amendments haphazardly.

Amendments are supplements like fertilizer that you add to the soil to improve its condition; they can fix a number of factors, including nutrition, water permeability, or pH level. Agricultural lime is a type of amendment you use to reduce acidity in the soil, just like sand or grit is an amendment used to increase the porosity of the soil, aiding in drainage.

If you do not choose the right fertilizer, and if your soil pH is already too high or too low, your plants cannot access some nutrients, even if you give them fertilizer. Knowing what's already in your soil is crucial because you can do more harm than good when applying a fertilizer high in nitrogen to an already nitrogen-rich soil. For example, nitrogen feeds foliage at the expense of flowers, which can affect flower production.

Here are the steps for choosing the right fertilizer:

Get your soil tested. Having a soil test done before you start adding amendments will tell you what you actually need. You can do a home test, send a soil sample for testing, or contact your local cooperative extension office for guidance.

Determine what you are planting. Some plants might need more or less of a certain type of nutrient. For example, leafy greens need more nitrogen, while more phosphorus is required for fruiting and flowering. Before you start any gardening or planting project; have a firm understanding of the plant you're growing and its fertilizer needs

Check for fertilizers specially formulated for the plant you're growing. You can find preformulated fertilizers for lawns, trees, bulbs, cactus, houseplants, flowers, fruits and vegetables, acid-loving plants, and much more. Most will match or come close to the nutrient requirements you need, considering your soil is neutral, so adjust accordingly based on your soil analysis.

Read the fertilizer analysis label before buying fertilizer. If you cannot find a fertilizer with the exact N-P-K ratio you need based on your soil test, come as close as possible. Of the three nutrients, it's more important to get the nitrogen correct and not overdo the phosphorus since it can affect water intake.

Determine the form of fertilizer you need. If you are establishing a new lawn, you might consider using a quick-release fertilizer that is sprayed in liquid form. Or, you might try a granulated fertilizer for a slow-release form of food for the plant and its roots over time. Most plant growth and care guides will list nutrient ratios, liquid vs. dry forms, and quick vs. slow-release recommendations.

If not sure, use compost. If you have not had your soil tested and do not understand how well it meets a plant's nutritional needs but still feel the need to feed it, use compost instead of commercial fertilizer or consider using a slow-release fertilizer. Slow release is less likely to harm plants to any great degree.

How to Use Fertilizer

Since every plant has different fertilizer needs, we know that one plant may require more fertilizer while another might require less or none at all. In most cases, a regular fertilizer schedule will keep your plants vigorous. However, too much fertilizer can kill your plant, often burning the foliage and roots if given too much too quickly or applied directly on the foliage.

How do you know how much to use and how often? Follow the guidelines on the fertilizer label combined with the plant's specific care instructions. Also, check your local extension office for recommendations for fertilizer needs in your region; some regions have more acidic soils than others.

For a simple example, we know in the spring a lawn requires nitrogen-rich fertilizer. One pound of nitrogen might be recommended per 1,000 square feet of lawn. If your lawn is 1,000 square feet and your fertilizer contains 20% nitrogen, you should evenly apply 10 pounds of the fertilizer over the entirety of your lawn. In most cases, lawns benefit from fertilizer once a month from April to November, with a pause during the hottest months of July and August; however, this is variable based on how rich the soil already is. That's why soil analysis is important. You never want to over-fertilize, if you can avoid it.

Variables that affect how much and how often you should fertilize:

The type of plant

Slow-release vs. quick-release fertilizer

Mowing practices (lawns)

Watering

Weather and temperatures

Soil texture

Soil pH

Warning

Avoid over-fertilizing your plants, especially lawns. Nutrients that aren't taken up by plants may run off into sewer systems and rivers, leading to serious pollution problems.

How to Apply Fertilizer

It is generally recommended that the best time to apply fertilizer is when the sun is not beating down on the plants. However, applying it before or after rainfall or plant watering depends on the form of fertilizer you use. Different forms of fertilizer are granules, liquid, powder, or spikes.

Granular fertilizer: This dry fertilizer comes in the shape of pellets, typically used for lawns. Most granular fertilizers are slow-release fertilizers, giving off nutrients to grass over a prolonged period. This type of fertilizer uses special fertilizer spreaders as tools—broadcast, drop, or hand-held spreaders. It's best to apply this fertilizer before the rain comes. This slow-release fertilizer uses rainwater as its method of dispersal. On wet grass, the granules might stick to foliage, increasing the risk of burning it.

Liquid, powder, or crystal fertilizer: This form is often sold as a liquid concentrate, dry powder, or crystals that require further dilution with water. Most liquid fertilizers are quick-release solutions, which means nutrients pass to the plant more immediately. Sprayers and hose attachments make spreading this fertilizer an easy task. It's best to spray this fertilizer on already-wet grass to limit "burn" from the chemicals.

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