About The Long Island Gardener Expertise Do you know the wrong fertilizer will keep your plants from blooming?
Do you know that too much Nitrogen can kill your grass, even if it does not burn the roots? Do you know that Roses need a LOT of Nitrogen to bloom -- and why is that?
There's some complex chemistry in those plant foods. The secrets behind N-P-K are the key to the ultimate lawn, the the biggest flowers, the most fruits and vegetables. And if you don't get it right, you could be sorry.
I'll show you what you did wrong, and how to fix it.
Experience Homeowner with gardens indoors and outdoors, lawns back and forth. I wrote my first gardening column for our college newspaper, teaching roomates about the right way to feed those windowsills gardens. Today I look for challenges. Organic Fertilizers are the key to proper feeding of all our plants. Can you make your own fertilizer? Some people think so -- but there are side effects. I have been there, done that for 54 years and there is nothing like the voice of experience when it comes to Horticulture and Fertilizers.
Publications Numerous and sundry but only in college did I write about plants.
Education/Credentials B.A., Botany and Mass Communications.
Question im doing a science project and i need to know the 3 most important fertilizers i should use. can you help me?
Answer There are actually 20 minerals needed for plant growth. Six 'macronutrients' are needed in the biggest amounts: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) head the list and are probably the ones you are asking for. Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg) and Sulfur (S) are needed in smaller amounts. The rest are needed in tiny, trace amounts and are called 'micronutrients'. A shortage of ANY of these will make a plant sick -- or kill it.
Technically, however, you are asking about the 3 most important fertilizers. An organic gardener would answer this question a little differently. Although plants need the same 20 minerals, you would not 'fertilize' them with N, P, K etc. Instead, you would put something good in the Soil that would deliver N, P and K etc to the plant while it decomposes. That 'good' material can be Compost, Manure, Fish Emulsion, Bloodmeal, Bonemeal, Earthworm Castings, or a long list of other things that are not fertilizer but still contain the critical N-P-K that plants need to thrive.
