A gardener’s success is often attributed to “green fingers”, but more often than not, the soil that your plants grow in lacks the nutrients required for your greenery to thrive. Fertilisers are a great way to supplement your soil with all the goodness that it needs to sustain your plants.
You don’t always have much control over what types of soil you plant in, but you do have control over how you care for your garden.
Compost vs. Manure vs. Fertiliser
All three are seen as a fertiliser of sorts and are used to condition the land, but the truth is compost and manure often do not provide enough nutrients to your plant’s soil to achieve your desired results. So, here’s some quick definitions to help you understand the difference.
You may already be familiar with compost and maybe even have your own compost heap at home. Compost is essentially decomposed organic material, often made from kitchen and other garden scraps.
Manure on the other hand, is a substance derived from animal excrement. This contains nutrients and is used to condition and fertilise the soil. Just like compost, manure is an organic garden additive.
Unlike compost and manure, your fertiliser can be a chemical (or inorganic) substance that is manufactured in different ratios to address the needs of your soil.
Types of Fertiliser
Just think of fertiliser as a multivitamin, but for your plants. Instead of delivering vitamin A, B, C and D, you’re giving your soil a boost of things like nitrogen, phosphate and potassium.
These 3 ingredients are key elements found in commercial fertilisers, to help boost plant growth and get them to their full potential.
Nitrogen is considered to be the most important plant nutrient, it is also the nutrient that they absorb the most of. It is important for plants to have a good dose of nitrogen during their intermediate growth stages to develop into full, lush and healthy plants.
Studies have linked phosphorus to the plant’s ability to store and use energy, it is a nutrient that a plant relies on throughout its entire lifespan. Plants expend energy to grow and photosynthesise.
Photosynthesis is the process carried out by plants, which uses the sun’s energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into nutrients.
Potassium helps strengthen your plants “immune system”, improving its ability to ward off diseases. Great for keeping your plants tough and hardy during the colder months. It does this by helping your plants and grass establish deep, solid root systems. A strong indicator of a potassium deficiency is discolouration (usually brown or yellow) around the edges of your plant’s leaves.
It is important to understand the timing, benefits and importance of the various methods of fertilising your gardens and lawns. Each nutrient serves a different, but equally important purpose.
We know it is probably overwhelming, if this is your first introduction to fertilising and ensuring your plants get the right nutrients at the right stage, but we’re here to help you learn! Keep an eye out for our future blogs to discover more about everything green.