EasyBloom Forum

I am wondering how to pick fertilizers. Are there different kinds? How do I know which plants need which and how much/often? Is fertilizer different from plant food that you can buy at a local store?

Hey Kadra...These are excellent questions, and I think many gardeners have similar ones. I actually wrote a plant care article on this very topic. If you copy and paste the following link into your web browser's URL, you will find the article that I wrote. http://easybloom.com/plantlibrary/care/why-do-i-need-to-fertilize-my-plants

Now, to quickly answer your questions in case you don't want to read the entire article...Yes, there are different kinds of fertilizers. Plants have different needs when it comes to plant nutrition. Some need lots of nitrogen, while others will seemingly need no nitrogen at all. Also, some plants do best in acidic soils and there are fertilizers available that will help adjust the acidity of the soil so that your acid-loving plant will do better.

Fertilizer companies will usually have the basics covered when it comes to plant fertilizers. For example: all-purpose fertilizer, acid-loving fertilizer, slow-release fertilizer, organic fertilizer, etc. The preceding fertilizers generally have all of the major players in the plant nutrients world. These include nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and several more. There are also specific nutrients that you can provide to your plants: chelated iron, potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, etc. (Chelated iron is a form of iron that is bound to an organic compound which makes it more soluble in water and therefore more accessible to the plant.)

Now, when it comes to knowing how often and how much to fertilize, I would very strongly recommend following the instructions on the packaging of the fertilizer. You can definitely fertilize too much. Many gardeners will suffer from the thought: "if a little fertilizer works well, a LOT of fertilizer will work great!" Unfortunately, this is not how it works. A gardener can kill their plants by providing too much fertilizer. The fertilizer companies know this and have been careful to recommend the right fertilization rates.

If you have a specific plant in mind, I would recommend checking out the EasyBloom database. If there is any unique or slightly different fertilizing techniques required for a plant, the database will have information available for you.

For your final question (plant food vs. plant fertilizer), those terms are synonymous, but I must state something to maintain my scientific integrity. The fertilizer companies will use the term plant "food" because it is a vernacular term, and the average gardener may associate with food better than fertilizer (especially if fertilizer conjures up the thoughts of manure, which is smelly and gross in some people's eyes). Technically, plants make their own food when they photosynthesize. The plant "food" you buy at the store is more like plant "vitamins". These nutrients help the plants to grow up big and strong. The same thing goes for people. If we don't get a good amount of vitamins all the time we would not be as healthy as if we were getting our vitamins all the time. If you provide your plants with their "vitamins", they will be healthier in the long run than if you did not provide them with any.

I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any further questions. Happy Gardening! --Dr. Robby