Types of Organic Fertilizers for your Vegetable Garden

Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Tracey in How to Grow Veg

There are two types of organic fertilizer for your garden:

Natural which includes anything that occurs naturally like seaweed, manure, peat, worm compost.
Processed which includes man-made fertilizers like chicken pellets, bone-meal, blood and fish meal and compost.

What does fertilizer do in your vegetable garden?

Fix certain minerals that already exist in the soil and improve the soil nutrient levels,
Improves the soil structure so that water doesn’t run straight through the soil (i.e. sandy soils) and is retained in soil particles for strong root growth,
Nutrients are released from the fertilizer at a slow rate over a period of time which helps maintain a consistent nutrient content for growing plants.
Helps input certain nutrients that may have been lost from the previous growing season i.e. nitrogen, phosphorous and magnesium.

What has Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium got to do with fertilizer?

These are the three main nutrients (sometimes written as N-P-K on fertilizer boxes/tubs) that make up organic fertilizer in different percentage quantities depending on which type is used. Other minor nutrients include calcium, magnesium and sulphur.

The remaining percentage of the bag, box or fertilizer pellets is made up of ballast which has no mineral value to the plants, it is the bulk materials like coco shells etc that carries all the nutrients, the percentage is usually about 70 – 80%.

Nitrogen – N

Makes protein in plants and is very important in leaf growth. Vegetables like cabbage, lettuce, kale, pumpkin, squash require more nitrogen than others.

Phosphorous – P

Promotes growth and concentrates on the roots of plants. It is particularly useful for root crops like carrots, beetroot, parsnip etc.

Potassium – K

Adds water to plant cells and retains the water for plant growth. This helps in vegetables like Potatoes and fruit plants.

A well balanced organic fertilizer which feeds vegetables, fruit, flowers contains:-
6% Nitrogen 5% Phosphorous and 7% Potassium

In comparison Bone Meal which helps the root growth of shrubs and trees contains:
3.5% Nitrogen (leaf growth) and 20% Phosphorus (root growth) and 0% Potassium (no flowers needed in shrubs and trees).

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