Plants sometimes have very different requirements. We have summarized the most important information about special plant fertilizers.
Wouldn't you like to give all your darlings the perfect care in order to be rewarded with he althy growth, rich flowering and delicious fruits? Unfortunately, for many motivated gardeners, going to the hardware store or garden center often ends in being completely overwhelmed by the overflowing fertilizer shelves. Meters of shelves full of green packaging with colorful prints are not the only thing that confuses you. For a better overview when buying fertilizer we have summarized the information about the most important fertilizers for you.
Fertilization is a complex issue, because the right nutrient supply is determined by a number of factors. In this article, we will explain to you why plants actually need fertilizer and then provide the properties of special fertilizers for vegetables, tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), flowers, hydrangeas (Hydrangea ), roses (Rosa), lawns and autumn lawns as well as universal fertilizers.
Why do plants need fertilizer?
Fertilizers contain nutrients that plants, like humans, need to survive. While they produce energy themselves in the course of photosynthesis, fixing carbon from the air and building cell components from it, they absorb 14 different essential nutrients from the soil solution via their roots. Some of these are also required to build structures, some are part of enzymes, DNA or RNA - or they are simply dissolved in the cell sap or the vacuole and fulfill their function there, for example through their electrical charge. None of the 14 essential nutrients must be missing if a plant is to live and reproduce. But you may be wondering why plants can grow in natural locations without fertilization? In nature, nutrients move in cycles; Living things die and rot, the nutrients bound in them are released and can be used by other living things. In addition, nitrogen is constantly being pumped out of the airsoil and nutrients are also very slowly released from the rock of the subsoil. By removing many parts of plants from gardens every year through pruning, harvesting or mowing, we are also removing nutrients from the system which we in turn need to replace. And since many plants also get bigger every year and bind nutrients firmly in their structures, fertilization is also necessary independently of this replacement. Our garden fertilization allows for concentration of nutrients in one place and thus faster development of soil fertility.
Special plant fertilizers at a glance
When purchasing plant fertilizers, you can choose between different types. Mineral fertilizers or organic, organo-mineral as well as organic fertilizers are available. You can also choose between application in solid or liquid form and benefit from a possible long-term effect.
Vegetable fertilizer
Vegetable fertilizers contain the three main nutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in roughly balanced ratios. Because there are weak, medium and heavy consumers among the vegetable plants, the dosage is individually adapted to the culture. Aubergine (Solanum melongena), broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) and cauliflower ( Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.) are examples of highly consuming vegetables. Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), carrots (Daucus carota) and cucumbers (Cucumis) are medium eaters, while peas (Pisum ), radishes (Raphanus sativus var. sativus) and lamb's lettuce (Valerianella) to the Count weak eaters.
In addition, many crops have an increased need for potassium, such as peppers (Capsicum), tomatoes, pumpkins (Cucurbita), cucumbers and potatoes ( Solanum tuberosum). With an additional potassium fertilization, they show better growth and fruiting behavior. When it comes to fertilizing their food, many gardeners are rightly sensitive. Of course, high-quality mineral fertilizers are not necessarily contaminated with harmful substances, but it is also worth using organic fertilizers such as our Plantura organic universal fertilizer to keep your garden fertile in the long term. This special article tells you about various vegetable fertilizers and plant manure that you can use to strengthen crops.
Tomato Fertilizer
Because tomatoes - likementioned above - have an increased need for potassium compared to other vegetable plants, special, potassium-rich tomato fertilizers are offered for them. Of course, you can also use this type of fertilizer for other plants with similar needs: lettuce, potatoes, zucchini (Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo convar.giromontiina), Strawberry (Fragaria), Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) and Pumpkin love and need high doses of potassium as well. Because potassium is involved in the construction of stable cell walls and regulates the water balance, it ensures stable, maximum drought-tolerant and pest-resistant plants. This is because solid, dense cell walls are also more difficult for the proboscis of sucking insects to penetrate. Here you will find all the information about special tomato fertilizers. If, like us, you are striving for a biologically sustainable supply for your garden, you can find out more about the Plantura organic tomato fertilizer we have developed here.
Flower Fertilizer
Summer flowers are plentiful flowering annual or perennial plants that are usually only planted or sown for one season. Because they are often colorful, intensively and elaborately flowering exotic species, varieties are bred primarily for beauty and purchased plants come from intensive greenhouse production, these summer flowers make high demands on the supply at their end point - your garden. And since many typical summer flowers do well with a similar composition of nutrients, it is advisable to use a special flower fertilizer.
Especially if the plant bed is redesigned every year, soil care must not be neglected, because regularly rummaging through the soil stimulates soil life, which can lead to the loss of humus. To prevent this from happening, we have developed our Plantura organic flower fertilizer, which promotes humus reproduction by adding organic material.
Tip on correct humus management: Humus management refers to the treatment of soils designed to preserve or increase humus. Here you can read about what influences the humus content of your garden soil and what you need to do to be able to use the outstanding properties of hummus.
Hydrangea Fertilizer
Theattractively flowering hydrangeas are very popular in our gardens in many forms. What all hydrangea species have in common is their great hunger for nutrients and their preference for acidic locations. In fact, the variable - sometimes blue, sometimes pink - coloring of the widespread peasant hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) is also due to the pH value of the adjacent soil. You can read about exactly how you can dye hydrangeas blue in our special article. Within the overall high nutrient requirements, hydrangeas absorb potassium more than phosphorus. When fertilizing hydrangeas, you should therefore make sure that you get a sufficient supply of potassium, otherwise frost damage and failure to bloom are inevitable. In addition, all hydrangea species have a high water requirement. In the best case, this is satisfied by a correspondingly water-storing subsoil. Because humus is an excellent water reservoir, the hydrangea is predestined to be supplied with an organic, humus-promoting fertilizer that is specially tailored to its needs. We have developed our Plantura organic hydrangea fertilizer according to our ethical and ecological ideas. You can find out more about its properties here. A special fertilizer suitable for hydrangeas - as long as it does not actively lower the pH value of the soil - is also suitable for many other flowering shrubs such as Clematis (Clematis), Deutzia (Deutzia ) and Philadelphus (Philadelphus) or Weigelia (Weigela).
Tip: The iron deficiency that is widespread in hydrangeas is often due to a too high pH value in the soil. If the plant site is not sufficiently acidic, iron will be less available in the form available to the plants - and hydrangeas are less efficient at actively changing this.
Rose Fertilizer
A good rose fertilizer will provide a slow release of nitrogen, meet the garden queen's fairly high phosphorus and potassium needs, and maintain or enhance soil quality, allowing the deep-rooted rose to penetrate easily and seek its water deeper. Such care makes it possible to form the often pompous flowers and rose hips and to withstand cold winter frosts and stinging and sucking pests as well as possible. In order to achieve this, the fertilization of roses should be primarily organic, because organic fertilizers set the nutrients they containslowly released and there are no "masty", flowering lazy and disease-prone shoots, as can be the case with fast-acting nitrogen fertilization. In addition, there is the soil-fertilising effect of the primarily organic fertilizers: the introduction of nutrient-poor material promotes soil life, humus is preserved or newly formed and the structure of the soil is loosened in this way. And because humus is an excellent store of water and nutrients, your rose cannot get too much of it. Our Plantura organic rose fertilizer was developed with the above aspects in mind so that you can have as much fun and less trouble with your roses.
Tip: Exotic varieties in particular often have problems with late frosts in spring when they - according to the biological clock of their origin - sprout too early or reduce their frost protection too early . Adequate potassium supply is particularly important for them.
Universal fertilizer
The universal fertilizers are not special, but universally applicable. They are characterized by a balanced ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds and often also bring a range of different trace elements with them. Unfortunately, because these are not all chemically compatible with each other, at least the mineral variants never contain all trace nutrient elements. The situation is different with organic universal fertilizers, of course. Organic fertilizers always contain the trace elements necessary for plants in small but sufficient amounts. Universal fertilizers should not be spread too lightly, because some plants have such special needs that the balanced nutrient ratio is not necessarily good for them. But the same applies here: With organic fertilization you are more on the safe side, because this releases the nutrients contained only slowly. Acute fertilization damage is thus effectively avoided and the simultaneous promotion of soil quality fortunately does not damage a single plant known to us. Our Plantura organic universal fertilizer is a good choice if you want to provide high-quality fertilizer for vegetable plants, berry bushes or herbs.
Lawn Fertilizer
Lags in the garden are still very popular. As a permanent monoculture, it is said to have an wasting effect on the soil beneath it. Unfortunately, this is also correct in many cases, because the lawn is considered a heavy feeder and suffers from mowing that is often too intensive in summer and from freezing ground frosts in winter. Improperly fertilizing the lawn will exacerbate this problem. A good lawn fertilizer works for a long time and cares for the soil under the lawn so that soil organisms ensure good aeration and loosening as well as pull dead material from the turf into the subsoil and convert it to humus or nutrients. If this is not the case, the lawn will become matted, which you will have to fight with time-consuming scarifying. The nutrient composition of a lawn fertilizer should be nitrogen-rich in order to promote a dense lawn through constant growth and new tillers from below. But the supply of potassium should not be neglected either, because this is significantly involved in the water balance of plants - an adequate supply of potassium saves your lawn over long periods of dry summer. The requirements for soil care, which ensures a well-aerated subsoil and sufficient humus, can only be met by primarily organic fertilizers, which is why we strictly advise against fertilizing the lawn with purely mineral substances. Our Plantura organic lawn fertilizer is a primarily organic lawn fertilizer that we have developed based on the points mentioned above. It is suitable for lawn care after winter into summer.
Autumn Lawn Fertilizer
To prepare a lawn for winter, a fall lawn fertilizer needs to lower nitrogen supply and increase potassium supply. A lawn with too much nitrogen in the fall is susceptible to frost, and even more so if it lacks potassium, which could be stored in the vacuole as an osmotically effective “antifreeze”. The consequences are then frostbite of the stalks or entire plants. In the spring, a lawn that has been damaged in this way has gaps and these gaps are unfortunately usually closed by more competitive wild herbs or moss. A special, low-nitrogen and high-potassium autumn lawn fertilization will get your lawn through the winter with less damage, so that it can sprout densely again in the coming spring. Our Plantura organic autumn lawn fertilizer brings all the benefits of ourPlantura organic lawn fertilizer with you, but due to its adjusted composition it will winterize the lawn.
