So you want to know how often to feed nutrients to your plants? Well the answer is it depends. For plants in pots during the growing season you probably need to feed them every one to two weeks. For plants in the garden it might be as little as never if you have spent time building great soil that is rich in essential nutrients.
This article explores the best way to ensure that your plants are receiving enough essential nutrients for healthy growth.
How often should I feed plants in pots?
Think about the plant roots in pots. These roots cannot spread far and wide to find their own nutrients. They are entirely reliant on what is already in the soil in the pot, or anything additional that you provide.
Healthy plants in pots will be snug but not too tight. From early spring through to autumn the plants will be growing rapidly so it is a good idea to ensure that the plant has adequate nutrients. If you have recently repotted the plant, it may be that it will not need feeding straight away as the potting compost will contain some essential plant nutrients.
Getting the right amount of nutrients to plants in pots isn’t easy. It is worth experimenting starting with feeding them perhaps every couple of weeks when they are vigorously growing. Perhaps less frequently for plants in a larger pot. Observe how your plants are growing and adjust and adapt your feeding schedule as you go. Making a feed chart can be very helpful as you experiment.
How often should I add nutrients to my garden?
When it comes to the garden it is a different story to plants in pots. Most soils are not deficient in nutrients. Most plant problems arise from environmental factors such as wind damage, drought or pest damage. Wind has a lot to answer for, getting wind breaks right is vital for encouraging good healthy plant growth.
Rebalancing by building healthy soil
In the first instance rebalancing nutrients in the garden can be done by ensuring that the soil is healthy, whatever the soil type that you have. It should be full of soil life (bacteria and protozoa that can’t be seen and worms, beetles etc that can be seen). A garden soil that is full of life is likely to be balanced nutritionally and provide different nutrients to the plants that grow there. If the soil needs to be rebalanced, the best method to start with is adding compost and/or mulch which will contain nutrients. The nutrients in compost can be made available to garden plants by all of the soil life living within the soil.
If there is still a problem then consider granular fertilizers or slow-release fertilizer. Using these types of fertilizer offers a much more slow release form of nutrition to the soil and plants. This will allow the nutrient deficiencies to be rebalanced slowly with the support of the soil life.
Before using liquid fertilizers bought from a shop I would experiment with more natural approaches. Human urine contains high levels of nitrogen. Nettle or comfrey teas can be easily made and will provide secondary nutrients. Liquid fertilizers can be useful for specific plants or small areas of the garden. Just be careful to only use the amount suggested as fertilizer run off is a huge environmental problem.
Can you give plants too much nutrients?
Yes you can, plants can suffer from nutrient burn. Their roots and leaves can all suffer from too much fertilizer. Yellowing leaves and stunted growth can be a result of giving too much nutrients. In some cases over feeding with fertilizer will cause a lot of vegetative growth without any fruiting or flowering, or with poor root development. Both situations lead to an unhealthy plant.
Should I add nutrients every time I water?
No, I would not add nutrients every time the plant is watered. Plants need a lot more water to drink and live than they do the trace elements and nutrients. For indoor house plants it would be a good idea to set up a feeding schedule. Young plants and those in smaller pots are likely to need more frequent feeding than older more established plants.
How do I know if my plants need nutrients?
One of the challenges is that plants suffering from nutrient deficiency have some very similar signs to plants that have too much nutrients. Yellowing leaves, withering, stunted growth could all be signs that your plant needs nutrients. These are also signs that your plant is receiving too much plant nutrition.
So you must observe the situation, look at what other factors might be affecting the plants. Assess your situation:
Do you have strong plants?
Are they in the vegetative growth stage?
Is this a group of fast-growing plants?
Are there any pests or bugs infecting the plant?
Look at the light levels, is there too much light, or too little?
What about the growing medium, did the compost you planted in start with the right n-p-k ratio?
Once you have established the answers to these questions then you can start to understand whether your plant needs nutrients or not. Always read the instructions carefully. If you are adding nutrients be sure not to add too much. And take time to observe changes to the plant. Go through the questions again and look for signs of change. Always remember to try to only change one factor at a time. This makes it easier to work out if what you are doing is the thing that helps!
How to help plants absorb nutrients?
It’s not just about getting the nutrients into the soil. Having lots of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus in the soil is useless without the soil microorganisms that are required to make those nutrients plant available. This is why organic matter is so important, for example compost. It is teeming with microorganisms which are part of healthy soil. And it is only with this amazing ecosystem at the root level that the essential elements for healthy plant growth can happen. The best time to add organic matter is through the winter as this gives times for the microorganisms to reproduce and grow so that when the plants are growing the soil life can be working at full capacity making essential nutrients available to the plants.
What is the fastest way to increase nitrogen in soil?
Some very quick ways to add nitrogen to the soil include human urine or using a compost tea. A compost tea is so much better than a chemical fertilizer. It is simply compost soaked in water for 24 hours. This makes a great tea that can give a quick boost to your plants.
However it is so much better to build nitrogen levels in soil slowly over time so that there is always enough for your plants to grow healthily. This can be done by adding compost or other organic matter as mulch. I also love to grow comfrey and cut the leaves 2 – 3 times per year and leave the comfrey leaves on the soil surface. Comfrey has a long deep tap root so the leaves are full of essential nutrients that the plants have naturally mined from the lower levels of the root zone. By ‘chopping and dropping’ these nutrients are then brought to the surface and can be made available to other plants growing nearby.
In conclusion there are different rules for different situations when it comes to nutrition for plants. One of the key things is to build soil over time because a healthy soil will have adequate nutrition to grow healthy plants. For indoor plants use the power of observation to assess what the plant needs and keep a close eye on how or whether your interventions are working before adopting new ones. Good luck with your plant growing, and do tell me more about how you have got on with fixing your plant nutrition problems in the chat below.