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How To Feed Your Garden Planters for Maximum Flowering and Yield
Advice on feeding your garden planters with tips on types of fertilizers available, how much to use, how often to feed your container plants.
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Perhaps the least exciting part of container gardening is feeding your garden planters, but it doesn't have to become tiresome or a chore. Whether you are planting a few ceramic garden planters or planning a network of vegetable and herb containers, choosing the right plant food is a simple matter of understanding your specific plants and following through.
Containers are an artificial environment for plants, which means that you, the gardener, have to be especially generous with food and water for best results. Your container flowers and vegetables are totally dependent on you to get them what they need. Without regular feeding, the plants will rapidly deplete the finite amount of soil you have provided for them and nothing much will happen after that. Regular water and feeding insure that your plants have all the nutrients they need to perform their very best.
Fertilizers come in liquid, powder, granular, and solid forms. All have distinct advantages and all can work well for container plants. Many plant food manufacturers now make fertilizers especially formulated for container plants, and you can even find fertilizers that specifically target vegetables, flowers, or roses. Look for a mix that targets your specific plants and follow the instructions on the package for frequency and strength.
You will find that fertilizers made especially for container plants are a bit stronger than fertilizers you might choose for a standard garden bed. The reasons for that are twofold: 1) container plants need more food because of their limited growing conditions, and 2) you usually are not going to keep your container plant for more than one season anyway.
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If you plan to include perennials or roses in your container (or any plant you plan to keep for more than one growing season), choose organic potting mix over the sterile mix and use an organic fertilizer to beef up the soil and help you plant thrive through multiple growing seasons. Bone meal is great for perennials and is completely organic. Blood meal is high in nitrogen and very acidic, which is good for roses.
Fertilizers all carry three numbers on the front that indicate the proportion of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the formula. This number is called the NPK number. Nitrogen is the nutrient that makes leaves and foliage green and helps the plant with photosynthesis. Phosphorus is needed for a healthy root system. Potassium (also known as potash) is necessary for general plant health and for disease resistance.
In general, it is best to look for fertilizers with a potassium number that is roughly double the nitrogen number, for example 5-8-5, or 10-12-10.
For container plants, however, you will often find that the nitrogen number is the highest. 8-5-5 is a common all-purpose formulation for single season annuals. Don't worry about a higher nitrogen formulation unless you begin to notice you aren't getting flowers, just lots of lush foliage. If your plant shows signs of being overfed with nitrogen, just switch over to a high phosphorus fertilizer instead.
Miracle Grow is famous for their container garden formulations. Many of these fertilizers are made to be mixed with water before being fed to your plants. Time release granules that you sprinkle on top of the soil slowly dissolve over the course of a season. Miracle grow also markets soil especially designed for container gardens that holds water longer without becoming waterlogged and that contains enough fertilizer for three months already in the mix.
If your plants begin to look sickly or spindly, or if they begin to drop leaves, before you assume they need fertilizer check the water conditions. Is the soil waterlogged? Tug gently on a single plant and if it comes up easily with few or no roots and the soil is very wet, cut back on your watering and see if your plants come back. If on the other hand the soil is bone dry and your plants are looking droopy and crispy, you need to water more often.
If you have ruled out water problems as the source of your container plant's distress, then you might need to adjust your feeding schedule or change your fertilizer. Yellow leaves and slow growth point to a need for more nitrogen. Dull leaves, purplish stems, or bolting spindly plants with dark green leaves and no blooms indicate a need for more phosphorus.
Diagnosing fertilizer problems is rarely necessary for container plants as long as you start with a formula designed for them and follow the directions on the package. Choose a fertilizing routine you know you can stick to, and then relax. Your plants will thrive, and you will feel like the gardening expert you truly are.
About the Author:
Scott Gray is a garden enthusiast who loves to relax taking care of his garden. For more information about container gardening ideas, how to make a tire planter and general gardening information, be sure to visit his site allgardenplanters.com.
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