What makes our plants grow? If you want your plants to grow and thrive you will need some chemical ingredients. So let’s take a look at the list.
First of all you will need carbon, hydrogen and of course oxygen. Thankfully these are in full supply through water and air. Next on your list should be a good fertilizer that has these three elements; nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. But this is not all, many people use a secondary mix of ingredients to ensure great growth. Sulfur, calcium and magnesium will make sure that your plant thrives. Once you have all these elements together the only thing left to make sure you get is boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and yes let’s not forget about zinc.
But how important is the right mix, and what do we need them for? As I am sure you have heard how important
nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are for the growth, many people don’t know what they do. These three key elements are also seen as building blocks for your soil, and work closely together with the other elements to make for a successful garden. For example, every amino acid uses nitrogen as a building block, while every molecule that makes every cell of your flower contains phosphorus. However, potassium on the other hand makes for 1 to 2 percent of the plants weight because this element acts as an ion in the plants cells, and this element is crucial for the plants metabolism.
What’s more, if your plant does not contain any nitrogen phosphorus and potassium, it will not have what it needs to grow. It is much like a farmer running out of seeds to sow or a baker running out of flour. Even if there is just a little missing from the mix, the plants will then have a hard time to grow. But what if you not only want them to grow well, but also grow faster?
Considering that this is one of the main goals of fertilizer, the answer would be to make sure it has all the elements it needs, and in good supply. Again, it all comes down to having enough of the three main elements. And although all the others mentioned above are important, they are usually already in the soil to begin with, and if not you can always add more.
Now when considering how much fertilizer and what numbers of each nutrient to use, the best solution is to look at the different mixes in each product. The order in which you will always see the mix is nitrogen, phosphorous, and then potassium. So if you see a bag that states 15-8-5, then you will know that bag contains 15% nitrogen, 8% phosphorous, and so on. Or, if the bag is 100 pounds then you will know that 15 pounds of that fertilizer is nitrogen. And what is left after each nutrient is accounted for is called ballast. This is really just filler, and has not real value to the growth of your plant.
So in short, fertilizer is a mixture of nutrients that your plants need in order to have the correct building blocks to grow. Will you be able to grow your garden without it? Well that would depend on the soil you are growing it in, but most likely yes. However, if you want to grow the best, most nutritious, and fastest growing plants, then you will make sure that you use the correct fertilizer to get the job done right.