(Like many gardeners, I have positive associations with organic-fertilizer smell, but indoors, it can be quite strong - like, don’t have a dinner party the day after dosing all your houseplants with an organic product. They are less likely to burn plants if you use too much, but tend to be less potent, pricier, and smellier than synthetics. Organic fertilizers derive nutrients from a “natural source of decay that releases nutrients,” says Satch. You want a fertilizer with a good range of micronutrients, which are listed on the container under the heading “Guaranteed analysis.” Even if it isn’t precisely what your plant needs at that moment, Satch says, the plant is “not gonna complain that much” if the soil contains “an excess of one nutrient over another.”įertilizers also supply nutrients that plants need in smaller quantities that get depleted from soil - for example, calcium, which two of the experts we spoke to mentioned as an important component in strengthening cell walls. If you’re not sure, default to a fertilizer with an NPK ratio around 10-10-10. Will Axelrod, a project manager at Brooklyn Grange, says, “Nitrogen helps with leaf growth and stem growth phosphorus helps with root growth and flowering and potassium helps the plant fight disease.” Flowering plants need more phosphorus “stretchy” or “leggy” growth can be a sign of too much nitrogen. “If you’re trying to fix a specific issue with your plants related to the lack of one of these elements, you’ll want a formula that’s rich in that particular one,” says Erinn Witz, a blogger at Seeds and Spades. You can also choose a blend more closely tailored to your plants’ needs. For general use, fertilizers with balanced NPK levels between 5 and 15 are “a pretty safe bet,” says Oakes. The three main nutrients in fertilizer are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). If you realize you’ve used too much fertilizer, it’s still possible to save your plant: “In the event that you haven’t overfertilized that badly, you can either repot it or give it a soil flush, which is running water through the soil for about a half hour until all the excess fertilizer salts leach out,” says Satch.įertilize conservatively when you’re starting out other than that, most houseplants are happy with an all-purpose fertilizer, although if you want to optimize your orchid blooms or cactus growth, you can buy a specialized blend. Using too much fertilizer burns the plant’s roots, usually killing it the best way to avoid this fate is to closely follow the directions for proper dilution on the package, erring on the side of using too little rather than too much. Experts say that there’s only one way to go seriously wrong: overfertilizing. Fortunately, it’s simpler than it seems, and fertilizing plants instead of repotting them has given me more control and saved me money on soil. I’d mostly cheered up my sad plants by repotting them. Whenever it depletes the soil, you have to replace the nutrients in the soil by either repotting or fertilizing.”īefore working on this article, I was intimidated by fertilizer, which seemed like an impenetrable maze of chemical symbols, ratios, acronyms, and hyperspecific nutrient blends. “In nature, a plant will exhaust all the nutrients in the area, so it keeps growing the roots farther and farther away,” says Christopher Satch, plant doctor at Horti and professor at the New York Botanical Garden. For houseplants, those resources aren’t readily available once they’ve used up the nutrients in the soil. “Plants get their food from photosynthesis, but they need some other micronutrients and macronutrients that are critical in creating enzymes, regulating water, and plant defense,” says Summer Rayne Oakes, author of How to Make a Plant Love You and host of the YouTube series Plant One on Me. You’ve potted, watered, de-pested, and pruned your houseplant - but after several months, you notice it looks less vibrant.
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