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Finding the Right Flower Fertilizer
It seems like it can take forever to choose just the right plants and flowering trees for your garden. There are so many choices, so many colors, and so many types of blooms that you never even saw before at least not at the local garden supply store.
And once youve selected all the best plants, youre faced with almost as many choices for your flower fertilizer. The difference is that youre not choosing pink versus yellow or sun versus shade. You have to choose based on chemistry and biology. Lets help make it more fun.
The Answer is Phosphorus
Your flowers need phosphorus to encourage blossoms rather than vegetation. Your flower fertilizer has a set of three numbers on the bag that show the ratio of the three main ingredients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in that order. Potassium helps develop plants that are strong and healthy and nitrogen is good for lawns.
A flower fertilizer does not have a high percentage of nitrogen because that would burn the plants. If you see a high ratio of nitrogen on the fertilizer bag, you are looking at lawn fertilizer. Besides the danger of burning your plants, many lawn fertilizers contain broad leaf weed killers that will attack your broad leaf flowers, flowering trees and shrubs.
Although some types of flowers and trees are preparing for the next growing season, most plants slow their growth rate during the summer. Phosphorus will help develop flower bud production. A flower fertilizer with a ratio like 5-30-5 will encourage healthy blooms. And just like the lawn fertilizer, a flower fertilizer may also contain other helpful ingredients like chelated iron, manganese and zinc.
Iron, Manganese, and Zinc
These ingredients are also good for your blooms. Iron is a necessary part of photosynthesis which is the process that turns sunlight into nutrients. Manganese helps in the production of chloroplasts which conduct photosynthesis. Too little manganese in your flower fertilizer can result in discolored foliage. Zinc is a required mineral for DNA transcription. Too little zinc leads to stunted leaf growth.
Copper also aids in photosynthesis. Magnesium is an element of chlorophyll which is the green part of the plant and is used in photosynthesis.
Remember when applying your flower fertilizer; do not use tools that may be contaminated with the lawn fertilizer, weed killers or other chemicals that could harm your flowers.
Always check the needs of the plants you are growing and stick to the recommended dosages of flower fertilizer. The rule of a green thumb is a bit too little is better than a touch too much. |