The Fundamentals of Fertilizing

Sufficient sunlight and water are often seen as the essentials to plant survival, but one aspect that is sometimes overlooked when it comes to plant care is fertilization. As your plants are cared for and watered, they will use up the available nutrients in their soil, and they will then rely on you to replenish those nutrients for continued growth and health. Read on to learn some of the fundamentals of fertilizing!

Most liquid fertilizers are a concentrate, and you only need a small amount to give your plants a boost.

Types of Fertilizers

The three main types of fertilizers you will likely encounter are liquids, powders, and granules. All of these provide essential nutrients to your plants, but work slightly differently, meaning it’s best to try different kinds and find out which type works best for you and your plants.

Liquid fertilizers are typically sold as a concentrate, meaning you would need to mix a small amount of the fertilizer with a larger quantity of water to use on your plants. This form of fertilizer is watered directly into the soil and is immediately absorbed by your plant—you will want to apply these more regularly, depending on the species of plants you care for, during the spring and summer months.

Granule fertilizers work by being sprinkled on top of the soil of your plant—as you water your plant over a period of time, the nutrients inside the pellets will slowly leach into the soil and be taken up by your plant. With these, you won’t need to fertilize as regularly, as nutrients are consistently released over a duration of time.

Powder fertilizers work similarly to granules, where you sprinkle the recommended amount evenly over the top of your plant’s soil and water it in. These are much more water soluble than granules, meaning you will want to fertilize more frequently with these as well.

All types of fertilizers will have a specific nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium (NPK) ratio listed on the label. Specific plants will have their own, unique requirements of these nutrients, but generally, nitrogen will help develop healthy leaves, phosphorous develops healthy roots, and potassium promotes all-around health. 

When you’re on the search for fertilizer, it’s important to find one that is intended for indoor use, as the ratio and concentration of the nutrients will likely be a little different to compensate for your plant living in indoor conditions.

Water the soil evenly and thoroughly, allowing the fertilizer to reach your plant’s entire root system.

Why Fertilize?

You’ve had your plants for a while now, and they’re growing and thriving, and you haven’t fertilized them yet—why fix what’s not broken? 

After a period of time and multiple waterings, the nutrients in your plant’s soil will begin to degrade. Once the soil is nutritionally deficient, your plant will start to slow its growth, produce smaller leaves, and maybe even begin to shed some older leaves in response to the lack of nutrients available in the soil. Keeping these nutrients consistently replenished—especially over the course of the growing season—will produce a stronger, more vigorous plant that grows fuller, at a faster pace, and is less likely to attract opportunistic plant pests that like to feed on stressed plants. While it may not seem necessary at first, regular fertilizing is an essential (and rewarding) part of plant care.

Sprinkle powdered fertilizer evenly around the entire perimeter of the soil.

When to Fertilize

Typically, you’ll want to fertilize your plants during the spring and summer, while they’re actively growing—however, if you notice your plant continuing to put out a decent amount of growth in the fall and winter, fertilizing them lightly during that time shouldn’t be an issue. 

When you fertilize in accordance with growth, your plants have the opportunity to use more of the nutrients that are available to them. In the fall and winter, while your plants typically aren’t growing as much—or at all—adding additional nutrients that aren’t actively being used can cause leaf loss and stress to an otherwise dormant plant.

Certain plants can take up more fertilizer than others. Leafier plants, such as Pothos, Philodendrons, ferns, Monsteras, and the like, could be fertilized at least once a month during the growing season. More desert-like plants, along with plants that don’t grow terrestrially in nature, such as succulents, cacti, Hoyas, jungle cacti, snake plants, and ZZ plants, are not particularly heavy feeders and could be fertilized a couple times per year.

Slow-release pellets are another great way to fertilize your plants—as you water, nutrients will slowly leach into the soil.

Over and Under-fertilizing

When fertilizing your plants, it’s important to pay attention to the back label of the product you’re using—these labels should give you dosing instructions regarding how much of the fertilizer to use. It’s important to follow these instructions, because as the saying goes, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Over-fertilizing happens when a plant receives a greater amount of fertilizer and nutrients than it is comfortably able to use up. Adding too much fertilizer to a plant can lead to yellowing and discolored leaves, a loss of leaves, and even sections and areas of root death. To avoid this, follow the recommended dosing instructions for the fertilizer you’ve selected, or to err on the safe side, you could cut the recommended dosage in half to give your plants a lighter feeding.

Under-fertilizing happens most typically when plants haven’t been fertilized for a long while. The symptoms of under-fertilizing are very slow growth, weak new growth, and pale or yellowing leaves. When under-fertilized, plants lack the proper nutrients to grow in a healthy way that’s conducive to leaf and root development. To remedy this, you will want to slowly introduce fertilizer and nutrients to your plant, allowing them to regain some vigor and begin producing healthy new growth. 

If you have questions about fertilizing in general, or a question that wasn’t covered here, feel free to leave a comment down below or stop into one of our shops to chat with us! We’re proud to carry the Good Dirt line of products, which includes their liquid plant food—this is an organic fertilizer derived from oilseed extract, and it delivers the essential nutrients a plant needs to push out healthy foliage and grow substantial root systems. Good Dirt’s liquid plant food also does not contain salts, which are the primary culprit behind over-fertilization. 

Written by: Egan Thorne

Photos by: Egan Thorne & Sebastian Muñoz