Contents
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 WHY USE ORGANIC FERTILIZERS FOR CONTAINER GARDENING
- 3 BOOSTING SOIL HEALTH IN CONTAINERS WITH ORGANIC FERTILIZERS
- 4 HOW ORGANIC FERTILIZER ENHANCE PLANT GROWTH NATURALLY?
- 5 ECO-FRIENDLY SOLUTIONS: COMPOSTING FOR CONTAINER GARDENING
- 6 TIPS FOR APPLYING ORGANIC FERTILIZER EFFECTIVELY IN CONTAINERS
- 7 TOP ORGANIC FERTILIZER OPTIONS FOR CONTAINER VEGETABLES AND FLOWERS
- 8 CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
Urban gardening with container plants offers extreme portability and mobility. It can be done even in small balconies or corners of apartments. This limited-space gardening needs nutrient refilling over time because the potting mix loses nutrients over time, and the watering flushes out the nutrients.
With the right preparation of fertilization methods, organic fertilizers become beneficial and can also be organic and sustainable. Some might think synthetic fertilizers are quickies you can buy and feed the plants, and the results are also faster.
As a decade gardener, I can say one thing non-organic chemical-based fertilizers are for instant need of fixing a dying plant or infected plant a short-time remedy. But using organic fertilizers and adding organic matter to the potting mix is a sustainable and long-term solution for your plants and it’s harmless.
When I say organic fertilizer, it’s not only composting there is a huge list of organic fertilizers available in the market that is suitable for various growth pattern plants like edible plants, herbs, flowering, foliage and succulents. In small-space gardening, the benefits of organic fertilizers for potted plants are long-term and harmless to small potted plants.
In this blog post, you learn about how to use organic fertilizers in container gardening, best practices for container gardening and important things about organic fertilizers for container gardening.
WHY USE ORGANIC FERTILIZERS FOR CONTAINER GARDENING
The term sustainability is not only meant for organic material pot material, it also adopts organic potting medium and organic fertilizers. These organic fertilizers don’t release any harmful chemicals that can affect children, pets and people with allergies. Also, organic fertilizers don’t emit any heat no harm to the environment.
Benefits of organic fertilizers for small-space gardening
Chemical-free fertilizers for potted plants are harmless options for your container plants. The reason behind this is in pots the space is limited so the soil volume feeding chemical fertilizers releases too much of the needed nutrients and that is going to burn the plant. Using organic fertilizers also known as slow-release fertilizers slowly release nutrients in potted plants over time and avoid plants burning by over-fertilizing.
In small-space gardening, you limit the pot size and grow plants even in small planters to utilize every possible space. In that case, you’ve to make a potting mix with organic matter and feed organic fertilizers in the correct frequency based on plant type.
Sustainable gardening with organic fertilizers
Some of the gardeners adopt sustainable gardening, fulfilling the idea of why grow a plant. The reason behind growing plants is to have a non-polluted environment, purified atmosphere and growing chemical-free foods, the list goes on. Adopting sustainable gardening and switching every possible garden product to an eco-friendly one is another level of saving nature movement.
At least from my point of view, overall, it sounds like a droplet in an ocean but the ideology matters and people who succeed in sustainable gardening encourage fellow gardeners to adopt sustainable ways of gardening with their actions. A needed moment for all of the gardeners.
But from another point of view, sustainable pots are pricier than plastic pots and sustainable gardening tools are limited. Instead of feeling bad for these drawbacks you can at least adopt organic fertilizers and potting medium over the non-organic options.
BOOSTING SOIL HEALTH IN CONTAINERS WITH ORGANIC FERTILIZERS
If you were aware of agriculture, you might know this ploughing process of preparing the land before cultivation after the growing season. This process uptakes the beneath soil upwards and uses soil to down. With these processes, farmers take the nutrient-stored soil beneath to top and put the used soil to the ground for storing nutrients.
Watering flushes the nutrients in soil over time, in-ground gardening and agriculture the nutrients are stored underneath the soil. But in container gardening the nutrients are flushed out in water and evaporate. It was important to boost the soil with proper fertilizers over time to get the expected growth in plants.
How to use organic fertilizers in container gardening
You can make potting mix with organic matter and add a small quantity of organic fertilizers. You can feed flowering and fruiting plants while growing seasons for 2-3 weeks once, if you’ve year-around flowering plants or herbs you can feed them once a month with organic fertilizers on the top of the soil or dilute liquid fertilizers with water and feed them along with watering.
Benefits of compost for sterile potting soil
You already know that potted plants lose nutrients over time watering, which makes the soil sterile, not only used potting mix but some types of garden soil are also sterile. Some of the gardeners always struggle with these kinds of soils and wonder about how to make sterile potting soil fertile again.
For already potted plants you can add organic fertilizer granules on top of the potting mix or organic liquid fertilizers like seaweed can be diluted along with the watering process. For new potting mixes with sterile soil increase the ratio of organic matter along with organic fertilizers to make the soil fertile again.
Improving container soil with manure and fish emulsion
To note manure and compost are not only fertilizers that only release nutrients for plants also these create an aerated potting mix structure that helps the oxygen flow, water flow and root penetration. These fertilizers combo encouraged microbiota (beneficial organisms). These microbiotas improve nutrient uptake, growth promotion, stress tolerance and disease resistance.
In the layer farming method, Fish emulsion and manure are obtained from fish ponds and animal waste and turned into fertilizers and used on agricultural land. These nitrogen-rich fertilizers are available in different forms for container gardening like manure potting mix and fish emulsion liquid fertilizers.
Manure is a rich source of NPK (nitrogen-potassium-phosphorous), which improves soil structure that helps oxygen flow that helps photosynthesis process, water flow that keeps the plant hydrated, and root penetration for access the nutrients throughout the potting soil. Along with all these benefits manure is slow-release fertilizers that replenish nutrients over time. Manure is an ideal fertilizer for vegetative growth opted for flowering-fruiting-vegetable plants.
Fish emulsion is an organic liquid fertilizer source that easy to feed for potted plants. It promotes foliage growth over flowering or fruiting. Ideal for ornamental plants, succulents and leafy greens. Fish emulsion is less likely to burn plants compared to chemical fertilizers and that’s suitable for young plants and seedlings.
HOW ORGANIC FERTILIZER ENHANCE PLANT GROWTH NATURALLY?
NPK is a common nutrient that is obtained from most organic fertilizers. These NPKs support the plant growth over the stages of plant growth. Nitrogen promotes vegetative growth. Phosphorus encourages root development and strengthens the plant structure. Potassium improves water regulation and improves drought resistance.
Best organic fertilisers for container plants
There is a huge list of organic fertilizers available in the marketplace, but the below-mentioned are my personal favourites and are widely used by gardeners.
Manure enhances soil structure and microbial activity.
Compost boosts soil fertility and enhances water retention.
Fish emulsion promotes foliage growth, improves soil fertility and promotes microbial activity.
Seaweed stimulates root growth and increases drought tolerance.
Bone meal Encourages strong roots and develops fruit and flowering growth.
Banana peel powder supports flowering and fruiting.
Mustard cake boosts flowering and fruiting and natural pest deterrents.
Blood meal promotes lush green and leaf development.
Effects of organic matter on soil fertility and plant growth
- Organic matter releases NPK while it decomposes.
- Increases soil’s ability to hold and exchange nutrients.
- Promotes the microbial activity.
- Stabilize the soil pH, neutralizing alkalinity.
- Improves soil structure.
- Enhances aeration in potting soil, which helps oxygen circulation in roots.
- Organic matter acts like a sponge and holds the needed moisture.
- Improves soil aeration that helps better root growth.
- Improve the nutrient uptake and steady supply of nutrients by slow decomposing.
- Organic matter promotes beneficial organisms and these organisms make the plant disease resistant.
- Organic matter stimulates the growth of hormones and improves plant development.
ECO-FRIENDLY SOLUTIONS: COMPOSTING FOR CONTAINER GARDENING
If I were in a situation where I had to use only one organic fertilizer made by me for my entire gardening process for the rest of my life, I could blindly choose compost. There are several reasons why I chose compost, the first one is you can manage your kitchen waste so efficiently, and making compost is an easier process compared to other organic fertilizer-making processes. These two are some practical reasons why I choose compost as a primary fertilizer for gardening apart from nutrient reasons.
Compost is not only a fertilizer it’s been a part of my potting mixes for half a decade., the flowering yield in my pots garden is dramatic after using compost as a part of my potting mixes. Compost creates an aeration structure in soil, that helps the root grow better and stronger. Compost is a rich source of NPK and it releases those nutrients slowly so the possibility of plants getting burned by fertilizing is lesser. Water retention and regulating pH in soil are the additional benefits you can get.
How to compost in small space for container gardening
To compost in small spaces like balconies or any small available areas. Compost bins are the ideal option; with these bins, you can make compost without stinky smells and you can get compost tea fertilizer as well. There are different types of bins available in markets, simple affordable model bins, affordable compost kit and advanced no-odor compost kit.
These kits and bins are easy to use and you can keep them even in small spaces. You can extract the compost from kitchen waste without much effort. The below listed are compostable and non-compostable kitchen wastes.
COMPOSTABLE | NON-COMPOSTABLE |
Fruits & vegetable scraps | Meat & fish scraps |
Coffee grounds and filters | Dairy products |
Tea bags | Greasy or oily foods |
Eggshells | Bones (Take too long to decompose) |
Bread & Grains | Plastic tea bags |
Nutshell | Citrus peels (makes the compost more acidic) |
Herbs and Spices | Processed food with preservations |
Cooked rice (avoid excess oils) | Onion & Garlic peel in larger quantity kills beneficial organisms |
Old Herbs | Synthetic materials |
Spoiled or Rotted fruits/veggies | Pet waste and disease plants (contain pathogens & spread disease in compost) |
Eco-friendly composting methods for beginners
Composting is already an eco-friendly method because you avoid kitchen waste turning into landfills. To make it more eco-friendly you can adopt mud compost bins and use organic compost boosters instead of adding chemical compost boosters. As a gardening beginner, you can compost with simple compost kits and follow the above list of materials compostable and non-compostable materials to avoid odours.
Using the vermicompost composting method is a way of eco-friendly composting, you can get live earthworms and place them in compost bins can speed up the composting without any boosters. Keeping the bin shaded places boosts the compost. To compost hard to compost materials like all types of food waste and turn them into compost you can use Bokashi mix over the bokashi bins to compost every kitchen waste and avoid landfills.
TIPS FOR APPLYING ORGANIC FERTILIZER EFFECTIVELY IN CONTAINERS
How to apply organic fertilizer in pots
- Choosing a suitable fertilizer based on plant type
- In the vegetative stage add nitrogen-rich fertilizers
- In the flowering & fruiting stage add phosphorus and potassium-rich fertilizers
- You can feed 4 weeks once for every plant and feed fruiting/flowering plants every 2-3 weeks in the growing season.
- You can feed granules or powdered fertilizers on the top of the soil and water them to infuse the nutrients into the soil.
- Dilute the liquid fertilizers in a 1:10 ratio with water you can spray them or mix them while watering.
- While repotting mix organic matter along with potting mix directly into the potting mix.
- Use 1-2 tablespoons of fertilizer for 1 kg potting mix, average 8-inch pots hold 2kg of potting soil.
- Proper watering practices have to be maintained after fertilizing.
Using Liquid fertilizers in containers
- Dilute the liquid fertilizer with a 1:10 ratio, no matter whether the liquid fertilizer has to be diluted.
- Some of the liquid fertilizer’s ratio of dilution might change check before applying
- Pour the diluted liquid fertilizer into the soil and around the base of the plants.
- Avoid applying close to the stem to prevent root burn
- For foliar liquid fertilizers use a sprayer to mist the diluted fertilizers
- Fertilize in the early morning to avoid evaporation
- Watering properly after fertilizing is important to avoid plant burn and keep the plant hydrated after fertilizing.
TOP ORGANIC FERTILIZER OPTIONS FOR CONTAINER VEGETABLES AND FLOWERS
The above-mentioned organic fertilizers are commonly used fertilizers for houseplants, leafy veggies and foliage plants. But vegetable and flowering plants are heavy feeders because of the flowering and fruiting process, to feed them properly these below-mentioned fertilizers are the best choice for different growing stages.
Compost is a rich source of NPK, a needed nutrient for vegetative growth, stem growth and root growth along with better yielding. Compost also provides a better structure for potting mix for better root penetration-water flow-oxygen flow. Also provides beneficial microbiota.
Vermicompost (a compost made from earthworm wastes) supplies nitrogen and beneficial organisms. Nitrogen is a key element of chlorophyll in photosynthesis, a major component of amino acids, an essential nutrient for cell growth in plants and nitrogen supports high yield in plants.
Bonemeal is a rich source of phosphorus and calcium, and encourages flowering and root growth ideal for flowering plants, especially in the growing season. Improves soil fertility.
Fish emulsion provides nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in liquid form an easy way to absorb nutrients. Ideal for container plants must diluted to avoid fertilizing burn and fish emulsion promotes foliage growth and root growth opted fertilizer for houseplants.
Seaweed or Kelp rich in trace minerals and hormones enhances flowering and fruiting. Improves plant resistance to stress. A 1:10 ratio is ideal you can use this for houseplants as well.
Wood ash is a source of potassium and calcium encouraging flowering and fruiting along this wood ash neutralizes acidic soils. This fertilizer can be used for herbs, edible plants and leafy greens to promote better growth and yields.
Neem cake is my long-term fertilizer choice, I started to use these for improving pest and disease resistance in the pots. But it is also a rich source of NPK.
Manure is a part of organic matter, that provides nutrients and improves potting soil structure, aeration and water retention. Ideal feeder for vegetables and flowering plants.
Poultry manure contains primary macronutrients NPK and secondary macronutrients calcium-magnesium-Sulphur, which boosts rapid growth in edible plants. Ideal for fertilizing the Sterlite soil, a cost-effective fertilizer for farm owners and pet owners.
Banana peel fertilizer is rich in potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and micronutrients. It improves plant yields and is perfect for peppers and tomatoes. It supports root development and seed formation, improves soil health, and repels pests. You can buy banana peel fertilizer or soak the banana peels in water for a few days and feed them to plants.
CONCLUSION
The advantages of organic fertilizers for container gardening are eco-friendly and slow-releasing fertilizers that avoid fertilizing burns on plants. These fertilizers cut the cost of frequent feeding of fertilizers. Organic fertilizers are part of adopting sustainable gardening by reducing synthetic fertilizers to fertile the Sterlite soil. In the above paragraphs, you already learn about eco-friendly gardening tips with organic fertilizers.
For beginners, you can use ready-to-use organic fertilizers that are available in marketplaces, and then you can try composting at home with easy methods. In the above paragraphs, you already know about how to use organic fertilizers in container plants for beginners. Switching to organic fertilizers is not only sustainable but also cuts the cost of spending money on synthetic fertilizers for quick results and frequent feeding. For organic gardening tips for container plants check my website mypotsgarden.com
Pingback: HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST NPK FERTILIZER FOR GARDENS – My Pots Garden
Pingback: BEST POTTING MIX FOR CONTAINER GARDENING: FULL GUIDE
Pingback: HOW ORGANIC MATTER ENHANCES POTTING MIX FOR PLANTS - WITH 5 EASY TIPS
Pingback: 3 TIPS FOR IMPROVING SOIL DRAINAGE IN YOUR CONTAINER GARDEN