I’m in the midst of grading papers for my nursery management class, and something that I’m running across is an incredible number of papers where the students are recommending balanced fertilizers. Why are they doing that? Or maybe an even better question is, what is a balanced fertilizer? A balanced fertilizer is a fertilizer which has three numbers which are about the same, like a 10-10-10. The problem with balanced fertilizers is that they are much higher in phosphorus than what most plants need — at least in relation to the amount of nitrogen and potassium which plants need. … Continue reading this article “Balanced fertilizers are usually out of balance”
Tag: nutirents
Here’s the plant food everyone is talking about!
Apparently I don’t talk to the right people; I’d never heard of this product until newbie gardener and longtime skeptic John emailed me about Eleanor’s VF-11 plant food.
Upon visiting the website, this is what I learned about VF-11 and roses (the rose aficionado market is apparently a lucrative one for snake oil salesmen):
Point: “VF-11 Plant Food is not a ‘push’ like other fertilizers…think of it as a strength and health builder.”
Counterpoint: It certainly is not a fertilizer.… Continue reading this article “Here’s the plant food everyone is talking about!”