veggielover2012 wrote:I've got a decent understanding of the fertilizer basics.
Ok I am growing at this moment some peppers, some sugar snap peas and some garden beans in containers. The one thing I am fuzzy on though is why I would want to use a veggie/plant fertilizer which is dry with a 4,8,4 ratio over the liquid fertilizer with an 20,18,20 ratio? I know both are synthetic, but the box for both says to feed the plants every two weeks.
So basically I have two fertilizers, one which seemingly supplies the plants with a much lower ratio of nutrients and minerals, while the other is much higher? Is there a reason to use one or the other? I have both but have been using the 20,18,20.
I guess I am just not understanding the reasoning of the different ratio's of fertilizers over other ones.
You are feeding them 20-18-20 every two weeks? You will grow them to death! That is very concentrated. Especially being so high on the nitrogen, you are likely to get huge, leafy plants that don't make any fruit (I.e. peppers). The peas and beans are nitrogen fixers, they take their own nitrogen from the air and don't need any added. In fact they add N to the soil, which is helpful for other plants grown there later (especially if you cut the plants off at ground level and leave the roots).
Plants don't need anything like that much NPK and by adding it, you are distorting the growth patterns, killing the other life in the soil, which plants do depend on, and tying up other nutrients. That is besides the NPK plants need trace amounts of things like magnesium, calcium, sulfur, boron , copper, iron , chloride, manganese, molybdenum and zinc. Having such huge quantities of NPK in the soil ties up the micronutrients and makes it difficult for the plants to uptake them.
Fertilizer boxes used to say feed every 6 weeks and I thought that was too much. If the box is saying every two weeks, they are just trying to sell you more product at the expense of your soil and plants.
I never use any fertilizer in my garden except compost and mulch which breaks down to feed the soil and I have a good garden, with a lot fewer problems than a lot of the people who write in here. When you are forcing your plants to grow so much and so fast, you make them very tender and vulnerable to any pest/disease that is around. More is not better!