The Right Way to Apply Fertilizer & Save Money!

if you've chosen to grow your own food it's probably because you want to know what's on and in your vegetables and if you've chosen like I have to grow organically then you were probably pretty surprised at the price tag on a lot of organic fertilizers especially if you were gardening before with synthetic fertilizers you know big AG uses synthetic fertilizers because it's cheap it's cheap and it works well it doesn't really matter what's on or in it it's just cheap and works well now depending on how you apply the fertilizer that you're using you could be spending a lot of money in getting little results or spending less money and getting great results in this video I'm gonna show you how to apply both granular and liquid organic fertilizers to get the most bang for your buck stick around [Music] hey I'm Brian at California garden TV if you're looking to join an online garden community that offers tips tricks and support to help you grow your best garden ever then you're in the right place start now by clicking subscribe and hit the bell icon so you never miss anything now let's get growing so this video is in response to a large number of questions from you guys about how to apply fertilizer and a lot of you were kind of jumped on board with the Neptune's harvest products like I have and you want to make sure that you're applying them the right way and getting the most for your money and I didn't think that that was going to be able to be covered well in a frequently asked questions Friday so I figured I may as well just make a whole video about it so this is that video so let's get started with some fertilizer basics starting with the three numbers you see on every bag or bottle of fertilizer that you can buy now those three numbers represent nitrogen phosphorus and potassium and each number is the percentage by weight of whatever those ingredients are in that container the rest of the percentages are minerals and you know things that make up the organic bulk of whatever that the nutrients were taken from now in the most basic way to explain this nitrogen promotes the vegetative growth of a plant it promotes thick you know lush green leaves and a lack of nitrogen is going to show up as stunted growth and kind of yellow sickly looking leaves now phosphorous promotes healthy roots strong stems healthy flowers that are going to produce good fruit and good seeds it's vital for photosynthesis and a lack of phosphorus is going to show up as kind of a discoloration in the leaves usually like a purpley red color tomato veins I mentioned that on the last FAQ Friday if your tomato veins are purple you got to bump up the phosphorus potassium promotes really healthy overall plants especially the fruits and the flowers and a lack of potassium is going to show up as weak stems and yellowing and browning of the tips of the leaves and the edges of the leaves potatoes and tomatoes love potassium they almost can't get enough of it now you can get all these fertilizers both in liquid form and granular form and granular form is great for a slow release even release of the nutrients so that between liquid feedings it still has something that it can tap into now if you choose the granular route either by itself or along with liquid feedings you want to make sure you don't just sprinkle it on top of the ground you want to actually scratch it into the soil at least two to three inches deep now granular is a great way to give the plant phosphorous at planting time phosphorous is a nutrient that is really difficult to move through most soils and so it's nice to add it in granular form below the plant before you plant it because that's gonna give it that steady source right at the roots that it needs throughout the planting season and I use granular fertilizer I use the Neptune's harvest crab and lobster formula at planting time and that's going to give my plant what it needs phosphorus wise throughout the entire season I also add potassium at planting time with a granular kelp fertilizer you see me do that in any of my planting videos this season now for the rest of the growing season I use hydrolyzed fish specifically Neptune's harvest tomato and veg formula and I've heard from so many of you who have started trying that on your gardens and your Gardens never been better so I appreciate hearing that and after you guys are all having the same experience with that please let me know down in the comments I would love to know about it now I'm not going to go over the products the Neptune's harvest products that I use and in terms of you know the the nutrients and why I use them I've done that in another video that I will link down below in the video description this video I'm going to show you no matter what you're applying what brand I'm gonna show you how to do it most effectively to get the most for your money and like I said any quality organic fertilizer is not cheap so you want to make sure that you're doing everything you can to get the most out of every single ounce of whatever product you happen to be using now there are two ways to apply liquid fertilizer number one is foliar feeding and that is feeding directly fertilizing directly on the leaves and the second way is the traditional way where you water it into the root system I prefer foliar feeding only because it's the easiest and most efficient way to do it now you can use those types of feeders that you screw on to the end of the hose you put some fertilizer in and as you water it mixes the water with the fertilizer and sends it out I like a little more control than that I'm never sure that the right amount of fertilizer is actually getting into the water another reason I stay away from those a little bit is because you don't want water splashing from the ground up to the leaves of your plants because that can take pathogens in the soil splash them up onto the leaves of the plants where they can then start to grow bacteria and fungus and you get into a mess now what I do is I use a pump sprayer like this one you can have a maybe a backpack sprayer but something that you can control the amount of water and the amount of fertilizer that goes in there I also like it because you have more control over where that spray is going you can put it on a fine mist get the tops the bottoms of the leaves but you don't have a lot of excess splashing into the soil and up on your plants and a lot of runoff that that will waste it now you always want to foal your feed as early in the morning as possible because what happens is during the night the pores in the leaves open up so that they can accept the do during the night and then they start to close again once the Sun gets high enough and starts heating things up you want to fold your feed when those pores are still open so it can accept the nutrients and bring them right into the plant it's also good to do it in the morning because you don't want the moisture sitting on the plant all night long because that can you know start to harbor diseases and fungus problems and again you don't want to you don't want to deal with that so early in the morning gets into the pours all day it has a chance to dry off before night time now the reason I love these products the fish products the Neptune's harvest products is because they are systemic meaning if you do fold your feet in the morning it takes the fish right into the leaves down the stems down the trunk and into the root zone so your plant gets an immediate fix all the nutrients go straight into the plant so you get better bang for your buck now there is an end time to when you want to foliar feed and that's when the flowers are starting to produce because you don't want to get the pollen wet because that can disrupt pollination so at that point we'd go to soaking the root zone when fertilizing the root zone do it really gently to avoid splash back I use a watering can you can also use a drip system they have canisters that go on to a drip system where you could put in nutrients and then when you water it puts them out into your garden again I like the control of being able to mix it and know exactly how much my plants are getting I'm kind of type-a that way no wonder I've headaches I mix the fertilizer and water according to the bottles directions and then I apply but wait don't fertilize on dry soil if plants roots become dried out and then you immediately put fertilizer on them it can burn them now Neptune's harvest products will not do that but if you're not using that you want to be careful but there's other reasons to not fertilize on dry soil as well number one is the burning number two is when soils are dry especially the top of the soil it has increased surface tension and so when you water on dry soil it kind of beads up and just kind of rolls off and there goes your money it doesn't actually soak in number three when soil is dry microbial activity is diminished and the microbes are the middleman between the fertilizer and the plant's roots they bring the fertilizer into the root system and so the more microbes you have and the act more active they are like in wet soil the less fertilizer you actually have to use the last reason is because damp soil has better capillary action and that just means that as the product soaks into the soil it does so uniformly throughout the root ball you're not just getting deeper in some places and shallower in others so for all those reasons I water everything very gently first then apply the fertilizer now a big question you guys had was how much fertilizer do I put on each plant and I don't really go by any scientific calculations this two gallon watering can filled with the fertilizer mixture will do half of one of these four by ten beds so it doesn't take that much so I just go up one side of the bed that's one watering can full and then I go back fill it up again go down the other side now you can feed especially foliar feeding as often as every three days once a week is fantastic if money is a little more of an issue you can stretch that and do every other week and you will have great results as well so I hope these tips were helpful if they were if you learned anything please give the video a thumbs up make sure you're subscribed and I did notice that 80% of you have not hit the bell icon so make sure you do that so the next time we have a video you don't have to think about it it's already there for you I'll see you guys next time [Music]

Channel: Next Level Gardening

Views: 138,430

Keywords: how to fertilize, fertilizer 101, fertilizer basics, save money, row by row, garden show, hoss tools, gardening show, garden row, garden tools, fertilizers, garden fertilizer, vegetable fertilizer, 10-10-10, complete fertilizer, corn fertilizer, tomato fertilizer, water-soluble, side dressing, best fertilizer, compost, milorganite, blood meal, organic fertilizer, drip irrigation, how to fertilize tomatoes, how to fertilize peppers, how to fertilize vegetables

Id: WJD-TFX2hjc

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 14 2020