Content
- Should you water plants before or after fertilizing?
- Do not fertilize on dry soil
- Fertilize and water plants properly
- Mineral fertilizers
- Organic fertilizers
- Tips
It should be better poured before fertilizing
Should you water plants before or after fertilizing?
Crops and ornamentals depend on a pase of nutrients to develop the desired flowers or fruits. However, proper fertilization requires not only the use of a suitable fertilizer in the optimal amount - not just one, but also an over-supply has serious consequences - but also the form of administration. So you should never fertilize on dry soil, but always water it first.
Do not fertilize on dry soil
If you bring the fertilizer out on dry soil, it does not penetrate to the roots and thus does not fulfill its task. Worse, there is no even distribution of nutrients, instead they clump together in a few places. This in turn results in over-fertilization, while other parts of the plant remain unprovided. The thus fertilized plants grow irregularly, form many leaves and shoots on the heavily fertilized parts, but wither away in the less fertilized areas. In addition, especially on hot and sunny days fertilizing on dry soil can cause the plant parts located there to burn practically.
Fertilize and water plants properly
For these reasons, watering before fertilizing is immensely important. Loosen up the soil beforehand, apply a pouring edge, especially for large plants: Otherwise, the water on the surface runs off very dry soil before it can penetrate into the depths. Pour now penetrating, but not overly. Only then the fertilizer is applied and easily incorporated into the now damp soil.
Mineral fertilizers
If you work with mineral fertilizers, it is advisable to use long-term fertilizers in the garden or liquid fertilizers for potted plants. Long-term fertilizer bring you out in the spring and then know your plants sufficiently supplied until the end of the growing season. Incidentally, you can also dissolve some complete fertilizers in the irrigation water and then water the plants: How to kill two birds with one stone.
Organic fertilizers
Even with organic fertilizers such as compost or manure, it is important that they are not incorporated into dry soil. Optimal for many ornamental and useful plants in the garden is also the use of self-applied Pflanzenjauchen as fertilizers, such as a mixture of nettle and horsetail stock and primary rock meal. These contain almost all important nutrients and also have a strengthening effect, so that many pests have no chance at all. When using such liquid fertilizers, prior watering is not necessary.
Tips
However, too much water can also do the opposite when fertilizing, as the valuable nutrients can be washed away. For this reason, you should never fertilize in rainy weather, but only when it is dry and you can control the water supply.