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Old February 17, 2013   #3
zeroma
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: SW Ohio
Posts: 637
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"N

Stands for Nitrogen.

Nitrogen helps make plants greener, and helps them grow faster. Nitrogen can be depleted over time by plants, or by being washed away.
P

Stands for Phosphorus.

Phosphorous is good for root growth, disease resistance, seed and fruit growth, and for blooming and flowering.

K

Stands for Potash (or Potassium).

Potash can help with increasing root growth, with drought resistance, and with disease resistance. (So why is it K? Because it would be confusing if they used P twice in a row, and you'd never know which is which!)


Important!
Don't just grab a bag with high numbers on it and start spreading it on your lawn or garden. Your soil might already have plenty of phosphorous or potassium!

If you add more of something than your soil needs, it is wasteful. You can harm your plants by having too much of any of these nutrients.

Test your soil first!" from http://www.cleanairgardening.com/npkexplanation.html

Sorry if this is "too much in your face" Bill, but the middle part of the fertilzer ratio Phosphorus is naturally in high levels in our part of Ohio - generally. However since you live in an area where your land has been disturbed for building a home, you don't know until you get the soil test.

From recent research by the State, farmers are encouraged to cut back on our use of Phosphorus. I guess gardeeners too.

You have heard about the terrible problems at Lake Saint Mary's haven't yo? The lake had to be closed to people using it due to the hazardous algae issues. It is due to both the naturally higher levels plus farmer runoff of phosphorus. I would suggest not using the bone meal in your ground garden soil until you get your soil test results back.

I don't remember if you were growing in containers too. So if you are buying prepared mix like MetroPro 350, you may not want to add anything at all to that.

I'm using Blood Meal in my ground garden and in my containers as needed through out the year. It is your Ph test you want to pay attention to the most. Let me know if you want more info. We talked about this last Thursday at the Master Garden class. I've been a master gardener since 1990's but I'm retaking the class to learn about anything new in the science part, the trends, and growing in Ohio rather than in the sand I had in Indiana as I change from flower growing to tomato and veggies.

Last edited by zeroma; February 17, 2013 at 12:13 PM. Reason: to add my source
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