What Fertilizer To Use On Vegetable Garden During Fruit Setting

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In addition to the energy they make from sunlight, plants also require mineral nutrients from the soil to grow and reproduce. When you apply fertilizer to your garden soil, you provide your plants with these key nutrients. Understanding the basics of plant nutrition helps you maximize your vegetable and fruit harvest by applying the right fertilizers at the right times.

Plant Nutrients

Plants require 13 different mineral nutrients but, in most cases, your native soil will provide what your fruits and veggies need to grow. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are needed in larger amounts, and most fertilizers contain them. You can find the percentages of these three nutrients in the guaranteed analysis numbers on the fertilizer package. For example, a bag of 5-10-5 fertilizer contains 5 percent nitrogen, 10 percent phosphorus and 5 percent potassium.

Fertilizing Vegetables

Leafy vegetables like lettuce and herbs generally require little fertilizer.

Before fertilizing your vegetable garden, establish what your soil needs by contacting your local extension office about having your soil tested. Soil tests not only identify mineral deficiencies, but also provide recommendations for the best fertilizers to use. Apply fertilizer before you plant your garden, watering it into the soil. Apply a nitrogen-fertilizer every four to six weeks during the growing season, unless your soil test indicates otherwise.

Using too much fertilizer can have as disastrous of consequences for your vegetables as not using enough. Too much nitrogen causes vegetable plants to pour their resources into growing foliage, which is fine if you're growing spinach but can reduce your harvests of tomatoes, peppers, squash and other fruiting vegetables. Too much phosphorus can inhibit the uptake of other nutrients and diminish plant productivity.

Fertilizing Fruits

Fruit grown in the home garden might include a strawberry patch grown amid your veggies, a grape trellis, small fruits, such as raspberries and blueberries, or fruit trees. Fruit trees grow best with an early spring application of 1 lb. of 12-12-12 fertilizer per year of tree age or inch of trunk diameter, up to 8 lbs. Grapes and small fruits also benefit from early-spring applications of 12-12-12 fertilizer. Apply 1 lb. per grapevine or 4 to 6 lbs. per 100-foot row of small fruits. Strawberries have more complex needs. Apply 5 lbs. of 6-24-24 fertilizer per 100-foot row when planting strawberries the first year. After harvest in June, add 4 to 6 lbs. of 12-12-12 fertilizer per 100-foot row, then apply an additional 3 lbs. 12-12-12 fertilizer per 100-foot row in late summer.

Organic Options

Compost provides small amounts of nutrients but improves soil health over time.

If you want to go organic in your veggie garden, year-round attention to soil fertility corrects for the inability to apply a large amount of nutrients at one time. Before planting, apply an organic fertilizer like blood meal or kelp meal in accordance with soil test recommendations; organic fertilizer packaging also contains guaranteed analysis numbers to guide your selection. Compost or a slow-release organic fertilizer in the planting hole gives new seeds and transplants a boost, and you should side-dress your plants with rotted manure, compost or a slow-release organic fertilizer when they begin to produce fruit. After harvest, plant a cover crop or blanket your garden with a thick layer of compost to help restore nutrients for the next season. Likewise, organic gardeners focus on long-term soil-building and health when growing fruits. Frequent applications of mulch and compost, and springtime applications of organic fertilizer when needed, keep organic fruit gardens productive without heavy doses of conventional fertilizer.