Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Passion: Nutritional needs of plants....

My gardening experience is helping a lot in understanding plants....
Earlier, I used to grow them in potting mix.....watered regularly and used to think sun will help them photosynthesize...
But, learnt that potting mix is not enough....they need N, P, K, minerals...especially, if they are limited in containers...
Now I do feed the plants with egg shell powder.......inorganic fertilizer Osmocote .... and organic compost mix...

The difference is visible....
A long-stunted mandevilla flowering..........

Malabar spinach leafing out...


Ixora blooming.........it had bolted the buds for months...

Arabian jasmine blooming.........

Hibiscus blooming......

The dormant geranium started blooming...of course water scarcity stress and approaching autumn helped..

The kumquat retained its fruits, unlike last time, when all of them dropped off...

Though I need to optimize the use, so as not to do the mistakes, I have done, in ignorance....
Like the peas burning...

and spinach flowering prematurely...

Blueberry too burning.........

However, from personal experience I would like to share some insight regarding usage of fertilizer.....
Touching the fertilizer-fed soil irritates the skin of sensitive people....even inhalation and exposure can sensitize eyes and lungs...these symptoms can mar gardening joys.........
Because fertilizers are nothing but concentrated mix of salts: Nitrates, Nitrites, ammonium sulfate, lime, potassium chloride, potash, phosphoric acid, sulfur...

Leather and fabric gloves are great for gardening, but they let fertilizer enter them and irritate the skin...I learnt that nitrile gloves are good for handling the salt-amended soil and pots....hope it helps..
Happy gardening........

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