Plants and vegetation are an integral part of our lives.
They:
- Enhance the beauty of a landscape
- Prevent soil erosion
- Absorb carbon dioxide to produce oxygen
- Manufacture sugars, starches, fats, proteins, and other substances beneficial to our health
It is important that we promote the health and growth of plants and vegetation.
That health and growth are directly influenced and controlled by their immediate environments.
- Too little or too much sunlight can kill a plant.
- As with sunlight, too little or too much water can be devastating to vegetation.
- Weeds and other undesirable plants can take away vital nutrients from wanted vegetation.
- Insects, parasites, and other pests can destroy entire landscapes.
- The soil may not provide the type of nutrients that a plant needs to survive or grow.
While there are some environmental factors that we can’t control, we can use fertilizers to help our
plants survive and thrive. Why should we fertilize?
Plants need 16 different elements to survive. Each plant type needs these elements in varying
degrees. Of the 16 elements, there are three that are considered the most crucial to a plant’s
survival. They are:
- Nitrogen
- Phosphate
- Potassium
- Other elements include:
- Iron
- Manganese
- Zinc
- Copper
- Boron
- Molybdenum
Before using a fertilizer, you should know:
- What elements are essential to your plant’s survival.
Each plant has different nutritional needs. Too much or too little of an element will kill a plant.
Know what elements your plant needs before choosing your fertilizer.
- The environmental conditions in which your plants are located.
Your soil may contain some of the elements that your plant needs. Adding that element in your
fertilizer to the soil may give the plan too much of one nutrient. That can be as damaging as the
element being absent from the soil. While it may be difficult to know the nutrient content in your
soil, different climates and regions will have different soil types.
- What you wish to accomplish with your plants.
Your goals are important when selecting a fertilizer. Are you interested in simply maintaining the
health of a plant, or would you like to encourage faster growth? Do you need to create a hardier
plant that can withstand colder weather or insect attacks? Each of these scenarios requires a
different fertilizer type.
Please contact
a Sunniland representative for more
information.
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