How to Add Potassium to an Organic Garden
Potassium, or potash, is one of the three major elements your plants need to thrive. Plants must have potassium to make carbohydrates and protein. If your organic garden lacks potassium, your fruits and flowers will be puny and plant growth will be stunted. Organic gardeners can add this essential nutrient without resorting to chemical fertilizers or potassium sulfate. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Multi-purpose organic fertilizer
- Seaweed meal
- Rock potash
- Wood ashes
- Dried animal manures
- Liquid seaweed
Instructions
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Apply a general multi-purpose organic fertilizer containing blood, fish, and bone meal to your organic garden. If you need to maintain an already healthy garden, this product is a no-brainer.
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Enhance the trace mineral content of your soil when you use seaweed meal (see resources) to raise the potassium level in your garden. Seaweed meal is expensive, but it's a worthwhile investment considering it's a perfectly balanced organic fertilizer that contains 2.3 percent potassium and all of the required trace elements.
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Add rock potash if your soil is severely deficient in potassium. Rock potash contains 10.5 percent potassium, but it's released slowly so there's no chance of overdosing your plants.
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Use wood ashes regularly to add small amounts of potassium to your soil. It's important to add the ashes directly to the soil, rather than adding them to your compost bin, as rainwater readily leaches the potassium from ashes.
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Choose dried animal manures for a full range of the major and trace elements your plants need. Although dried animal manures contain slightly less than 2 percent of potassium, that amount is adequate if you use the manure as monthly topdressing for your garden.
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Select a liquid seaweed product to act as a potassium booster and a growth enhancer. In addition to containing 2.5 percent potassium, seaweed contains growth hormones that aid in photosynthesis and the manufacture of protein.
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Tips & Warnings
Test your soil to confirm a potassium deficiency, and follow manufacturer's directions to determine the amount of organic fertilizer to add to your garden.
