How to Make Palm Tree Fertilizer

Palm trees need special fertilizer. Not just any plant food will do. The palm requires specialty formulated fertilizers full of certain nutrients. Most palm trees are deficient in magnesium, iron, manganese and potassium, so finding a fertilizer rich in these nutrients is essential for healthy plant growth. They also need nitrogen and copper sulfates. Most home and garden stores carry complete palm tree fertilizers--they probably have more than one selection to choose from--but why not learn to make your own?

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Wheel-barrow
• Shovel
• Nutrient rich products

1. Blend a mixture of natural animal- or plant-derived nutrients in these easy-to-find and purchase items. You can buy them in bulk from any home and garden store. Use a shovel and mix one part of each in a wheel-barrow to create your own palm tree fertilizer.

2. Start by blending in a nitrogen-rich product such as feather meal or soybean meal. Other products rich in nitrogen that also contain a good quantity of phosphorus and potassium are cottonseed meal and bat guano.

3. Add to the mixture foods that are rich in manganese. Blend in equal part of spinach, kelp, beets, nuts, whole grains and/or leafy vegetables. Creating a fertilizer with these products adds manganese back into the soil.

4. Mix into the wheelbarrow a good amount of magnesium. Palm tree fertilizer must have magnesium for healthy plant production. Magnesium is found in foods like green leafy vegetables, nuts and unrefined grains.

5. Don't forget the iron. Palm trees that are iron deficient do not thrive as well as healthy palm trees. Blend in one part of iron-rich foods like orange peels or dried oranges. You can also use blood meal, which is also high in nitrogen and is considered one of the most effective palm tree fertilizer products.

Tips & Warnings

• * Any of these foods rich in nutrients will benefit your palm tree. Use them one at a time or all at once. Blend and add them to the soil for maximum benefit to your trees.
• * Manganese deficiency can kill your palm tree. It causes yellowing and necrosis between the leaf veins. Potassium deficiency causes orange or brown flecks on older leaves. If left untreated, the palm can die. Magnesium deficiency causes yellowing at the edges of older leaves. Eventually they can become necrotic.