How to Mix Fertilizer

Fertilizer is ideal for encouraging healthy plant growth. Fertilizer is used on plants, trees, flowers and any other living foliage growing in the ground. Fertilizers come in different ratios, with a mixture of different ingredients. Some fertilizers are specified as rose food and some are specifically for palm trees. Look through the variety of fertilizers at any home and garden store to find one just right for what you are growing. If you are mixing up a batch of your own, there are a few simple rules to follow.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Shovel
• Wheelbarrow
• Seed meal
• Agricultural lime
• Finely ground gypsum
• Dolomitic
• Bone meal
• Rock phosphate
• Kelp meal

1. Use a shovel to mix the ingredients for this fertilizer in a wheel-barrow. For an example, this mixture will be for Japanese maples.

2. Put 4 parts of seed meal and 1/4 part agricultural lime in the wheelbarrow.

3. Add in 1/4 part gypsum, finely ground. You can omit this ingredient if you double the agricultural lime.

4. Include in the fertilizer mixture 1/2 part dolomitic lime and 1 part bone meal.

5. Mix in rock phosphate and 1/2 part kelp meal. Or, use high phosphate guano instead of the rock phosphate and 1 part basalt dust instead of the kelp meal.

Tips & Warnings

• Another Japanese Maple fertilizer mixture includes: feather meal, cottonseed meal, bone meal, sulfate of potash magnesia, rock phosphate, gypsum, kelp meal and bat guano. The right mixture of products supplies your plants with calcium, phosphate, sulfur, magnesium, manganese, nitrogen, iron, potassium and other valuable nutrients.
• When mixing your fertilizer ingredients, make sure to get the ratios correct in order to maximize the benefit of the fertilizer.