Fertilizer for vegetables: types and quality, composition, dosage, timing of fertilization, tips for choosing effective dressings

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Vegetable crops are grown in all corners of the planet, as these products contain a large amount of vitamins and other useful substances. To get a bountiful harvest, it is necessary to properly care for the plants and apply fertilizing and fertilizers to the soil in time. It is very important to choose the right composition, as well as correctly determine the timing of top dressing.

Why feed?

Soils are different. If the nutrients are contained in them in sufficient quantities, then crops can grow without additional feeding. However, as the experience of summer residents shows, this is very, very rare. It is necessary to regularly feed to make up for the lack of micro and macro elements. To do this, you can use universal fertilizers for vegetables, created on the basis of organic substances, or mineral products.

Timelytop dressing has a beneficial effect on plants. They increase seed germination, promote faster growth of the root system. With their help, vegetables increase immunity, they become resistant to transplants, less susceptible to various diseases.

Views

Fertilizers for vegetables (reviews about them will be presented in this article) are of several types:

• Organic top dressing allows you to accelerate the growth of crops. They are rich in various minerals, but at the same time they do not pose a danger to parts of plants, for example, when they get on the leaves. This group includes fertilizers such as manure, household waste, bird droppings and compost.
• Mineral compositions are also of great benefit, but they can also be harmful. The fact is that their excess contributes to the development of dangerous diseases. Mineral fertilizers can destroy them when they get on some parts of plants.

Organic fertilizers

Many summer residents, choosing which fertilizers to use for vegetables, prefer organic top dressing. They have a beneficial effect on the condition of crops and help accelerate their growth.

• Compost, suitable for all types of soil, saturates plants with nutrients.
• Slurry is also an effective remedy, which contains a large amount of potassium and nitrogen. Top dressing is very quickly absorbed by the roots. The best fertilizers for vegetables are manure.

• Bird droppings are a rich source of nitrogen. It must be insisted before entering intosoil and dilute with water.
• Eggshell is used as a lime additive. It is used in acidic soils. Crushed shells are added to the soil. For 1 m2 there are 500 g of fertilizer.
• Infusions of plants are the source of all micro and macro elements necessary for growing vegetables. Solutions saturate the soil, and they can also be sprayed with foliage. In any case, the infusions are quickly assimilated by cultures.

Mineral fertilizers for vegetables

Fertilizers belonging to this group can cause foliage burns, so they must be applied very carefully. Experienced summer residents are advised to alternate such top dressing with organic ones. By composition, mineral fertilizers are divided into nitrogen, phosphorus, potash and complex.

• Nitrogen fertilizers have a positive effect on the growth of vegetables, but an excess of the substance harms them. Immunity is reduced, as a result of which plants become more susceptible to various diseases. Most often this happens after the introduction of sodium and ammonium nitrate. To determine if vegetables are suffering from a nitrogen deficiency, you need to inspect the plants. If you find leaves with red veins, the stems become fibrous, and the buds turn yellow, then you need to apply fertilizer. Summer residents speak positively about nitrogen fertilizers, because after their application, plants begin to develop faster.
• Phosphorus is most often used in the northern regions, as it increases the cold resistance of plants. Superphosphates are introduced into the soil before planting seedlings in the soil. With a deficiency of the substance, the leaves acquirecrimson coloration.
• With the participation of potassium, metabolic processes take place. This element has a beneficial effect on the quality of the crop. With a lack of potassium, the growth of vegetables slows down, the leaves turn gray in the middle and yellow at the edges. According to reviews, after the application of potash fertilizers, the harvest becomes more abundant.

There are complex fertilizers that are sprayed on the leaves. This procedure is carried out in the early morning and in cloudy weather. Top dressing should not be carried out with dry fertilizers, as this results in the formation of small roots and inhibits the growth of the ground part of vegetables.

Dung

This organic fertilizer is absolutely safe for plants. There is no need to pre-treat the composition. You can use manure when growing crops in open ground and in greenhouses.

This vegetable fertilizer contains nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Minerals are easily absorbed by plants. Manure helps retain heat. It remains in the soil for 4-5 years after being applied to the soil. You can use horse, cow and pig manure, as well as bird droppings.

However, this fertilizer for vegetables is not customary to apply under beets and carrots, radishes and radishes, parsley and turnips. According to reviews, manure has a positive effect on the growth rate of crops. Experienced gardeners use it on light soils. Most often, cabbage is grown with it.

Compost

This organic fertilizer for vegetables is applied to the soil when planting seedlings, as well as during the fruiting periodand at the end of the harvest. Compost improves crop growth. Gardeners advise preparing compost as follows: the necessary components are placed in a container, placed in a sunny area and the contents are thoroughly mixed. Compost can be of several types:

• Dung-earthen, for the preparation of which peat is not required.
• Peat-dung, consisting of peat and manure mixed in equal proportions.
• Fertilizer from slurry and sawdust, which should be infused for a month.

Gardeners advise: it is not necessary to buy compost in stores, you can cook it at home. To do this, mix the remains of food, egg shells and the skin of vegetables and fruits. The resulting "gruel" is insisted for several months. Do not add rotting foods, such as meat and fish, to the compost. According to reviews, the use of compost can significantly speed up the growth of vegetables.

Liquid infusions

Liquid fertilizers for vegetables are the most convenient to use, as they are intended for watering plants. Gardeners have repeatedly noted the convenience of their use. For their preparation, you need to dilute manure, litter with water. The infusion should spend in the sun from 2 weeks to a month. This will increase the nutritional value of substances, which summer residents note in their reviews.

There are other liquid fertilizers for vegetables. They are prepared from nettles or herbs. The plant is poured with water, placed in a container, sealed with a film and placed in a warm place. The concentrate must be insisted infor a crescent, it needs to be stirred periodically. After this period, the solution is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:20. It is now ready to use.

Siderates

This term refers to plants that are planted in vegetable gardens, and after a while dug up and mixed with the soil. The process of decay begins, as a result of which the cultures receive good nourishment. Siderates are usually classified into one of three groups:

• Independent. They are planted in separate beds.
• Compacted. These crops grow in the same place as vegetables.
• Swing. Plants are placed between rows and beds.

Siderats can be planted in open ground not only in summer, but also in spring and autumn seasons. Annual cereals and legumes are widely used as such crops. They quickly sprout and grow a lot of greenery. Perennials are not suitable for these purposes.

Fertilization timing

Feeding vegetables with fertilizers must be done in a timely manner. In the spring, it is customary to add to the soil those substances that help prepare the soil for planting crops. This procedure should be carried out for both annuals and perennials. As for organic fertilizers, they must be used directly during planting seedlings. Manure and compost are absorbed immediately, their excess will not harm crops. But the dosage of mineral fertilizers must first be calculated. For 10 m2 there should be 200 g of potassium, 50 g more phosphates and about 300-350 g of nitrogen compounds.

In the spring you need to prepare seedlings. It is planted in soil, to which organic fertilizers were previously added. After the appearance of several leaves on the plants, a complex mineral fertilizer for vegetables should be added to the soil. You can use urea. 2-3 grams of this substance contains enough nitrogen for vegetables to grow quickly.

Summer

In the warm season, crops are in dire need of top dressing, since it is during the summer months that the fruiting period of many vegetables falls. Nitrogen fertilizers are applied only in early June. If you are cultivating late-ripening varieties, then you need to stop feeding 2 weeks before harvest. In the second half of summer, potash and phosphate fertilizers and organic mixtures should be added. In summer, spraying with solutions with the addition of nutrients can be carried out, but this must be done in cloudy weather, otherwise the plants will get burned.

Autumn

Fertilizer for vegetables is necessary for crops in the autumn season. During this period, there is an active accumulation of nutrients that will be used next year. Therefore, in the fall, the soil is dug up, having previously scattered powder or granules over its surface. They will completely dissolve before the beginning of spring. To understand which composition is suitable for autumn feeding, you need to look at the packaging: if there is little nitrogen in the fertilizer (0.5-1%), then the product can be safely used.

Choice of top dressing depending on the stage of growthculture

You need to know exactly what fertilizers to feed vegetables in a certain period. When planting, all useful substances are brought into the hole. In order for the plants to quickly adapt to the soil, you can use horse manure, bone meal, stale straw and last year's leaves. When planting, it is better to give preference to organic fertilizers, as mineral fertilizers can cause rhizome burns.

When fruiting, you need to use fertilizers for vegetables that contain phosphorus and potassium. Summer residents advise preparing the following solution: 1 kg of ash is diluted with 7 liters of boiling water, then about 10 liters of water, a small jar of iodine, and 10 g of boric acid are added. 1 liter of the resulting solution is poured under each bush. There is another good recipe. 20 drops of iodine are mixed with 1 liter of whey, all this is diluted in 20 liters of water. The resulting product is sprayed with green mass. You can dissolve the yeast in the nettle infusion and add the liquid mixture to the soil.

Dosage

Mineral fertilizers are necessary for vegetables at all stages of their growth. They are introduced into the soil in turn, between the procedures it takes at least 10 days. Often summer residents face the following problem: they cannot correctly calculate the required dose. A matchbox helps with this, the capacity of which is 20 cm3. The box will fit:

• 10 to 12 grams of lime and wood ash.
• About 15-17 g of urea, ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate.
• 18-20gpotassium magnesia, potassium chloride or calcium nitrate.
• 22 to 24 g of granular or powdered superphosphate and sodium nitrate.
• About 25 g of potassium nitrate.
• 34g phosphate rock.

Based on this data, you will be able to measure the amount of substance used. To correctly determine the dose, you need to multiply the amount of the substance (for example, 7 g of ammonium nitrate) by 100 and divide by the percentage of the active substance. In ammonium nitrate, this is nitrogen, the percentage of its content is 34. We get that 34 g of pure nitrogen per 100 g of finished fertilizer. After performing the simplest mathematical operations (7 x 100 / 34=20.58), you can feed at the rate of 20.58 g of ammonium nitrate per 1 m 2. You will need a little more substance than fits in a matchbox.