Hi Susan, Your videos, information and teaching abilities are excellent! I'm surprised you don't have more subscribers. More gardeners need to find you! Love that you are in WA as I'm in western WA on the "wet side of the mountains".
I have watched a lot of these types of videos on fertilizer. The way you presented it and in the order you did helped me to absorb the information much better. Thank you!
Thank you Susan!! This is the clearest, easiest to absorb information on fertilizers I have been able to come across. The tip about the alphabetical order of NPK will stop me from running to clarifications over and over again. I'm starting a wide variety of veg seeds for the first time and since my city yard is already full of evergreens and perennials, my plan is to just grow 2 or 3 plants of each veg in their own pot (used kitty litter buckets with handles) so I can easily move them into the right light conditions or proximity to water, etc. All considerations I have learned from you. Thanks, again:)
Hi, Pat. I'm so glad the video was helpful. My goal was to help folks understand what each of the primary nutrients do for plants because I know it can be confusing.
Thank you on both counts, Kathleen! I belong to the Spokane quilter's guild and a few years back, they had more of those floral blocks than they needed for a quilt raffle project. They held a drawing and I won the extra blocks! (how cool is that?) So I put together that quilt with them.
@@SusansInTheGardenAwesome, I love quilting as well and trying to be a better gardener but so hard here Wyoming zone 4ish but the report says zone 5 (nothing close to that). Grow season with winds June to September (if we are lucky) 3rd year here . California you just stick it in ground and it would grow:)
Thank you on both counts! Re: the quilt, I put it all together but I won the flower and leaf blocks through a drawing at my quilt guild. Those blocks were extras from a fundraiser quilt project. I love how it all came together!
Thank you. I belong to our local quilt guild. A few years back, a lot of members made the floral blocks for a quilt that was going to be raffled off. They had more blocks than they needed so they held a drawing and I won them!!! So this is the quilt I made with them and just love it. It's very cheery.
ugh, i was recommended steer manure for my garden a few weeks ago, so i amended all my garden beds with steer manure and compost last week😩😭😔 Thank you for the info tho…love your videos & Happy Gardening 😌🙏🏼🌱
I had my best onion harvest ever last year because I learned that lesson of giving them lots of nitrogen in the greening phase developing the leaves. However, onion they start to bulb I had to shut off the nitrogen and put on the phosphorus.
Thank you Susan, very helpful! Could you speak to the difference growing edibles in containers where there’s no natural microbiological activity? Prevented from using most of my raised beds this season, so thinking of trying some veggies in grow bags as well as strawberries in a Greenstalk.
Can you explain how homemade compost factors in? I throw coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, and egg shells into a pile and it's breaking down well. If I sprinkle that on top should I alter a fertilizer regiment taking that into consideration?
Susan another great video. My compost and fertilizer bill is always high then my nursery bill. I get my horse manure from the local Amish family, cuz they use no herbicide. What a beautiful quilt behind u. Do u quilt? Quiting is my winter hobby. I just finished a queen size Lucky Star.
Hi Susan, I always appreciate all the videos you do. They sure do help me garden better. I have a question…do you ever experience tree roots invading your raised beds? (8b zone) I live in a neighborhood where space is limited. One of my raised beds is about 15 feet away from a tree. It has thin fiber like tree roots invading and stealing all the water from my vegetables. The vegetables havent perform well in that one bed. What is the best practice to keep the tree roots away? So far, all the answers that I have gotten is dig up the bed every 2 years to get the roots out. I thought of laying that thick woven landscape fabric down but some say that the roots will find through it. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Thank you!!!! -Rachel
Hi, Rachel. It's nice to meet you. Thanks so much for your nice comments. Well, we've had personal experience with tree roots and it is really frustrating. Several years ago, we added 4 more raised beds to the south of our main garden, so we could grow even more veggies. Unfortunately, those beds are somewhat close to several spruce and pine trees that we had planted as a windbreak and privacy screen. The first 3 years, the vegetables grew beautifully in those new beds. Then we noticed that the veggies seemed to be struggling a bit. We were initially puzzled because we knew they were getting plenty of water and nutrients. At the end of that season, we decided to dig more deeply through the beds and discovered a whole bunch of tree roots in them. The trees directly to the south of the beds have never been watered regularly (well, only enough to get them established at first) so they sensed the new moisture source and infiltrated the beds from the bottom up. Bill and I decided that we should remove the 4 raised beds and all of the soil in them (that was a big job), and then place 2 layers of heavy-duty landscape fabric onto the ground (at 90-degree angles to each other) before putting the raised beds back in place and refilling them. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves after one year, because the plants were doing great again. Or so we thought... By the second year, the roots were back and had gotten through that carefully-laid landscape fabric. So the only thing I can suggest is what you mentioned: dig through the beds thoroughly, about every 2 years, and remove any roots you can find. I can't think of any other solution because you certainly wouldn't want to use any chemicals to inhibit the roots (we are 100% organic in our methods and encourage others to do the same, plus you don't want to kill the trees... I think!). If your trees are large and well-established, you might be able to chop back some of the roots that are heading directly for your beds. But that's the only wisdom I have to share with you. I'm sure sorry you're dealing with this! Oh, one other thing: covering the bottom of your raised beds with wire or even something a bit more solid (but with drainage holes) isn't an option. I have a friend with the same problem and she tried that but the roots just went through the openings in the wire and up through the drainage holes on other beds. Ugh! Hang in there.
Hi, Kelly. We start ours inside ahead of time and give the seedlings a bit of nitrogen fertilizer about every 7-10 days. While preparing their garden bed, we add some bonemeal and compost to the soil. Once we've transplanted the seedlings into the garden, we wait about 2 weeks and give them one more shot of nitrogen fertilizer.
They are nearly identical in the nutrients they contain. Mushroom compost is a good source for organic matter to add to your soil, but I've heard it's also high in salts which could adversely impact seed germination and young seedlings. If you'd interested in learning more about mushroom compost, here's some information from Kevin Espiritu of @EpicGardening: www.epicgardening.com/mushroom-compost/.
We feed them with a diluted nitrogen fertilizer (Alaska fish fertilizer) at about 2 week intervals until our hardneck garlic plants start to form scapes.
Sorry about that! I just thought it'd be a fun background but also was concerned it would be a bit distracting. It's one of my favorite quilts. The floral blocks were made for a raffle quilt for Wa. St. Quilters a few years ago. They ended up with more blocks than they needed and I ended up winning them in a drawing. So I put them all together in this quilt.
@@SusansInTheGarden I am one of the quilt admirers also, it is extremely beautiful. I always give your videos a thumbs-up before watching because I know you have lots of gardening experience and great gardening advice to share with all of us. Thank you. ~Margie🌱🤗
Hi, Dolly. Two very good questions! If you are growing root crops and, say, flowering/fruiting crops, that's a bit of a challenge. But you could prep the bed with compost and bonemeal (as needed) first, and then specifically fertilize anything that requires nitrogen (i.e., corn, lettuce and other leafy crops). If you can grow the root crops separately, that would make it easier. And yes, in the beds where we do succession plantings, we do prep the soil and feed the next crop accordingly. We usually plant corn in the pea bed once the latter is finished producing, which works great because legumes (beans, peas) fix nitrogen in the soil.
The best time to fertilizer established strawberry plants is after they have finished fruiting for the year. The information I found suggested a balanced fertilizer 10-10-10 or 12-12-12. If you give the plants a nitrogen fertilizer in the spring, it apparently can cause the fruits to be soft.
Is bigger numbers better. For example I have a Schultz Bloom Plus that reads 10-54-10. Would this be good for tomatoes and other vegetables that we are growing fruit to eat? Or should these big number fertilizers be used for flowers only?
Thank you Susan!! That was so informative. I used to be so unsure of my fertilizing, using all sorts of different brands and mixtures. I probably will save some money this year!! LOL. One question, which fertilizer do you use for your flowers through the growing season. They always look so healthy and beautiful as well.
Hi, MaryAnn. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video and found it to be helpful. To be honest, the only flowers I grow that get any fertilizer at all are the roses. Everything else is just growing well due to the sunshine, my occasional weeding, some deadheading, and regular watering. (see? I just saved you more money, LOL)
To be honest, I've never had to fertilize our herb plants because they are so easy-care. But if yours are struggling, you could use an organic fertilizer that's high in nitrogen such as Dr. Earth Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer. Herbs really appreciate a nice, sunny spot.
Thank you for weighing in on this. As a longtime Master Gardener and garden educator, I get asked a LOT about fertilizers so the goal of my video was to address the most commonly-asked questions. Yes, compost is wonderful but not everyone has the room, or desire, for a compost pile (but I'm hoping to change that!). And as wonderful as it is -- we use our own compost throughout the garden season but esp. for prepping the soil -- it doesn't provide all the nutrients that some gardener's soils and compost are lacking. However, I'm looking forward to shooting my next video, which will be about soil and compost. So don't worry, I'm not neglecting compost in the least, I just didn't have time to add it to the fertilizer video!
AS a new gardener, this is the best video i've seen on fertilizers. Thank you Susan! I'm in 5b too. I look forward to your videos!
thanks so much, Doreen!
Good info on fertilizer. I loved the beautiful quilt in the background which I know you made.
Hi, Marilyn. Thank you on both counts! I hope the quilt wasn't too distracting, LOL.
Thank you. It was very helpful. I loved the quilts in the background.
Thank you on both counts! It made for a good (but maybe too distracting) background!
The best explanation on fertilizer. I really learned on how to use this products. Thank you!
Thank you, Marion. I'm so glad this was helpful.
Enjoyed the video. Very helpful
Thank you, Eugene.
Hi Susan, Your videos, information and teaching abilities are excellent! I'm surprised you don't have more subscribers. More gardeners need to find you! Love that you are in WA as I'm in western WA on the "wet side of the mountains".
Hi, Laura. Thanks so much for your nice comments!
Thank you! I took notes. This was such helpful info.
I'm so glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much for such a clear information
Thank you, Sandie. I'm glad it was helpful.
You’re the best, Susan. Thank you for communicating so clearly. 🌻
Thank you for very sweet comments! I'm glad it was helpful.
I have watched a lot of these types of videos on fertilizer. The way you presented it and in the order you did helped me to absorb the information much better. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Gail! That was my goal and I'm glad it helped!
I admire the gorgeous quilt in the background!
Thank you. Sorry for the distraction, though! I enjoy quilting, primarily during the non-gardening season and that one is a favorite.
❤Thankyou.❤
Thank you Susan!! This is the clearest, easiest to absorb information on fertilizers I have been able to come across. The tip about the alphabetical order of NPK will stop me from running to clarifications over and over again. I'm starting a wide variety of veg seeds for the first time and since my city yard is already full of evergreens and perennials, my plan is to just grow 2 or 3 plants of each veg in their own pot (used kitty litter buckets with handles) so I can easily move them into the right light conditions or proximity to water, etc. All considerations I have learned from you. Thanks, again:)
Hi, Pat. I'm so glad the video was helpful. My goal was to help folks understand what each of the primary nutrients do for plants because I know it can be confusing.
🌷
Thank you for another great video Susan. Can’t hear this enough especially before we start in the spring.
Thank you so much, Lucie!
Thanks so much for this video. I took notes to remind me!!!
Hi, Vickie. I'm so glad you found the video helpful.
Love this information plus beautiful basket quilt behind you, my you're talented in both worlds of quilting and gardening
Thank you on both counts, Kathleen! I belong to the Spokane quilter's guild and a few years back, they had more of those floral blocks than they needed for a quilt raffle project. They held a drawing and I won the extra blocks! (how cool is that?) So I put together that quilt with them.
@@SusansInTheGardenAwesome, I love quilting as well and trying to be a better gardener but so hard here Wyoming zone 4ish but the report says zone 5 (nothing close to that). Grow season with winds June to September (if we are lucky) 3rd year here . California you just stick it in ground and it would grow:)
@@kathleenschmidt7074 Oh my, and I thought we had challenges in our zone!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge Susan. Greetings from South Florida.
Hello, Jose! I'm glad you found the video helpful.
@@SusansInTheGarden 💖
Thank you
Thanks Susan! Your explanation on using fertilizers was clearly presented and easy to follow. Nicely done.
Thanks so much! I'm glad it was helpful.
This was amazingly informative. Thank you
Thanks so much!
Always learn so much from you! Thank you ❤
Thank you, Marissa! I really appreciate that.
More is not better. So true. Thanks Susan. Have a great week.
Thank you, Donna. You, too!
Thank you for all your help with gardening!
p.s. The quilt is beautiful! Did you make it?
Thank you on both counts! Re: the quilt, I put it all together but I won the flower and leaf blocks through a drawing at my quilt guild. Those blocks were extras from a fundraiser quilt project. I love how it all came together!
Beautiful quilt, looks like it took alot of time. My Mother was a quilter.
Thank you. I belong to our local quilt guild. A few years back, a lot of members made the floral blocks for a quilt that was going to be raffled off. They had more blocks than they needed so they held a drawing and I won them!!! So this is the quilt I made with them and just love it. It's very cheery.
ugh, i was recommended steer manure for my garden a few weeks ago, so i amended all my garden beds with steer manure and compost last week😩😭😔 Thank you for the info tho…love your videos & Happy Gardening 😌🙏🏼🌱
Hi, Sara. Thank you for your nice comments. Hopefully, the manure is just fine.
Thank you so much for sharing! I am so excited for this year. Blessings abound🩵
I'm glad you enjoyed the video, Jamie. I'm excited for the garden season start, too!
I had my best onion harvest ever last year because I learned that lesson of giving them lots of nitrogen in the greening phase developing the leaves. However, onion they start to bulb I had to shut off the nitrogen and put on the phosphorus.
That is awesome.
Thank you Susan, very helpful! Could you speak to the difference growing edibles in containers where there’s no natural microbiological activity? Prevented from using most of my raised beds this season, so thinking of trying some veggies in grow bags as well as strawberries in a Greenstalk.
Hi, Dee. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I wonder if you could add a couple of "scoops" of soil from your raised beds to help with that.
Can you explain how homemade compost factors in? I throw coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, and egg shells into a pile and it's breaking down well. If I sprinkle that on top should I alter a fertilizer regiment taking that into consideration?
I'm planning to talk about soil and compost in next week's video.
Susan another great video. My compost and fertilizer bill is always high then my nursery bill. I get my horse manure from the local Amish family, cuz they use no herbicide.
What a beautiful quilt behind u.
Do u quilt? Quiting is my winter hobby. I just finished a queen size Lucky Star.
That's so nice that you have a reliable source. And yes, I'm a quilter! Primarily during the winter, too, because I have more time to devote to it.
Hi Susan, I always appreciate all the videos you do. They sure do help me garden better.
I have a question…do you ever experience tree roots invading your raised beds?
(8b zone) I live in a neighborhood where space is limited. One of my raised beds is about 15 feet away from a tree. It has thin fiber like tree roots invading and stealing all the water from my vegetables. The vegetables havent perform well in that one bed. What is the best practice to keep the tree roots away? So far, all the answers that I have gotten is dig up the bed every 2 years to get the roots out. I thought of laying that thick woven landscape fabric down but some say that the roots will find through it. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.
Thank you!!!!
-Rachel
Hi, Rachel. It's nice to meet you. Thanks so much for your nice comments. Well, we've had personal experience with tree roots and it is really frustrating. Several years ago, we added 4 more raised beds to the south of our main garden, so we could grow even more veggies. Unfortunately, those beds are somewhat close to several spruce and pine trees that we had planted as a windbreak and privacy screen. The first 3 years, the vegetables grew beautifully in those new beds. Then we noticed that the veggies seemed to be struggling a bit. We were initially puzzled because we knew they were getting plenty of water and nutrients. At the end of that season, we decided to dig more deeply through the beds and discovered a whole bunch of tree roots in them. The trees directly to the south of the beds have never been watered regularly (well, only enough to get them established at first) so they sensed the new moisture source and infiltrated the beds from the bottom up. Bill and I decided that we should remove the 4 raised beds and all of the soil in them (that was a big job), and then place 2 layers of heavy-duty landscape fabric onto the ground (at 90-degree angles to each other) before putting the raised beds back in place and refilling them. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves after one year, because the plants were doing great again. Or so we thought... By the second year, the roots were back and had gotten through that carefully-laid landscape fabric. So the only thing I can suggest is what you mentioned: dig through the beds thoroughly, about every 2 years, and remove any roots you can find. I can't think of any other solution because you certainly wouldn't want to use any chemicals to inhibit the roots (we are 100% organic in our methods and encourage others to do the same, plus you don't want to kill the trees... I think!). If your trees are large and well-established, you might be able to chop back some of the roots that are heading directly for your beds. But that's the only wisdom I have to share with you. I'm sure sorry you're dealing with this! Oh, one other thing: covering the bottom of your raised beds with wire or even something a bit more solid (but with drainage holes) isn't an option. I have a friend with the same problem and she tried that but the roots just went through the openings in the wire and up through the drainage holes on other beds. Ugh! Hang in there.
I appreciate the way you explain things. How do you fertilize onions?
Hi, Kelly. We start ours inside ahead of time and give the seedlings a bit of nitrogen fertilizer about every 7-10 days. While preparing their garden bed, we add some bonemeal and compost to the soil. Once we've transplanted the seedlings into the garden, we wait about 2 weeks and give them one more shot of nitrogen fertilizer.
@@SusansInTheGarden Thank you! This is my first year starting them from seed.
Thank you for the information Susan. Is sheep manure the same as goat manure? Is mushroom compost good to use?
They are nearly identical in the nutrients they contain. Mushroom compost is a good source for organic matter to add to your soil, but I've heard it's also high in salts which could adversely impact seed germination and young seedlings. If you'd interested in learning more about mushroom compost, here's some information from Kevin Espiritu of @EpicGardening: www.epicgardening.com/mushroom-compost/.
Great video! Preferred garlic fertilizer?
We feed them with a diluted nitrogen fertilizer (Alaska fish fertilizer) at about 2 week intervals until our hardneck garlic plants start to form scapes.
Susan, thanks for the information on fertilizers, but the quilt stole the show. I had to pause the video to admire for a bit.
Sorry about that! I just thought it'd be a fun background but also was concerned it would be a bit distracting. It's one of my favorite quilts. The floral blocks were made for a raffle quilt for Wa. St. Quilters a few years ago. They ended up with more blocks than they needed and I ended up winning them in a drawing. So I put them all together in this quilt.
@@SusansInTheGarden I am one of the quilt admirers also, it is extremely beautiful. I always give your videos a thumbs-up before watching because I know you have lots of gardening experience and great gardening advice to share with all of us. Thank you. ~Margie🌱🤗
@@greenthumbelina7331 Wow, thanks, Margie! I appreciate your confidence in me!
How would you handle fertilizing a bed that will have multiple crops in it? Also when doing subsequent plantings do you fertilize before planting?
Hi, Dolly. Two very good questions! If you are growing root crops and, say, flowering/fruiting crops, that's a bit of a challenge. But you could prep the bed with compost and bonemeal (as needed) first, and then specifically fertilize anything that requires nitrogen (i.e., corn, lettuce and other leafy crops). If you can grow the root crops separately, that would make it easier. And yes, in the beds where we do succession plantings, we do prep the soil and feed the next crop accordingly. We usually plant corn in the pea bed once the latter is finished producing, which works great because legumes (beans, peas) fix nitrogen in the soil.
Susan what should I feed my strawberry plants? Thank you
The best time to fertilizer established strawberry plants is after they have finished fruiting for the year. The information I found suggested a balanced fertilizer 10-10-10 or 12-12-12. If you give the plants a nitrogen fertilizer in the spring, it apparently can cause the fruits to be soft.
Is bigger numbers better. For example I have a Schultz Bloom Plus that reads 10-54-10. Would this be good for tomatoes and other vegetables that we are growing fruit to eat? Or should these big number fertilizers be used for flowers only?
Hi there. That's a good question! It appears to be solely for growing flowers. I think 54% phosphorus would be too much for veggies.
@@SusansInTheGarden Thanks so much Susan.
@@rbthegardennannyllc4219 My pleasure!
Thank you Susan!! That was so informative. I used to be so unsure of my fertilizing, using all sorts of different brands and mixtures. I probably will save some money this year!! LOL. One question, which fertilizer do you use for your flowers through the growing season. They always look so healthy and beautiful as well.
Hi, MaryAnn. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video and found it to be helpful. To be honest, the only flowers I grow that get any fertilizer at all are the roses. Everything else is just growing well due to the sunshine, my occasional weeding, some deadheading, and regular watering. (see? I just saved you more money, LOL)
@@SusansInTheGarden Well I guess I can buy more plants now😆(not that I need an excuse). Thank you Susan!!
@@maryanndobrowolski Hey, that works for me! 😆
Do you recommend a nitrogen fertilizer for herbs (basil, cilantro, rosemary, etc.)?
To be honest, I've never had to fertilize our herb plants because they are so easy-care. But if yours are struggling, you could use an organic fertilizer that's high in nitrogen such as Dr. Earth Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer. Herbs really appreciate a nice, sunny spot.
This is just an advertisement for commercial fertilizers. Use compost!
Thank you for weighing in on this. As a longtime Master Gardener and garden educator, I get asked a LOT about fertilizers so the goal of my video was to address the most commonly-asked questions. Yes, compost is wonderful but not everyone has the room, or desire, for a compost pile (but I'm hoping to change that!). And as wonderful as it is -- we use our own compost throughout the garden season but esp. for prepping the soil -- it doesn't provide all the nutrients that some gardener's soils and compost are lacking. However, I'm looking forward to shooting my next video, which will be about soil and compost. So don't worry, I'm not neglecting compost in the least, I just didn't have time to add it to the fertilizer video!