Insufficient Nutrients

Insufficient nutrients on plants means having an unhealthy garden. All plants need three basic things besides water in order to thrive and be strong and healthy. They need nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous. These elements are found in fertilizer but they occur naturally in soil. A simple soil test from an at home kit will tell you exactly how much Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorous are in your soil and if it’s enough to support plant growth. If there are not enough of these elements to support healthy plant growth then you need to add fertilizer to your soil.

Adding fertilizer to the soil is an easy way to fix a lot of problems that might occur with the soil. Most gardeners recommend that you don’t spend a lot of time testing your soil each year and just plan on adding a layer of fertilizer and some mulch or compost to your soil every year when you’re getting it ready for planting season.

About six weeks before you want to plant is a great time to go out with a wheelbarrow, a shovel, a rake, and a few bags of fertilizer and compost and start adding them to the soil. That will give the soil plenty of time to start mixing with the fertilizer and the compost and forming thick, healthy soil that is ready to support plants.

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