3 kinds of fertilizers

It is simple to buy and use the best natural fertilizers — as well as soil-friendly synthetic forms, which are the next best choice. Here's a quick rundown of the three fertilizers you might want to use to keep your plants healthy.

Plants growing in healthy, enriched soil continuously take up nutrients through their roots, which they use to grow leaves, stems, flowers, and fruits. Plants vary in their nutrient requirements, with some needing much more fertilizer than others.

• Spinach and broccoli, for example, are heavy feeders, while lettuce and most legumes require less fertilizer.
• Long-lived trees and shrubs often do a good job of foraging for nutrients with their huge root systems.

Today, garden centre shelves are bursting with fertilizer choices, but depending on your gardening style, you probably need three or fewer products.

• Keeping plants well fed isn't difficult, although choosing fertilizers can be confusing.
• Gardeners used to rely on natural nutrient sources such as animal manures before chemical fertilizers became the inexpensive and easy-to-handle replacement.

These are dry powders, granules, or pellets made from plant or animal matter along with rock phosphate, granite dust, or other minerals.

• They persist in the soil for months, slowly releasing their nutrients.
• More nutrients are released when the soil is warm because soil microorganisms are most active in warm, moist soil.

These are synthetic rather than organic, but many gardeners prefer them for fertilizing lawns, shrubs, and perennial flowers.

• Nutrients are released to plants slowly, and warm temperatures and repeated rainfall increase the speed of nutrient release.

These provide nutrients that are immediately available to plants, so they yield fast results.

• Organic liquid fertilizers usually include fish byproducts, and synthetic forms are widely available, too.
• Use liquids to feed most container-grown plants and to treat nutritional deficiencies.
• When stressed by lack of nutrients, most plants can take up the nutrients present in liquid fertilizer through their roots and leaves.