So you know you need fertiliser for your lifestyle block (read more here). You want fertiliser for your vegetable garden, your fruit trees, the sheep or horse paddock behind the house, and a few paddocks that you use to rear calves or beef. So far so good.
However, when you grow so many different things, it’s not always easy to work out what fertiliser to get. Do you need a different fertiliser for each thing you grow? How do you choose between all the different fertiliser products?
It’s also tricky to find what you need since 500g pots from garden centres are too small and uneconomical, and a 1 tonne bag from a fertiliser company is far too much unless you have a larger block.
Then there’s the problem of applying the fertiliser. Can you broadcast it by hand which can be slow and awkward, or is there an easier way?
We hear you!
Because many of us have lifestyle blocks, we’ve been there too. That’s why we’ve created a range of fertilisers and related products for lifestyle blocks in block-friendly quantities.
So here’s our advice on what fertiliser to choose, and some practical tips about using it.
Do you need a fertiliser for each thing you grow?
When you visit the garden centre, the shelves are stacked high with a kaleidoscope of packets, pots, and pottles, each targeting a specific use. So it’s not surprising if it seems like you need to buy a different container of fertiliser for each thing you grow.
However, the truth is that most plants need the same nutrients. Therefore, it is possible to use the same fertiliser blend for most of what you grow – as long as the blend is formulated with the right ingredients.
What should be in the fertiliser?
Sources list 16 nutrients essential to plant growth. Apart from carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen which are available from air and water, plants must find the remaining elements from the soil. When the soil is short of these (read more here), then we need to use fertiliser.
Not all elements or nutrients are needed in the same quantity. You are probably familiar with the acronym ‘NPK’ which stands for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. You might also know that these are ‘macronutrients’, so named because they are needed in large quantities by plants. Therefore, any all-purpose fertiliser blend should contain mostly NPK.
Calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulphur (S) are also essential for plants, although not needed in such large quantities as NPK, so a good blend should contain Ca, Mg, and S.
You might also find tiny amounts of micronutrients or trace elements included, although not all soils need these trace elements. The plant essential trace elements are:
Boron (B),
Copper (Cu),
Iron (Fe),
Manganese (Mn),
Molybdenum (Mo),
Zinc (Zn), and
Chlorine (Cl).
Some fertilisers may also contain trace elements that aren’t necessarily essential for plants, but are for the animals that graze on them. For example:
Cobalt (Co),
Iodine (I), and
Selenium (Se).
So how do you know what your soil needs?
The simplest way to find out is to get a soil test done. They’re not expensive and the information will help you learn about your soil and how to look after it.
But make sure you use a NZ lab like Hill Labs or Eurofins whose tests are designed for our NZ soils and growing conditions.
In the meantime, here are examples from our lifestyle range, two of which are quality all-purpose blends suitable for most growing situations, and a further three where it’s better to use one of our customised mixes.
Examples from our range
Two quality all-purpose blends
All-in-One
This blend can be used for veg and ornamental gardens, fruit orchards, and pasture too. As the name suggests, all the necessary nutrients are in the one mix in the correct proportions. It provides a very cost effective, easy solution for block owners. (See our All-in-One product sheet here.)
Organic Boost
Organic Boost is a BioGro certified plant food, sourced from natural ingredients. It’s perfect for growing pasture and a whole range of ornamental and food-producing plants, from garden shrubs and trees, to pasture, fruit trees, and vegetables. (See our Organic Boost product sheet here.)
Find All-in-One or Organic Boost at your local farm supply merchant.
While either of these blends will be great for most of what you want to grow, there are some situations where a specific fertiliser will work better.
Blends for equine pasture, citrus, and avocados
Equine Mix
If you have horses, you need high-quality pasture – one that gets a regular dose of fertiliser containing NPK with calcium, magnesium, and sulphur. But it should also contain the trace elements copper, cobalt, and selenium, specifically needed by horses.
Our Equine Mix contains all these ingredients to take the guesswork out of growing healthy pasture for horses.
NB: Don’t just apply nitrogen. While this provides a quick fix when you need grass in a hurry, the resulting pasture isn’t the best for your horses since it’s too high in sugars and low in fibre. This can lead to deficiencies and metabolic problems.
Find Equine Mix at your local farm supply merchant.
Citrus Mix
Another crop that benefits from a specific fertiliser mix rather than a general blend, is citrus.
This is because citrus needs a lot of nitrogen to support healthy tree growth. It also needs phosphorus for fruit quality, and potassium for fruit development and size. To get a good yield, sulphur and magnesium are particularly important. Lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges, and mandarins also need manganese.
Therefore, our Citrus Mix contains a high percentage of nitrogen, some phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulphur, and manganese.
Find Citrus Mix at your local farm supply merchant.
Avo Mix
Avocados also have specific needs. If you want strong, robust trees and a good crop, avocados need NPK and the secondary nutrients calcium, magnesium, and sulphur. But they also benefit from trace elements like boron, zinc, and manganese.
One other thing to note is that avocados are a bit sensitive to chlorine which occurs as chloride in salt and can be found in some fertilisers. So, a good fertiliser blend for avocados must contain nutrients that are chloride-free.
Our Avo Mix has been blended to take all these requirements into account.
Find Avo Mix at your local farm supply merchant.
What about lime, gypsum, humates, and seaweed?
You might have noticed that we’ve not mentioned lime, gypsum, humates, and seaweed yet, and that they’re not included in our list of essential nutrients. The reason is that they’re not categorised as fertiliser since their main uses are not to provide nutrients to plants.
However, they do have other important roles in the soil.
Lime for soil acidity
Although lime does contain calcium, it is used to control soil acidity (read more here).
A well-established fact is that soils become more acid over time. This is due to natural biological processes like plant growth and microbial activity, and like weathering when rocks break down to form soil. So, it’s a normal phenomenon.
A very acid soil creates a problem for pasture because for most plants, optimum growth occurs between pH 6-7 (slightly acid-neutral). In acid soils, essential nutrients like phosphorus become unavailable. At the same time, some trace elements like copper and zinc increase in availability, becoming toxic to plants.
Therefore we need to neutralise acidity, and lime is the time-honoured substance to do that.
How do you know if you need to add lime to your soil? Again, a soil test is the best way to find out.
If you’ve used lime before, you will know that it is a dusty substance and can be tricky to handle and apply. So we’ve solved this problem with our granulated G-Lime. (See our G-Lime product sheet here.)
Find G-Lime at your local farm supply merchant.
Gypsum for better soil structure
Is your soil ‘heavy’? Then gypsum is the ideal product to help fix that.
Plants don’t grow well in a heavy soil because the soil particles are too densely packed and air and water can’t pass through. This means that soil microbes and earthworms can’t do their jobs, and plant roots can’t penetrate very deeply.
So gypsum is used to open up dense, heavy soils like clay, or soil that has been damaged and compacted by heavy machinery, or stock treading. It’s also common to find compacted soil around building sites.
Find gypsum at your local farm supply merchant.
Humates to improve nutrient efficiency
Humates are natural substances with a reputation of being ‘nature’s soil conditioners par excellence’.
A recent study in Southland NZ demonstrated that adding humates to the soil along with fertiliser improved nutrient uptake, especially for macronutrients like nitrogen. Other studies show that improvements in water holding capacity, soil pororsity, and aeration do indeed occur, especially where humates are added to less fertile soils. Because they’re such a great natural product, we’ve included them in our Organic Boost fertiliser blend (see above).
If humates are part of your plan for soil improvement on your block, then we have both liquid and solid forms available. (See our Humates product sheet here.)
Phone 029 860 8000 to get humates.
Seaweed to support soil life
Seaweed extracts are rich in biostimulants which help soil biology like fungi and bacteria do their job.
A growing body of research is providing evidence to show that adding seaweed biostimulants to soil builds soil structure and boosts disease resistance in plants.
So if your goals are to support soil life and grow healthy plants and animals with the addition of seaweed products, then we can help with that too.
Phone 029 860 8000 for advice about seaweed products.
So, you’ve chosen what to get, now what?
How much fertiliser do you need?
Once you’ve decided what fertiliser to choose for your block, the next problem is to work out how much you need because applying your fertiliser at the right rate is important. You don’t want to waste your money by applying too much which can then run-off, or leach into waterways.
See the handy table on our Lifestyle Block page here which will help you work out how much you will need.
What quantities are available?
As we said above, we’re well aware of the difficulties of sourcing fertiliser in block-appropriate amounts. So we’ve solved this issue by packaging our lifestyle range into 20 to 25 kg bags. Some of our products will soon also be available in recyclable 10 litre buckets. These are all far more economical than small pots and much easier to deal with than one tonne bags!
Of course, if you have a larger property and the machinery to handle them, one tonne bags will still be the way to go.
Where to get the fertiliser
To make things even more convenient, most of the above is available from your local farm supply merchant, including the 20 to 25 kg bags, and you can order one tonne bags from them too.
You can also order them directly from us.
When to apply the fertiliser
As with application rate, you don’t want to waste your money by applying your fertiliser at the wrong time.
In general, avoid applying fertiliser during very wet times since this could wash the fertiliser away.
Another rule of thumb is to apply fertiliser in early spring and autumn since these are times when plants are actively growing.
For pasture:
Apply fertiliser in the autumn to help build up feed for the winter.
Apply fertiliser again in early spring to kick start grass growth which is slow in colder weather.
Apply lime in autumn to adjust or maintain soil acidity.
For fruit trees, perennial crops like blueberries and asparagus, ornamental trees and shrubs:
Apply in late winter or early spring to set everything up for the season ahead.
For vegetables:
Apply as you plant out your seedlings or crops whenever that may be.
Tips on how to apply your fertiliser
Many lifestyle blockers ask us how they can apply their fertiliser.
For vegetables:
Apply the fertiliser as you plant, but mix it in with some compost then water well to avoid fertiliser burn on your new plants.
For orchards, citrus, avocados and ornamentals:
Just sprinkle the fertiliser by hand around the tree roots, scratch it in, cover with mulch or compost, and water in, or ideally, apply just before a shower of rain.
For larger areas like lawns and the paddock behind the house:
Apply by hand or use a small spreader. There are various options available, from hand-held or body-mounted spreaders to small, wheeled carts. Many of these can be used to broadcast seeds as well.
Avoid applying your fertiliser to wet places, stock camps, and gateways.
Of course, if you’ve got several paddocks, you might be able to find a local contractor geared towards small block spreading.
In all cases where you are grazing livestock, you might need to keep them off any paddocks where fertiliser has been applied for 21 days, or until it rains. Check details on the packaging labels.
Finally, should you have any fertiliser left over, it’s fine to keep it. Our advice is to store it in a cool, dry place. Depending on the amount, lidded plastic buckets which seal could do the trick.
