Farmers Review Africa Sept/Oct 2018 FRA - September - October 2018 digital 5 | Page 57

FEATURE
Fertilizers Demystified
An Easy Guide to Choosing the Right Plant Food
By Nita Karume
G
oing shopping for fertilizer can
prove to be quite the daunting
task. From the numbers etched
on the box to figuring out which
particular fertilizer is used where, or
even the type. Hopefully by the end
of this article you will have gained some
valuable insight on these and more.
just marketing jargon. There is literally
no difference between products for
lawns, roses, vegetables and herbs,
etc. Inasmuch as there are different
N-P-K ratios on the labels, that doesn’t
actually mean the ratio is the right
one for your particular roses, grass or
vegetable beds — it’s simply a ploy to
sell more fertilizer. For instance, lawns
don’t really need a different N-P-K ratio
than roses. In fact, the vast majority
of plants need more or less the same
N-P-K
These three letters stand for nitrogen,
phosphorus and potassium, the three
most important plant nutrients. As
such, the three numbers on nearly
every fertilizer product refer to the
percentage of N-P-K they contain.
For example, a 10-5-2 fertilizer is 10
percent nitrogen, 5 percent phosphorus
and 2 percent potassium; the rest of the
product is inert materials.
Breaking down the Label
When it comes to the label, try not
to get sucked in too much. This is
because most if not the entire thing is
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