Spotlight on Organic Plant Food

Spotlight on Organic Plant Food

Organic plant food – also called “organic fertilizer” – is a vital aspect of growing healthy and hearty organic plants. Often, consumers want to switch to organic gardening, but the price point can intimidate them. So, as organic gardening continues to grow in popularity, the need for more affordable, high-quality products has become more and more necessary. Vigoro’s new organic plant foods make organic gardening more attainable for consumers.

Plant food is essential because it’s a source of micronutrients and macronutrients that enrich the soil in which you grow your plants. These nutrients not only feed the plants themselves, but also encourage the growth of microorganisms in the soil that break down dead plant material, converting it into food that the plant can take in. The nutrients most commonly referred to in plant foods are “N-P-K”, or nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Product labels will show N-P-K with a series of numbers such as 4-7-3 or 5-5-5, which correspond respectively to the percentage of each of these primary nutrients in the plant food. The NPK values of a plant food matter because they help you choose one that’s most applicable for the plant you’re growing since different types of plants need different nutrients. For example, flowering plants need more phosphorus (“P”), whereas nitrogen (“N”) encourages green, leafy growth, and potassium (“K”) helps fruits get across the growth finish line. The Vigoro organics line offers a product that is suited to the specific plant type called out on the packaging.

Another benefit of organic plant foods is that the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are naturally occurring, along with carbon, proteins and other nutrients. Carbon is a benefit in organic gardening because it’s a food source for plants. And similar to N-P-K, carbon naturally occurs in organic plant food ingredients such as animal manure and bone meal, as well as plant waste. Organic fertilizer is a true example of upcycling: It takes organic waste materials from other industries and puts them to productive use.

The bulk of the nutrients in Vigoro’s organic plant foods come from the main ingredients themselves instead of being added as supplemental nutrients. And minerals like sulfur and calcium are added to ensure the ideal balance of nutrients, helping plants grow stronger. This not only helps them produce more fruit, veggies and blooms, but also makes them less susceptible to insects and mildews. Cameron Brown, Product Development Merchant of The Home Depot’s Vigoro brand, explains, “The addition of calcium helps to actually create a kind of internal defense for fruits and vegetables. If they’re deficient in calcium, you’ll start to see blossoms rotting and certain pest issues because the plant just becomes weak and sick. And nature is going to take advantage of anything that’s not strong.”

Vigoro’s organic plant foods should be added to plant soil every 4–6 weeks depending on your climate, and watering the food into the soil is always essential to help it get down into the roots. And it’s difficult to overfeed plants with Vigoro’s organic plant foods because they do not contain chemicals that would otherwise leach into soil or potentially “burn” plant roots.

The Vigoro line of organic plant foods is especially trustworthy because it’s OMRI-certified as organic by the Organic Materials Review Institute, and because its manufacturer supplies fertilizer to more USDA-certified organic farms than any other brand in the nation. They do not produce any ingredients for fertilizers but instead source existing waste outputs from industries, thereby helping give that waste another important use in the ecosystem and economy.

And finally, to make us love these Vigoro products even more, the Vigoro bags contain a minimum of 20% post-consumer recycled plastics!

We hope this outline of Vigoro organic plant foods helped clarify why organic plant foods really do make a difference in organic gardening. Vigoro’s affordable, high-quality, organic products can be trusted to help you grow your healthiest and heartiest plants ever.

 

 

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