Feeding Pond Plants – How To Fertilize Submerged Aquatic Plants
Plants require nutrients to survive and thrive, and giving them fertilizer is one way to provide this. Fertilizing plants in ponds is a slightly different matter than fertilizing garden plants, requiring different products and procedures.
Feeding pond plants is not always a necessity, depending on the condition of your pond. But if you do decide to go ahead, you’ll need to know how to fertilize submerged aquatic plants and when to feed them. Read on for the details of adding fertilizer for pond plants.
Fertilizing Pond Plants
If you have a water element like a pond or lake as part of your garden, you may wonder whether it is necessary to fertilize the water plants. That depends on the quality of the water, just like whether you have to fertilize your veggie garden depends on the quality of your soil.
On the other hand, if you decide to try feeding pond plants, they will probably become happier and healthier. But that’s only if you start fertilizing plants in ponds correctly.
How to Fertilize Submerged Aquatic Plants
Fertilizer for pond plants comes in a variety of forms, just like soil fertilizers. These include liquid, tablets and granular applications. Another way to start fertilizing plants in ponds is to use fertilizer spikes to insert into the pond soil.
If you are wondering what form of fertilizer is easiest to use for a beginner, it might be the specially prepared fertilizer tablets or spikes. You can purchase 10g. pellets of compressed fertilizer for pond plants.
Don’t think of tossing regular soil fertilizer in the water. You can cause great damage to the pond ecosystem by feeding pond plants with products meant for soil, including huge algae blooms to dead fish. Instead, use a specialized fertilizer for pond plants.
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Gardeners who opt to start feeding pond plants with a specialize pond product must follow the instructions on the label to the letter. Otherwise, the plants may die.
When to Feed Aquatic Plants
When to feed aquatic plants with the pellets or spikes? Push the appropriate number of pellets several inches into the pond soil when you plant. Be sure they are completely covered with soil to prevent problems with algae bloom. Add new fertilizer pellets every month according to label instructions.
Teo Spengler has been gardening for 30 years. She is a docent at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Her passion is trees, 250 of which she has planted on her land in France.
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