Gardening Tool

The type(s) that suit(s) the needs of your plants that is/are readily available and cheap. It is a mistake to think there is a single answer to this question. Part of the art of gardening is learning that one size does not fit all.

David

As Hare-Scott indicates (but expressed more simply), different plants require different fertilizers.

Some examples:

I sometimes feed my roses, citrus, and gardenia with ammonium sulfate. I can't use this acid fertilizer on my iris, primroses, or dianthus because these require an alkaline soil. While azaleas and camellias do like an acid soil, I can't use high-nitrogen, fast-acting ammonium sulfate on those because they want a low-nitrogen, slow-acting fertilizer.

For most of my beds, I use a hardware store's house brand of lawn food. This does not have enough iron or zinc for my gardenia and citrus and is still too strong for azaleas and camellias.

My camellias and azaleas get a commercial camellia and azalea fertilizer.

Because my orchids are planted in bark chips and not soil, I have to be sure fertilizer does not burn their roots, which are effectively exposed. I dissolve a commercial orchid food in water and use it as a drench.

Yeah, what David said. Every plant is a prima donna with its own needs and wants (minimums and maximums). Then you have the soil biota, who make healthy soil for a given biome. Biomes aren't the same, soils aren't the same, and they have different needs and wants as well. If you tell us what plant you want to grow, we will have a better chance of coming up with an answer.

Works best for what, when and where?

Thank you!

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