Author: Kevin Burness Date Posted:5 April 2022
In our latest blog, Kevin Burness from Simple Gardening explains why you can't go wrong with liquid fertilisers.
It’s fair to say that in my gardens, @simplegardening, I keep the growing going! I have a lot of gardens on the go and most of them are packed with plants. It’s all part of my style and helps to create a lush tropical look that I love. It’s challenging and pretty hard work to keep it under control, and with all these plants and gardens to keep lush, it takes a good nutritional plan. That’s why I’m always looking for simple ways to maintain all the gardens, but still leave time to take a moment and enjoy them.
As the land of droughts and flooding rains, Australia is known for having extreme weather. This has definitely been the case at my place this year and leads me to a few observations I’ve noticed in my garden’s nutritional trends.
Why Liquid fertilisers are a gardener’s best friend
With the past few years being extremely dry, and now an excessively wet and warm season, I find myself embracing liquid fertilisers more than ever. I’ve always had some liquids around the gardens and used them as a supplement to compost, manure as well as granular fertiliser, but I find myself reaching for them more than ever lately.
Let me elaborate – when it was extremely dry and I was rationing water, I couldn’t justify the water needed if I applied a good dose of granular fertiliser. We run on tank and dam water and many places were on water restrictions. Granular fertilisers are great but do need a good water in, and even compost or manure really should be given a soak.
Now, it’s quite wet, and it’s rare to get a break in the weather to apply granulars and not fear for it getting washed away. I avoid application anywhere near rain events if possible, so my fertiliser doesn’t end up in creeks and oceans causing environmental impacts, so I’m not wasting my time and money. I still aim to get out my regular applications of composts and granular, but it does seem to be getting more challenging to get the forecast and weather to align with my available time in the garden.
This brings me back to liquid fertilisers. With time being precious, the challenges of the local conditions and my gardening goals, I’ve been finding I’m grabbing the liquid fertilisers more and more. I can apply a quick dose of nutrition as I water in the dry times and just enough so I’m not too worried about run off in the wet times.
As I mentioned, I do aim to keep it simple, so a few years back I started using the Ezflo to run the liquids through my garden hoses and sprinklers. It’s probably one of the best gardening tools I own and has really helped to encourage this change in gardening as well.
Why EZflo is the ultimate gardening time saver
The EZflo is a cool system and I only run a little bottle that injects the liquid fertiliser into the water. It’s super easy to use and has saved me hours and hours of precious time in the garden. I’ll probably grab a bigger one as soon as I manage to get through the little bottle on my larger space, and hopefully this will save me more time again.
I’ve found it so easy to fill up the EZflo and apply liquid fertilisers – in just the right dose and with enough water, and when I’m watering in the dry times, I don’t need to worry about the soil or plants burning. Then in the wet seasons, I can just use it when the forecast is clear and don’t have to worry too much if it suddenly changes.
Plant Doctor Liquid Fertilisers are a great solution
At the moment, I’m running all of Plant Doctor’s liquid fertilisers and amendments through the EZflo. I use a few products and this changes with the seasons and with what my plants are telling me, but as always, we are aiming for simple here. Seaweed Secrets and Activ8mate are the backbone – just these two products make up about three quarters of my liquids. They’re great all-rounders for most plants and gardens, and really cover nearly all the nutrients. I throw in some Nature’s Soil Wetter when it’s super dry to really make the most of my water, and make sure it’s soaking in well.
If you want to try and maximise your plants, you can always try a few other blends. If you’re not experienced or really want to fine tune the soil and plant needs, a soil test is handy as well. I often encourage my plants with a little boost from Activ8extra on the leafier plants in the warm season and aim to harden off the plants with some Flowers, Fruits and Roots in the cooler months.
I’ve had great results using Plant Doctor liquids for years now, and it’s not just about pushing growth and making plants look great, it’s about building the soil. The liquids are full of goodness and have helped me build healthy soil with tough, resilient plants. I’ve found strong well-fed plants handle the extremes better and can normally avoid or out grow most pest issues. Just like people, a healthy well-fed plant can generally cope with stress and sickness better.
Kevin Burness
@simplegardening
I’m just an experienced and awesome gardener sharing my own personal opinions. These are all my personal approaches and processes I use in my gardens. I’d like to help guide others to better gardening practices through my experience and encourage more successful gardening in our communities.
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Will definitely be getting more 8 weeks difference been using stimulizer, activ8mate, soil wetter, seaweed secrets and champion fertiliser. Was super fast delivery.
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