Choosing the best fertilizer for your vegetable garden is easy with this detailed guide. Below I will break it all down for you to make it simple to figure out what type of vegetable fertilizer to use. Then I’ll give you a list with tons of options so you can find what will work for you.
Selecting the best fertilizers for a vegetable garden can seem complex and overwhelming, especially for beginners. What are those three numbers? Should you choose granules or liquids?
My goal with this handy guide is to answer those questions and help new gardeners choose the best organic and natural plant food for your veggies.
Below I’ve discussed the differences in the many forms of vegetable fertilizers, and shared a handy list of my top recommendations.
I’ll also give you tons of helpful tips for how to determine the best one for the types of crops you want to grow.
If you’ve ever walked down the fertilizer aisle at your local garden center, you know first hand how many different types there are to choose from. It’s downright overwhelming!
The first thing you may notice is that some come in a liquid form, while others are dry (e.g.: pellets, powders, stakes, or granules).
The good news is that there’s no right or wrong answer to the form you choose. It often comes down to ease of use, convenience, and your personal preference.
However, when choosing the best fertilizer for your vegetable garden, I highly recommend you only use natural and organic ones.
Some of the best fertilizers for vegetablesWhen it comes to feeding your vegetable garden, I always recommend using natural, organic fertilizers rather than synthetic chemicals.
Chemical fertilizers give us instant gratification, but they cause major damage to the health and fertility of the soil over time.
It’s also much easier to burn the roots with these types of products. They can damage, or even end up killing, the plant. Plus, they just aren’t a healthy way to grow food.
Natural and organic fertilizers on the other hand build up the soil over time, giving veggies the rich, fertile foundation they need in order to thrive.
And rich, fertile soil means stronger, healthier plants, higher yields, and delicious, healthy organic vegetables for us!
So, in my list below, I’ve only included organic and natural options, because those are the ones that I use in my own garden.
Most types of liquid vegetable fertilizers will come in either a concentrated form, as tea bags, or as water-soluble powders.
The biggest benefit of using liquids is that they are absorbed by the plant quickly. That means they start working faster than granules.
But on the flip side, they don’t last as long, and need to be applied more often than the slow release types.
Mixing liquid fertilizer for my vegetablesAs you probably already guessed by the name, slow release granules add nutrients into the soil over an extended period of time. This means you don’t have to apply them as often as liquids.
But, it also means that those nutrients aren’t immediately available to the plant. So it will be longer before they’re able to use them.
Natural granular fertilizer for vegetablesAnother common product you may see in the vegetable fertilizer aisle is called “worm castings” (or “earthworm castings”).
In case you’re unfamiliar with that term, worm castings = worm poop. And what could be more natural than that?
Don’t let the word “poop” turn you off from using them. They look and feel just like dirt, and don’t really have any scent at all.
Worm castings work similar to slow release options by adding nutrients and building up the soil over time.
Worm casting fertilizer for my vegetable plantsNow that we know more about the differences between fertilizers for vegetables, let’s talk about how to choose the best one to use.
The good news is that companies make it easy by putting the N-P-K numbers right on the bag. N-P-K stands for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Those are the three most important nutrients that vegetables need in order to live and produce tons of food for us. The ratio you choose depends on the type of plant you’re feeding.
Related Post: How & When To Fertilize Your Vegetable Garden
Now that we’ve discussed details about the various options, it’s time to show you my favorite vegetable fertilizers. All of the products below are organic and natural, which is what I use in my own garden.
These are my top picks for slow release fertilizers. Here you will find granules, spikes, and feeder packs that continuously release nutrients into the soil over time.
This granular food has an NPK of 2-5-3, which is great for flowing veggies. It’s formulated with Biozomem, a proprietary blend of microorganisms that are good for your soil and plants.
SHOP NOWThese certified organic granules support both vegetative and flowering stages. It has an NPK of 5-7-3, and will help your veggie garden to resist disease as well.
SHOP NOWThis all-natural slow-release product has an NPK of 4-6-4, and contains 17 essential nutrients. It improves soil health, encourages more blooms, and even better, it has no odor, so it’s a pleasure to use.
SHOP NOWMy next pick is a vegetable fertilizer that has additional calcium in it to nourish your soil and increase your harvest. The NPK on this one is 3-3-5.
SHOP NOWAnother organic option, this one has an NPK of 4-6-3. A little bit goes a long way. A single application will enhance your efforts for months at a time.
SHOP NOWWhen it comes to the best liquid or water soluble fertilizers for your vegetable garden, the following choices will give you the highest yield, and are the easiest to use.
If you want to make things super simple, you can never go wrong with these all-purpose vegetable fertilizers. They work with just about any type of crop, so they are fantastic for beginners.
In this section, I’ll answer some of the most common questions I get regarding the best fertilizers for vegetable gardening. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for here, ask it in the comments section below.
Yes, you can use compost for fertilizing your vegetable garden. It is a wonderful organic soil amendment that will add key nutrients and feed your vegetables.
You can even brew your own compost tea using tea bags or concentrate, and then use it just as you would use any other liquid fertilizer.
Yes, all purpose fertilizer is good for vegetable gardens. However, it is best to feed veggies that produce a fruit with one made specifically for flowering plants.
So for those, select one with a higher, middle ‘P’ number, rather than using a general purpose one.
Whether you can use houseplant food on vegetables depends on both the type of fertilizer you have, and the kind of plants you’re feeding.
General purpose or ones with a high nitrogen (N) number will work just fine for non-flowering veggies. If yours is high in phosphorus (P), that would be best for the blooming/fruit producing ones.
Choosing the best fertilizer for your vegetable garden will be easy now that you understand what to look for, and have a good list options to choose from. Whether you decide on a granular or liquid plant food, your vegetable garden will thank you for the healthy boost.
What are your favorite types of fertilizer for your vegetable garden? Share your top picks in the comments below.
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