Why Your Fertiliser Isn't Working

You've probably been told that if your plants aren't thriving, you need more fertiliser. So that's what you do, and still, hardly anything changes. You're left wondering why your fertiliser isn't working. So you add some more, even a different brand.

But whats actually going on could have little to do with the fertiliser and in fact more fertiliser might actually be why nothing's changing.

But lets look at the two types of fertiliser first.

Organic fertiliser isn't actually feeding your plant the moment it goes down. Compost, manure, pelletised fertiliser, blood and bone, all of that is organic matter, and organic matter has to be broken down by biology before a plant can use any of it. No microbes, no breakdown, no nutrients available, no matter how much you've added.

Fast-acting soluble fertiliser is different again, it's salt based which is exactly why it works quickly, no microbial breakdown needed, the plant can take it up almost straight away. But that speed comes at a cost. To take up that 'salty' drink, water actually moves the wrong way, pulled out of the root cells rather than into them, which is what damages and weakens them. Also, heavy or repeated use builds up salt residue in the soil that damages the biology living there. So the fertiliser that's meant to help the plant right now can end up damaging the soil system.

So Fast-acting soluble fertiliser feeds the plant directly, it doesn't feed the soil. But it goes deeper than that. When you use chemical fertilisers to feed the plant the microbes loose interest and fade away. You see plants and microbes have coexisted for millions of years in a symbiotic relationship. The plants feed the microbes sugars and carbohydrates and in return the microbes feed the plants minerals and nutrients. If the plant is getting all it needs from fertiliser it doesn't pump out the sugars and carbohydrates. The relationship breaks up.

So now all that soluble fertiliser is leaching straight through your pots, raised beds and garden soil. Leaving salt residue and throwing the whole system further out of balance, so you end up adding more, getting less, and wondering what you're doing wrong.

That's not to say you're doing anything wrong. I've seen this exact pattern on farms and backyard gardens

plants getting fed constantly and still going backwards, and it's almost always the same missing piece.The fertiliser was never really the problem, it's just been trying to do a job that biology's supposed to be doing.

Healthy soil is full of fungi and bacteria that break nutrients down into a form plants can actually use, and the plant only takes them up when it needs them. Without that biology, it doesn't matter how good the organic fertiliser is, if there's nobody down there to do the handoff.

Once that biology's back, the same organic fertiliser you've already got starts doing what it was always supposed to do. Without the biology, the organic fertiliser won't work and switching to soluble fertilser will further collapse the soil system.

That's the whole idea behind RootWise Balance. It doesn't replace what you're already using, it puts the biology back that makes it actually work. Because your plants aren't struggling because of what you're doing. They're struggling because of what's missing from your soil.

Shop RootWise Balance today and get some balance back in your garden