Let me say first off that there is no magic elixir that fertilizes all plants, all the time, everywhere. Yeah, it’d be nice, but there just isn’t any. Both organic and synthetic fertilizers can be used to supply nutrients to plants, but, with few exceptions, natural or organic fertilizers contain nutrients in low concentrations and relatively insoluble forms as compared with synthetic fertilizers.

To produce a high-quality plant, the soil in which it grows must contain enough nutrients to support growth through the entire life cycle. In fertilizing your plants, the primary concerns should be with supplying the macro-nutrients—nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Getting an adequate supply of all three of these from one organic fertilizer is unlikely, therefore, for the organic gardener, more than one type of fertilizer will be needed. Synthetic fertilizers, on the other hand, can be purchased in practically any formulation.

Manures are the primary source of organic nitrogen. The problem with manure is that the nitrogen content varies with each type of manure. Poultry manure is usually the “hottest” natural source but it is sometimes too hot to use unless it is composted first. Manure releases about half its nitrogen the first year and the rest remains in the soil for subsequent years. Nitrogen in sources such as dried blood, alfalfa meal and the seed meals is released almost entirely in the first season leaving little residual nitrogen for the following seasons.

Bone meal, the oldest phosphorus fertilizer, is rather expensive. Rock phosphate, mined from deposits, has a high phosphorus analysis, but the material is very slow to release. Colloidal rock phosphate is claimed to release phosphorus more readily.

Dried manures have about 2 percent available potash and fresh manures with bedding a little less. Fertilization programs to provide other plant nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum and chlorine are usually not necessary in an organic system. These minor elements come as impurities in natural fertilizers.

Synthetic fertilizers, on the other hand, come dry, in a handy-dandy bag with the ingredients and percentages marked on it, and you can buy just about any concoction you can dream up. Personally, I use 19-5-9 slow- release (with most of the micro-nutrients in it, also) in all my beds and 20-20-20 on the potted plants. If you have Osmocote 14-14-14, use it generously in the potted plants and you’ll be fertilizing every time you water for several weeks.

If you use the synthetics, remember that they don’t do much good if you don’t water them in real good (at least ½ inch of water) immediately after you apply them.


Don’t take the description “evergreen” plants too literally, expecting leaves to persist forever. Plants like magnolias, live oak, gardenia, and some hollies lose some of their old leaves in late spring and early summer. The flush of new growth on many evergreens will cause older leaves to yellow and drop, sometimes all at once. It’s nothing to be concerned about; just nature putting on a new spring coat of green and discarding the old.

Leaf Spot

Leaf spot on red-tip photinias is a disease which can defoliate, weaken and potentially kill limbs. Indian Hawthorns can also get this disease which is characterized by dark, purple-colored spots on the leaves. Prevention is the best remedy to control this Entomosporium leaf spot.

Plant Lice

Aphids, or plant lice, can be found on tender, new growth of all types of plants. There are lots of them out already. Aphids are small, soft-bodied insects that suck plant sap, often occurring in very large numbers.

There are several naturally occurring enemies of aphids which can efficiently reduce a small infestation. Usually beneficial insects (lady beetles, lacewings, parasitic wasps) do a good job of keeping aphid populations under control.


Tom Harris