A good fertilizer can be the difference between stunning, sellable flowers and sad, floppy stems. It can be the difference between a bountiful harvest of corn and, frankly, no harvest at all (trust me, I know from experience!). I’ve used several different fertilizers over the years and have finally figured out the perfect mix of soil enhancers and compost teas for my vegetable garden and flower farm. In this short blog post, I’ll share my five favourite fertilizers for regular-season gardening and why they make the list!
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The 5 Best Fertilizers for Your Garden
1. E.P.S.I.
E.P.S.I. (essential probiotic soil inoculant) is a new fertilizer from Lily Plain Gardens that I’ve just started using in 2023. It’s made right here in Saskatoon and is a shelf-stable, chemical-free compost tea that fertilizes and fixes your soil. It comes highly recommended to me by Dave Kearnsy of Kearnsy Consulting. If Dave is passionate about something, I usually go get it and use it without question.
I’ve noticed a difference this year applying it to my plants that look like they need some help. The plants in the first half of my high tunnel were doing well, and the back half was struggling. We’ve since used the E.P.S.I. to help those struggling plants and have noticed a huge difference there!
In the rows where the soil is quite poor, it has started improving the soil health significantly, as well. Case in point, I have a good chunk of my dahlias in a row with very poor soil, but I got them late in the season and had nowhere to put them. I was fully expecting them to do poorly. While using the E.P.S.I., they might not be my best set of dahlias, but they have far exceeded my expectations!
2. Marphyl
I started using Marpyhl when West Coast Seeds gave it to us as part of our brand ambassador package, and I love it for seed starting. It’s often difficult to find a natural fertilizer that is strong enough for seed starting, but Marphyl seems to work quite well, and even though it’s an organic marine phytoplankton soil enhancer, it doesn’t stink like fish emulsions. You can also use it on all your plants once the regular gardening season starts. I would recommend it, but I confess that I have a lot of poor soil, so I’ve mostly been sticking with the E.P.S.I. this gardening season.
3. Lazy Person’s Compost Tea
This happened accidentally when I wanted to collect water from our high tunnel. I set up a bunch of Rubbermaid totes along the side of the tunnel to collect the rainwater (pictured below), and in one of those totes, I had some leftover manure. I didn’t get time to empty it because it was raining as I was setting up the totes. I didn’t use the rainwater from that collection until a few days later. Any plants that got the water with the manure were significantly further along than those in the high tunnel that didn’t get the “lazy person’s compost tea.”
If you want to make your own quick compost tea, add some manure or worm casings to the bottom of a tote, collect rainwater, leave it for a few days, water your plants, and watch them flourish!
Related: How to Fertilize Your Seedlings for Healthier Plants
4. Fish Emulsion
Many flower farmers use fish emulsion to increase blooms. I don’t know if I’m a fan of it, though, as it’s stinky both for indoor and outdoor use. I used it as a flower feed last year, and it might have helped, but I feel like the jury’s out on this one. Maybe I didn’t use it often enough? Many people I know swear by it, so I thought I would include it. My favourite mix is the Westcoast Fish Fertilizer natural plant food, which I purchase locally from Early’s Farm and Garden Centre.
5. Slow Release Flower & Vegetable Mix
A normal person would probably mix this granular fertilizer with their soil at the beginning of the season. However, I’m not a normal person. I always forget to purchase it, and I always forget to mix it in, even if I do have it at the beginning of the season. I usually broadcast it on top of the soil at the beginning of the season, in the middle of July, and in the middle of August.
Two years ago, I used GardenPro Veggie & Flower (10-15-19+ Micros) with very good results. I couldn’t find it last year, so I didn’t use it at all. I noticed my plants starting to struggle from the middle of July on, as it seemed the fish emulsion I was using didn’t do enough to help my plants without it.
If you’re in the phase of gardening where if it’s not bought at a big box store, it’s not to be bought at all, this fertilizer is the one for you! Of the options in this list, it is the only chemical (non-natural) option easily found in big box stores and online.
Side note: If I was more on top of making compost tea (esp. the lazy person method I outlined above), I have a feeling using that would replace my need for this.
What do you think of this list? Do you have any favourite fertilizers? Let me know below!
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