What is the difference between fertilizing and feeding?

A truly beginner question...but I often hear these terms used interchangeably so I'm not quite clear. Some people say they use compost to fertilize. Some people refer to Miracle Gro to feed. Some say they use Miracle Gro to fertilize.

Is it all the same?

Please give me the Gardening for Dummies explanation.

Thanks!
Stephanie

While fertilizing is the more correct term. they are used interchangeably. Technically, one does not feed plants, they produce their own food through photosynthesis. What we do is supply nutrients, sort of comparable to feeding them vitamins.

Thanks for asking that one, Stephanie- I'm still lost on the whole fertilizing/ feeding thing! If you use compost, do you still need to use fertilizer?

Here is my simplistic way of dealing with all the jargon, if you BUY bags of compost, it will tell you on the package what has been added by way of feed/ neutrients, so for pots and baskets, this food is taken up quickly by the plants, so I add plant food after a few weeks as the little amout of soil in the pots/baskets gets used up fast. IF I use my home made compost, I add feeds end of season and early spring to give the plants a boost, My favoured food is Fish, Blood and bone meal, it comes ready mixed with these three things, buy from garden center etc, it will tell you on the pack how much to use. IF I use animal manures, I DONT feed the Garden plants all season as this has lots of goodness in it anyway, Compost/manures help also to alter the soils consistency and helps break it up into a finer more managable type of soil as it helps retain moisture(which most plants need) it also lets air into the soil so that the plants can breath and it allows rair/ watering down into the roots, all plants need these things, it is really good for clay soils as it breaks these up for all the above and stops the clay forming a crust when baked by the sun, for veg, it helps the roots to get down into the soil, ie root veg especially, I could go on and on, but that is my basic rule of thumb, Now someone else will maybe come in and be able to tell you all the technical stuff, but I cant retain it all and I just do what comes natural to me and my plants, all types need different amounts so you will learn what they like and dont like, but acid soil plants need peat or something else to keep the soil acidic, all others usually prefere a nice friable soil, with that, you wont go wrong, unless yor going into desert plants then you just add sand or grit for drainage to keep these roots drier, Hope this helps you some, you will soon learn it for yourself, a good start is perhaps your local librery as they will have good books for beginners gardening all in easy to read instructions, good luck. WeeNel.

WeeNel, thanks for that detailed explanation. I can't speak for Stephanie, but I have the"Gardening for Dummies" book and it's still not dumbed down enough for me on many things, lol.

My soil is clay but there is a LOT of compost (home made) in the garden beds, and many of the non garden areas seem very "composty" too from all the years of pine needles and oak leaves falling down and decomposing on them. I did use organic fertilizer ("Plant-tone") this Spring on many things....just wasn't sure if I needed to do it every six weeks, as the woman at the garden center said. I mean, how do you know when your plant is "hungry", anyway? I have all shade plants like hosta, ferns, heuchera, etc.

Oh, I'm glad it's not just me, Noreaster!

Farmerdill and WeeNel, thank you for your feedback. I actually checked out a whole stack of "beginner" gardening books from the library but found them to still be a bit over my head or too topic specific. That's why I'm so glad to be here on DG!

Stephanie

Noreaster, garden centers are only as good as the staff they employ, she sounds as bright as a dud battery, obviously would rather be home with her kids or at the pub, oh well never give up, with your clay soil, the thing to keep in mind is that it dont hold onto any feeds, neutrients, as it gets washed out due to the wetness of the soil, the leaves and neddles will sure help break up your soil and let air into the roots, but just be carefull as too much can turn it a bit acidic if used over a long period of time, if you need to dig a large area, better doing it in winter, then dont break up all the large clumps of soil, leave it till spring and by then the frost will have helped to break it into a better airiated soil, but just chuck into it anything that is going to help, ash from the fire if you have any, cinders, just NOT SANDY THINGS, as clay soil is sandy but in finer grade and thats what causes it to stick together like concrete, as you add stuff each year I promise, it will get better, it is hard work, but for plants, you do need to feed quite regular, add it WITH your compost as it wont leach away so fast and the roots will get hold of it from the compost, hope this helps, Good Luck, WeeNel.

Agree with weeNel except for one little thing. The clay soils in the USA especially the red clays, are rich in nutrients and hold onto them. Sand based soils are poor in nutrients and what you pour into them leaches out fast. Compost servers two purposes, first it contain nutrients, second it conditions the soil ( allows air spaces in clay soil to allow the roots to breathe and holds nutrients and water in sandy soil) The more you can add, the better your soil of whatever type becomes. There will times when additional nutrients are needed, only a soil test can tell you for sure, but plants do indicate their needs. It takes a few years of experience to understand them however. As newbie, if your plants are green and growing, just enjoy. It is better to have too few nutrients then too many.

Hi Farmerdill, I really cant speak for the soil in USA, so my understanding of CLAY soil is the size of the paticles/grains, if these are very,very small, then they stick together holding onto moisture therefore when you try to make a ball with this in your hand, it sticks together and will stay in the ball, whereas a sandy soil,larger particals, when balled, will crumble, therefor this will dry out faster, allow air into the roots and by adding humas/compost, it will help retain the moisture normally easily drained, clay because of the stickyness and moisture, wont drain away easy, it traps any neutrients within and therefore is not so easily avaliable to plant roots, water sheds off when hot due to it being baked, like being bakes in a kiln when making pots, so by adding compost/humus to the clay soil, you are breaking up large sticky clumps of clay, letting air in which helps to dry the soil particles, the humas holds onto neutrients and over time, it makes a more friable crumbley soil that plant roots can spread and grow into. I understood, the colour of the soil or clay, depended on where, why and how the rock surface was broken down from rock to sand and what grew, grazed and how hot it was in prehistoric times, so now I am confused, we have red sandstone and white sand stone here, but as a soil, we treat it as the same, ie clay or sand depending how fine the rocks were brocken down through evolution. do I need to go back to the bottom of the class farmerdill, Ha, Ha, Ha, WeeNel.

Hi compost/hay/animal manures....all condition the soil...they improve both clay and sandy soil....if the earth that you plant your flowers/shrubs/trees/vegs in- is no good it does not matter what "instant" fertilizer you use...it is only a "quick fastfood"....your dirt needs good gutsy meals....to stay healthy.. just like we do sorry to all you wonderful gardeners out there ...but it was explained to me this way when I was starting out...and I "got" it
until then I was confused...so I hope this helps! good luck:)

Oops I forgot to say that....a large amount of pine needles usually would mean acid soil...so even red clay would have it's nutrients "locked up"....it is kind of like vitamins...you require say
vitamin E to absorb say calcium...and so it is with soils.Acid soils need a little lime to unlock all the goodies that are already under the pine mulch.I suggest you buy a good book and look at the requirements of the plants you love as some love acid conditions and some do not.Read the labels of every plant you buy and then go and check it up on the net and in the book..after you have done this a few times it will come as second nature and before you know it you will know a lot! of course we can never learn enough! :)

We do have very acid soil. All my plants seem fine in it, as near as I can tell. I do have one bed that my father in law helped my prepare and he did add wood ash to that, which as I understand it acts a bit like lime. The plants in there are doing great- hosta, ferns, heuchera, astilbe. I would like to add wood ash to this other bed- the one that has a ton of pine needles falling on it, but I'm not sure how much to add. Or even where to get more of that without hitting my father in law up for some. Or I guess I can add lime, but again, I'm not sure of the amount to add and I'm afraid of messing something up. (same plants are in that bed)

I was at a friend's house today who has incredible landscaping...the gardener happened to be there and I was grilling her a bit. She says she does not fertilize, only topsdresses the soil with a couple inches of compost every spring. It certainly seems to work there- her hostas were huge and healthy looking.

If you ever have to lime- sprinkle it like you sprinkle icing sugar(in USA and Canada I think you call it powdered sugar...sorry???) on a teacake or or muffin...(in other words go lightly)...or maybe this is better- like you would sprinkle talc on a babies bottom :)...go gently
a good compost will bring up the worms and they will work it through their systems and poo it out down where it is needed...so if the lime thing scares you....mushroom compost is really good...or just a good compost.You can also grab a friend or relly (relative) who knows about such things to lime or compost for you...I find gardeners are only too happy to share their wisdom /seeds /cuttings and a cuppa with newbys...have fun : oh and by the way I am green with envy!

My father in law has a virtual mountain of good compost in his yard, so I have plenty of that. But compost doesn't do anything to take some of the acidity out- I need lime or wood ash for that, right? I guess I just need to hit him up now for the wood ash- he told me it acts like lime, only quicker. I just feel bad bugging him some more because he has already been so generous with his soil, compost, and time. I do notice a lot of worms in the soil when I dig holes, so I guess that is good. Everywhere I have plants, the soil is friable and crumbley, like WeeNel said. The clay is there, but it's down deep. I know this because I dug a hole to bury a reservoir for a little fountain I made. The soil was crumbly and friable until I got down about ten inches...that's when it started feeling like dense clay.

Wood ash will quickly raise pH, but it can raise it past neutral. Not all plants like a high pH and some like blueberries azaleas and the like will only thrive in acid soils. Know what environment the plants that you want to grow like and adjust according. What many folks call lime is just ground limestone, It is slow, takes about 6 months to adjust, but won't raise pH above neutral. Another option is ground dolomite, a rock composed of magnesium calcium carbonate. It is slower to raise pH, but has the added advantage of adding magnesium. Wood ash is great for adding potassium ( a major component is potassium hydroxide) Some garden centers will have hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) much faster acting than ground limestone, but I don't recommend it unless you are in an all fired hurry.

That sounds perfect to me...So does your father in law....wood ash not only sweetens the soil but it promotes the flowering fruiting thing too! just ask him nicely and I am sure he won't mind....or you can burn your own ...just burn some wood! hey presto wood ash...or do you have fire restrictions like we do?...oh and when I say wood I mean as in tree branches....not treated timber...just go pick up fallen and dead tree branches ....and burn it.:)

My father in law is a great guy. I have to go away on business trip and I told him I don't trust my husband to water my plants, so my FIL offered to come over and do it.

We don't really have a great spot to burn anything at the moment. I don't even know if the plants in the one "pine needle" bed really NEED lime or wood ash...a few hostas had some problems in there but I think I've determined that it was most likely a case of root/water competition with all the trees that are in there. But, the stuff that is in the bed where the wood ash was added last year really looks great. So if lime can't hurt, maybe I should go ahead and add it around the hostas at least? Like I mentioned earlier, as a gardening newbie, it's just really hard to know what to do when you don't really know how to gauge what plants need...if they are hungry, deprived of some nutrient, etc. They're there, they're alive, is that enough? Kind of, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!", lol.

Stephanie, I'm really sorry if I hijacked this thread... For some reason, the whole science of plants really cannot penetrate my brain (I'm an artist, not a science major!) I just buy plants that appeal to me, that are shade plants, which is what I have, and stick them in the ground with lots of compost and hope for the best, for the most part. But I'm still very new to it, so I thought that I was missing out on the fundamental aspect of "feeding" and that my plants will pay the price for it down the road, so I really want to try to learn.

I saw a woman out the other day spraying down her container plants with one of those miracle grow things that you attach to your hose...that confused me too, because I assumed most potting mixes already had plant food mixed in. Wouldn't that be a case of overfeeding?

Noreaster, no need to apologize. I always hate asking newbie questions thinking I might be the only (or one of the few) people who doesn't know something! LOL

Besides....I've learned a lot from the responses to your questions.

G'day...plants in pots are a whole different ball game look on the bag...what does it say?...you get what you pay for in potting mix...the same rule applies re the soil -must be good! in the case of a potted plant ..it can't go find goodies itself ...you have to feed it. If broke and can't afford good potting mix add something (not too much into the soil) ie some old manure/compost or just a small sprinkle of blood and bone.Foliar feed is okay....when required but like I said before it is just a snack!.....look if your plants look good they are good...if they are looking sick then worry....the only other thing I can think of is too much feed sometimes causes too much growth and no or few flowers (potash/wood ash time...then) arm yourself with knowledge if thats your bag...but I reckon gardening is for having fun...so worry little enjoy a lot!

Well, I just buy Miracle Grow potting mix that says it feeds plants for three months...I add some compost and pretty much forget about it from there. I just assumed most people used that since it's mostly what you see on the shelves...that's why I was puzzled why the woman I saw would be using the foliar spray on top of what was already in the potting soil. It certainly hasn't been three months since she potted those flowers.

The amount of fertilizer in the Miracle Gro potting mix isn't as much as you would get if you bought plain potting mix and fertilized yourself according to the directions on the fertilizer. And while there still may be some fertilizer left in there at the end of three months, if you have plants that are heavy feeders you'll probably need to supplement with additional fertilizer before that. If you're lazy like me and never remember to fertilize your containers, then the stuff that's in there already is definitely better than nothing though.

ok, now how do you what plant is a "heavy feeder"? I used Miracle Gro last year in my containers and everything looked fine (to me) all the way up til the frost came (planted at Memorial Day or so), so I guess I'll just do the same this year, since I have pretty much the same type of plants in the containers as I did last year.

Sometimes the plant tag will say that, otherwise if you look in Plant Files at people's comments someone may mention it there, or if you Google for info on the plant you can sometimes find it that way too. The other way is just figure it out through experience--if your plants looked healthy last year and bloomed the way they are supposed to, then they were probably fine with the amount of fertilizer they had. Things that are fast growers may tend to need to be fertilized more often since they will use up nutrients quickly, sometimes fruits & veggies will need more fertilizer if you want them to produce a lot of fruits & veggies for you, etc. But as long as plants look green and healthy and are growing like they should and producing the amount of flowers you think they should then they're probably fine.