When a houseplant needs water, it will wilt or droop. When it needs more sunlight, it will loose its color. Unfortunately, there is no clear sign for when a plant needs more nutrients! Luckily, we have a few tips and tricks to help with knowing when to fertilize your houseplants.

Each specific houseplant has slightly different needs when it comes to houseplant nutrient amounts and frequency, but most of the time it’s hard to notice if a houseplant has stopped growing at its regular speed. Usually, your plant should get a sprinkle of fertilizer after you’ve had it for around one year. Fertilizer replaces the essential nutrients in soil that your plant will run out of eventually.

Tip 1: Spring is the best time to fertilize plants because that’s when they do the most growing. Plants that grow faster, like begonias, should be fertilized more often than plants that grow slowly, like a cactus, or are dormant, i.e., all plants in winter.

Tip 2: Dilute your fertilizer. It’s always best to under-fertilize than over-fertilize. If there is a nutrient deficiency in the soil and you have not fertilized in a year or so, you can increase the potency by adding less water when you’re diluting the fertilizer.

Tip 3: Plants that give us fruits or flowers will require more fertilizer in their lifetimes. When we pick off fruits or flowers, we are taking away those nutrients and should restore them.

Tip 4: Know your N-P-K values. That’s the ratio of macronutrients your plant needs and what should be in your fertilizer. It looks something like 10-15-10. If you don’t see this on the package, find another fertilizer stat.

Tip 5: Micronutrients are just as important as macronutrients, plants just need less of them. They are found in fertilizers and that’s great because each micronutrient plays a part in plant enzymatic, cellular and developmental functions.

Tip 6: Organic or chemical fertilizer? It’s your call. Make sure your organic fertilizer has organisms that provide the right amount of nutrients for your plant. Chemical fertilizers are formulated with the near-perfect amount of marco and micronutrients and may be your best bet especially if you are new to the whole fertilizing thing.

Source: The Sill

https://www.thesill.com/blogs/care-miscellaneous/plant-care-fertilizer