Bushfire, be careful, it is as addictive as herps. I can remember coming across a single Grevillea flower on a walking track in Brisbane Waters National Park. I was in my early twenties and it was so exquisitely different and beautiful that it started my interest in native plants – which a few years down the track changed from interest to obsession. I don’t do a lot now due to personal circumstances having changed but was heavily involved in propagating and a bit of growing for 25 plus years.
I would be interested to know what kangaroo paws and Sturt’s Desert Peas you grow and how you have set them up to grow them in Sydney’s climate.
Fourexes, fertilizing is about providing plants with the nutrients they need. If you are growing plants on a commercial scale, then they will be removing these nutrients in the products you are harvesting. So depending upon the soil in which they are growing, it makes good sense to replenish that what is needed at the time when it is most needed. For the everyday gardener, a balanced application of fertiliser at appropriate intervals is all that is required.
C,H,O are sometimes referred to as the non-mineral nutrients as they are obtained from water and carbon dioxide. The remainder of the required elements are obtained primarily from dissolved salts (minerals = metal ions combined with non-metal ions). There are two basic groups - Macronutrients which are required in the largest amounts; and Micronutrients which are required in only small amounts and often referred to as Trace Elements.
N, P & K are often the least readily available in soils and so are the major constituents of fertilisers. Also required in reasonable amounts are Ca, Mg and S, which tend to be more readily available. Micronutrients are B, Cu, Fe, Cl, Mn, Mo and Zn. (I always have to look them up because I can never remember them all off the top of my head).
Each nutrient has a part to play in a plant’s growth and /or development because each is used in manufacturing a range of specific chemicals that act in certain ways on he plant. The basic chemistry of all vascular plants has certain things in common. However, individual plants also have their own specific chemistry going on. Growers use knowledge of these specifics to achieve desired results by applying specific nutrients or more complex chemicals on particular species at appropriate times. Hence we have the science of horticulture.
As a rule of thumb, most soils will provide the micronutrients in sufficient amount, especially where there has been leaf litter. N, P & K tend to be the nutrients in which most soils are deficient. Acid soils will be likely be deficient in Ca whereas basic soils will not.
Perennial native plants do not respond well to excessive fertilising. The roots are adapted to establishing mycorrhizal associations that allow them access to low levels of nutrients that many exotic plants would struggle to survive on. Excessive solution strengths can kill the beneficial fungi involved. Application of slow release fertilisers, specifically formulated for Australian plants, are the easiest way of ensuring they get all the nutrients they need without over doing it.
Blue
Sorry about the length. i actually developed and taught a horticulture option to high school kids when I was working.
