What is NPK? What does a plant need?

N stands for nitrogen, P for phosphorus and P for potassium, all plants need them to be able to survive. You can provide that with a standard inorganic fertilizer.

You can use a fertilizer to provide your plant what it needs,  all easily available online.

Fertilizers are for plants like shoes for humans, its good to have good ones but the most important is to eat and drink to be able to survive. Plants do not eat food, they create the “food” by “themselves”, sugar by the photosynthesis. Sure they will look better with a pair of good shoes.

green leaf in close up photography
Photo by Petr Ganaj on Pexels.com

For summer, use fertilizer but only 50% of the recommended dose that is on the label of the bottle. For winter…. well usually we recommend you to not use them. Even if you have a good setting (lamps and so on) its hard to 100% replicate the sun. However you can use 25% of the recommended dose that is on the label of the bottle but again, only if you have a good setting of lamps and temperature.

Calcium is a vital plant nutrient, responsible for strong cell health and overall plant vigor; it is also a non-mobile nutrient, meaning the plant cannot pull calcium from older leaves and use it for new growth (like it can do with nitrogen, iron and other key nutrients). All plants need a small but steady supply of Calcium during growth and in most cases Calcium is already available in your potting media if you’re using a high-quality mix. Some add bones or crushed egg shells, however in a potted plant you have to know that it can cause root rot if the egg shell is not clean from bacteria. You can either microwave them or heat them up to 200 degrees Celsius before you add them to you mix.

How about Lechuza pots and pon?

Usually when you buy Lechuza pots they will come with some of their Lechuza pon. In that pon there is some small balls (“slow releasing balls”) that contain NPK sufficient enough for 6 months. However, if you are using Lechuza pon, there are “refillers” that you can use after those 6 months.

How do Plantasweden do it?

Sometimes we will ship plants that need repotting into bigger pots, repot only until it has outgrown its current pot. Our soil mix has been specially formulated to provide the essential nutrients your plant needs.

We will soon announce our own soil mix as a product for everyone to be able to buy, mixed by professionals. And yes we promise that it will suit your favorite aroid or monstera variegata 🙂

/www.plantasweden.se