Potato is one of the common and most essential commercial crops globally. It’s a tuber crop that provides an abundant supply of digestible nutrients and carbohydrates. Most individuals would want to plant them for home or commercial purposes due to their numerous benefits.
When growing potatoes, it’ll be imperative to consider all the suitable conditions for them to thrive well. Apart from the right soil type, rainfall, and other farm practices, fertilizers play an integral role in achieving higher yields. This article outlines the best manure or fertilizer for potatoes and how to fertilize potatoes.
Do Potatoes Need Fertilizer?
When growing your potatoes, fertilizers are essential to provide the plants with energy and nutrients to grow rapidly, enhance the rooting system and develop spuds. Importantly, these plants require Phosphorus, Nitrogen, and Potassium fertilizers in different intervals to improve their growth and achieve greater yields.
Best Fertilizer for Potatoes
Potatoes grow and thrive well when you provide them with the appropriate core nutrients; Nitrogen, Phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients. Therefore, while choosing fertilizers for your potatoes, it’ll be vital to consider these nutrients. Below is the best fertilizer for potatoes you can consider:
1. Organic potato fertilizer
It’s a natural fertilizer, having a unique blend of alfalfa meal, fishbone meal, feather meal, sulfate of potash, and blood meal to provide nutrients to the plant. This fertilizer provides the plants with essential nutrients necessary for producing large and delicious potatoes.
Importantly, when using the organic potato fertilizer, you don’t have to apply them regularly; instead, you’ve to apply it once during the planting time. The fertilizer contains essential microbes, minerals, or vitamins important for promoting the soil’s overall health and yields.
2. Muriate potash
The Muriate potash is a vital potato fertilizer ideal for supporting your plant’s growth. The higher potassium content in the fertilizer is essential for supporting firm stalks, good stem growth, and deep root system. The fertilizer is beneficial for potatoes and other underground vegetables to enhance yields.
Importantly, you can use it as a DIY fertilizer vital for enhancing the faster growth of your potatoes plants. With the high Potassium content, Muraite potash is ideal for having large and great-tasting potatoes. In addition, this fertilizer also plays an essential role in enhancing budding in your potatoes.
3. Jobe’s organic vegetable fertilizer spikes
It’s an essential fertilizer to consider when cultivating your potatoes. The fertilizer comes with pre-measured core nutrients vital for promoting flowering, growth, and producing more tubers on your potato plants. These nutrients provide the best chance of enhancing your potatoes’ yields.
The manufacturers make this fertilizer with a nutrient composition to suit the growth and help your potatoes and other vegetables in the garden to thrive. Importantly, these fertilizers come with a unique property that makes it difficult for water or other weather agents to drain them away. The spikes in the fertilizer mix with the soil gradually, releasing nutrients immediately to the plant.
Additionally, while using it, you don’t need to worry about the nutrient composition, as it comes with the appropriate mixture. The fertilizer also has spikes containing microbes that promote root growth and development. It offers an economical way to fertilize your potatoes and other vegetables.
4. Dynamite complete
The dynamite liquid potato fertilizer is a popular and effective growth stimulant for enhancing growth and better yields. The fertilizer provides the plant with micro and macro elements in a form that they can easily digest. It makes it easy for the plants to absorb the nutrients and achieve the best yields.
Dynamite enhances the growth and yield of your potato plant due to its high protein and natural growth regulators content. The fertilizer offers a long-term option as they continue to release the nutrients in the soil for up to nine months. The longer duration of releasing the nutrients is essential for the potatoes to have essential nutrients throughout the growth stages.
5. Espoma garden food fertilizer
It’s the appropriate option for achieving fast-acting and high-quality potatoes. Most tubers have a slower growth rate because of inadequate Phosphorus, resulting in poor yields. Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for your garden to enhance the growth and greater yields of your root tuber crops, including potatoes.
When looking for the best alternative for increasing the Phosphorus in the soil to enhance growth and overall yields, Espoma garden fertilizers offer the perfect option. This fertilizer contains a high phosphorus content as it has an NPK composition of 5-10-5. The fertilizer comes in granular or non-liquid form, making it easier to apply when planting.
Ways of Applying Fertilizer to Your Potatoes
We’ve got various methods to apply these fertilizers while growing the potatoes. Below are the common and straightforward techniques on how to fertilize potatoes:
● Banding method- It’s an application method you use once the potatoes are in the ground. Place the fertilizer on one row, then distribute or spread it all over the other potato rows. When using this method, it’ll be imperative to follow the manufacturers’ instructions to avoid over-fertilizing, which leads to the burning of the roots. You can also reapply the fertilizer along the growing potato sides or top to add more immobile or mobile nutrients.
● Broadcasting- It’s a popular and easiest method of fertilizing your potatoes. Broadcasting is an appropriate method when planting your potatoes in beds, as you’ll require to place the fertilizer all over the garden surface. Despite offering the easiest and cheapest option, it may not be appropriate for immobile nutrients, like Phosphorus, which you need to apply at the bands near the plant’s roots.
Best Manure for Potatoes
With the best manure in the market, finding the best one for your potatoes is usually challenging. However, when looking at the best manure for potatoes, chicken manure pellets offers the best alternative for your potatoes. This manure is rich in calcium which is vital to ensure your potatoes thrive well, and you get large-sized and flavoured potatoes.
Notably, this manure offers a long-term solution, as the pellets release nutrients gradually for more than three months. Thus, the manure guarantees that your potatoes will have the appropriate nutrient for the whole growing season. In addition, they also have beneficial micro-organisms to enhance healthy garden soil and prevent bacterial or fungal infections.
Best Fertilizer for Potatoes: Final Thoughts
Fertilizers play a integral role in enhancing the growth of a healthy potato plant and achieving the best yields. Nonetheless, most individuals find it hard to choose the best manure or fertilizer for potatoes with the numerous options available. The above information outlines the best fertilizer for potatoes you can incorporate into your cultivation. You can also consider the best manure for your potatoes when looking at an affordable and ideal natural option.