The BEST Fertilizers For Vegetables Ranked BEST To WORST!

In this video, I share the best fertilizers for vegetables and rank them from best to worst. There are so many fertilizer products on the market that it can be very confusing to figure out how to fertilize a vegetable garden the best way. Which fertilizers are good and which are bad? This video breaks it down so you can fertilize a garden the best way for your situation.

The following fertilizing products* were featured in this video:
Jobe’s Organic Fruit & Nut (4lbs): https://amzn.to/4cWfOgy
Jobe’s Organic Vegetable Fertilizer (4lbs): https://amzn.to/45YHmh2
Espoma PlantTone All Purpose Fertilizer (36lb): https://amzn.to/4dgECQ9
Dr. Earth Pure Gold (3lb): https://amzn.to/3MFBzpz
Espoma Bone Meal (10lb): https://amzn.to/3X9s88a
True Organic Blood Meal (3lb): https://amzn.to/3yNzMLB
Crab & Lobster Shell Meal (4lb): https://amzn.to/3T61EkZ
Azomite (44lb): https://amzn.to/3YT8pdM
Alaska Fish Fertilizer (Gallon): https://amzn.to/3XP5EHU
MiracleGro Organics Edibles (1.5lbs): https://amzn.to/4fY5IxC
MiracleGro Tomato (1.5lb): https://amzn.to/3yPwyHz
Jack’s All Purpose 20-20-20 (1.5lb): https://amzn.to/3MQ4I2A
Jack’s Blossom Booster 10-30-20 (1.5lb): https://amzn.to/3KyPTzg
Grow More All Purpose 20-20-20 (25lb): https://amzn.to/4dj0Gtg
Full Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener

TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 The Best Garden Fertilizer For Vegetables
1:09 Fertilizer Rank #1
4:52 Fertilizer Rank #2
8:52 Fertilizer Rank #3
12:31 Fertilizer Rank #4
16:30 Fertilizer Rank #5
19:41 Fertilizer Rank #6
23:15 Adventures With Dale

If you have any questions about how to fertilize plants at home in your garden, want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!

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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
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#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #fertilizer #fertilizing

what’s growing on gardeners if you ask me what is the biggest source of confusion in the gardening space it would be fertilizers there are so many types what are the differences what type should I be using are some better than others on today’s video I break down the differences in fertilizer types and rank them from best to worst so you can feel confident that you are fertilizing your plants the right way if you’re new to the Channel Please Subscribe hit the bell for notifications and check out my Amazon store and spread shop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome custom apparel and gear what is the best fertilizer for your garden is controversial and can vary based on your unique situation in this video I will do my best to break down how these fertilizers work so you can make an informed decision when it comes to the right fertilizers for your garden ultimately the rankings are my opinion based on my years of experience no matter your decision I will place links to the f fertilizer products featured in this video down in the video description for your convenience in case you decide to incorporate any of them into your fertilizing routine the number one ranked best fertilizer for your garden is technically not fertilizer at all it is compost now while compost is technically not fertilizer as we understand fertilizer to be today it is technically the original fertilizer it is what we used as humans for agriculture for thousands of years before fertilizer technically existed fertilizers as we understand them today are concentrated sources of nutrition for our plants so because they are concentrates they rely on human intervention to some degree if you go out and you buy a fertilizer whether it’s organic or inorganic that fertilizer was manufactured by humans somehow compost on the other hand is just raw biological matter it’s decomposed urine and feces and plant material and animal parts and other things that have broken down over time in order for it to be finished compost it has to have been completely decomposed so you basically no longer recognize the original materials that were put in and it basically is just a a black humus so if I break this bag open right here you’ll see all compost just kind of looks like this it it kind of looks like just a forest floor because that’s basically what it is and it should have little to no odor it should just basically smell like dirt the reason why compost is so important to add to our garden is it is more than concentrated nutrition for our plants it is a living breathing thriving ecosystem you get more than just macronutrients and micronutrients you get trillions of bacteria billions of fungi a Whole Living ecosystem of organisms that is going to come along with it and it is going to help bring your soil to life your plants need more than just nutrition to live they need a healthy thriving ecosystem to process the nutrients and to help them uptake all of those nutrients from your soil and that is what makes compost so unique and irreplaceable in the garden just like you can’t build a nice house without a strong Foundation you cannot have a healthy thriving Garden without strong soil so before we even think about planting things in our garden we need need to build that soil so it is healthy and alive and breathing because that is the foundation of the house that we are building if you were to take a dead Sandy lot and then pump that soil full of fertilizers to help feed plants that you planted in it you will not get results as good as if you planted them in healthy soil and gave them less fertilizer because that whole microbiological web that is a real thing your plants literally have a symbiotic relationship with the soil so if you don’t build that strong foundation with compost first all of the other fertilizers well they’re just not going to do it for you so before you plant anything in your garden make sure you build your soil with lots of compost make sure that every time you sew seeds or you transplant things out into your garden you add compost make sure that when your garden is done for the season and you’re ready to put your beds to rest you add compost that way you can rrif the soil keeping a constant source of fresh compost added to your Garden a few times a year so you are constantly adding back in those bacteria and fungi cultures into your soil that will keep it alive and active and that is the key to having healthy plants we don’t even want to worry about fertilizers before we worry about our soil first now that we have the soil Health taken care of let’s move into the actual concentrated fertilizers the number two ranked best fertilizer for your garden is going to be an organic allpurpose granular fertilizer and an organic all-purpose granular fertilizer is going to be made with generally speaking whole animal parts so because they are formulated from the parts of animals they contain all of the micronutrients the macronutrients and the different amino acids that were inside that animal so they are generally speaking nutritionally complete now while we have three different bags of fertilizers in front of us and they are different colors different brands and different NPK ratios they are all allpurpose fertilizers because it all comes down to the ingredients let me show you now if you look at the ingredients on the bag of this job’s fruit and nut fertilizer you will see that it is derived from feather meal bone meal processed poultry manure and sulfate of potach and it has an NPK ratio of 355 so it’s 133% NPK per volume and it also has 8% calcium and then half a% magnesium and 1.6% sulfur so B basically over 23% of what you get in this bag of fertilizer are macronutrients for the plant now this Dr Earth’s bag is made out of alfalfa fishbone meal potassium sulfate and kelp and it has an NPK ratio of 222 so 6% of this bag is your actual macronutrients so this has almost four times less total fertilizer in it than that job’s product even though the ingredients are somewhat similar this is Boma plant tone actually has the widest variety of ingredients and it’s derived from feather meal poultry manure bone meal alala meal green sand sulfate of potach and sulfate of poach magnesia and it has an NPK ratio of 533 with 5% calcium 1% magnesium and 1% sulfur so this is basically 18% macronutrients per the bag so as you can see all of these fertilizers are derived from similar things but they have pretty significant differences in the amount of fertilizer concentrated within these bags so while you can use all of these things as an allpurpose fertilizer you can see some are definitely stronger than others so people ask me all the time what is the best all-purpose fertilizer that I should buy and the answer to that question is the one that is on sale and contains the most amount of concentrated fertilizer in that bag generally speaking so basically just get the one that you get the best price per pound on because they all basically do the same thing and they all basically contain the same stuff now these fertilizers have been granulated in order to increase their surface area and break down in the soil as quickly as possible because all of these different raw materials on their own would take weeks if not months to break down but because they dry them and they granulate them when you work them into the top inch or two of your soil and you add water and then you Mulch on top of them so they stay constantly they will break down rather rapidly and release those nutrients into your soil and that is what is uh unique about these fertilizers they are actually inert in the raw form they are precursors for food for your plants when you apply them that day or that week they are not going to work they have to be decomposed they have to be consumed by the bacteria and the fungi in your soil and as they are consumed and decomposed the nutrients leech out for your plant so it’s very important that you understand how these fertilizers work you want to apply a couple tablespoons around each plant you want to massage them in the top layer of the soil about an inch or two you want to water them in very well to increase the rate of Decay and over time they will slowly trickle feed your plants and your plants will grow based on the nutrients found in those fertilizers the third best fertilizer ranked for your plants are your organic soil amendments now these are not complete fertilizers in and of themselves they are actually a component in the organic allpurpose fertilizers some of them may actually sound familiar because I read some of these off the bags of the all-purpose fertilizers that I just featured some of my favorites are bone meal blood meal crab and lobster shell meal and azomite now your bone meal your blood meal and your crab and lobster shell meals are leftover byproducts from the meat and seafood processing industry so just like the uh the name implies bone meal is literally steamed dried powdered bone blood meal is dehydrated powdered blood and your organic crab and lobster shell meal this will come as no surprise to you but they are made out of crushed shells from crabs and lobsters and your azomite this is actually a trace mineral supplement that’s made from I think some kind of rare volcanic rock they basically micronize it they powder it to the point where it is so fine you could actually mix it up and it becomes water soluble and it adds all sorts of Trace micronutrients namely soluble poach calcium magnesium and sodium it says it’s derived from a volcanic ash deposit now the reason why I classify these as soil amendments and not fertilizers is because if you grew your plants in an inert medium and all you gave them was one of these things it wouldn’t be enough to sustain the plants because on their own they do not contain every single thing most plants need to survive but that being said each individual product targets something different that a plant needs for example bone meal is extremely high in phosphorus and calcium as you would expect because it is made from Bones so this is incredibly helpful for growing stronger Roots developing bigger bulbs on things like tubers and root vegetables and they also help in the blooming process with your fru and vegetables so adding bone meal to your soil can really help boost blooming on things like tomatoes and peppers and eggplants blood meal on the other hand contains almost no phosphorus and pottassium but it’s about 12% nitrogen per volume so it is fantastic for growing leafy greens and it is great to help green up your plants if they’re looking a little bit yellow and they’re developing a nitrogen deficiency your crab and lobster shell meal is not going to be the greatest fertilizer in the world because the chunks are so big that they will take a long time to break down but what this is great is it is great for adding Trace micronutrients to the soil and it contains a compound called kiten which actually helps inhibit root knot nematode growth so if you have sandy soil like I do rich in root knot nematodes this actually helps chase them away and of course your azomite is a great all-purpose water soluble source of micronutrients to help give your plants a micronutrient boost which is really helpful if you’re growing inside a greenhouse hydroponically in containers or maybe you just got really heavy rain and it flushed out all of your raised garden beds or your garden soil oil and you just want to add Trace micronutrients back into them now what’s also great about these products is they feed your soil they all have to be broken down by the bacteria and by the fungi in the soil so again when you place them right away they’re not going to be immediately bioavailable just like your granular all-purpose fertilizers won’t be but they feed your soil so they will help grow your soils bacteria colonies and fungal colonies so you have healthier thriving living soil while also boosting the growth of your plants now in a perfect world all we would need to grow our plants is compost and maybe a little bit of granular organic fertilizer but alas we do not live in a perfect world we grow non-native species where they’re not supposed to be we grow in containers we deal with weather problems and for that reason sometimes we need these types of fertilizers which brings me to fertilizer number four ranked and that is your organic water soluble fertilizers now my favorite organic water soluble fertilizer is Alaska fish fertilizer so it has all of the nutrients that you will find inside of ground up pulverized fermented fish so for that reason this feeds your plants and your soil it’s really good stuff but because it’s been processed by humans it’s immediately bioavailable a fertilizer like this does not need to be consumed by the microbiome in the soil and then slowly broken down to release those nutrients when you apply this in a watering can you’ll mix 2 to 3 tablespoons inside of a 1gallon watering can and apply it to the root area of your plants and they will immediately be able to uptake those nutrients and put them to work alternatively you could also buy a fertilizer like this miracle grow organic water soluble fertilizer it has an NPK ratio of 9412 and that’s because it has more ingredients added to it this product has a whole bunch of additional stuff added to it so it’s a lot more than just Just Fish and while some of these ingredients may be questionable at least at first glance and some of them appear to be salt-based they are technically organic so for that reason this classifies as an organic fertilizer and it has more in it than just the fish fertilizer so why would we need products like these well we would use products in order to either boost the growth of plants help them transplant with less shock or correct an immediate nutrient deficiency so for example here where I live on the Southeastern coast of North Carolina we got 17 in of rain in one week from tropical storm Debbie about a week and a half ago and when that happens it flushes out my raised garden beds it flushes out my container garden and it just removes all of those organic nutrients that took a long time to break down inside those containers and raise beds so my plants will start to yellow unless I come to the rescue and I give them something to help boost their growth if I were growing inside a greenhouse I wouldn’t have to do something like that but because I’m subject to the elements and I can have problems like that sometimes I have to resort to things like this to help green them up also because we do non-natural things like start seeds indoors create transplant plugs and then bring them outside and Transplant them sometimes those plants go through something called transplant shock where they won’t like being pulled out of their containers and they will go through a period of shock where they will not grow very well or they could even die and sometimes giving them a little bit of water soluble nutrition can help push them through that phase a little bit more quickly and reduce their stress so those roots grab hold more quickly and you have less losses in the transplanting process and finally maybe you do things like you grow things in containers like I do well the problem is when you grow things in containers you’re dealing with a very limited soil microbiome there aren’t very many bacteria or fungal colonies in there so they don’t necessarily do a great job at breaking down or organic granular fertilizers efficiently and if you over irrigate them or you get too much rain you could wash all of those nutrients out so for that reason if you container garden I like having a water soluble fertilizer something like fish fertilizer or even something like this performance Organics just to help boost plants because they are basically in non-native situations you wouldn’t find a plant growing in a container in nature so sometimes if we’re going to grow things in a man-made environment we need to use some man made products to push them through the fifth best type of fertilizer ranked for your garden are going to be your inorganic water soluable fertilizers now unlike the fish Emulsion and the Miracle Grow performance Organics which are derived from basically whole foods that have been either fermented or superheated or broken down to the point where the nutrition is immediately bioavailable these are your salt-based fertilizers like your nitrates and things like that so for that reason they are not considered organic now these don’t feed your soil at all they simply Target the plants so when you give these fertilizers to your plants you would mix them at the recommended strength at the recommended concentrations inside a watering can and then you would pour it on the plant’s roots and they would be able to uptake that nutrition immediately but it will do nothing of benefit to your soil it’s only going to Target the plants so you’re not doing anything healthy to your soil by giving your plants these fertilizers so for that reason we would want to use these sparingly so that being said why would we want to use these fertilizers in our garden well we would want to use these fertilizers for the same reasons that we’d use the organic water soluble fertilizers to boost our plants growth to container garden or to correct a nutrient deficiency but we can do it with these products a lot cheaper now in a perfect world we would only use the organic ones because well they’re a lot better for our soil overall all these don’t really do anything positive for our soil but these are a tiny fraction of the price compared to the organic so for that reason you can get a lot more production using these fertilizers now again if you want to be a 100% organic Gardener you wouldn’t use these at all if you are not concerned about being 100% organic I would really only use these in the event of a super heavy rainstorm that flushes out your container garden and you need to give them quick nutrition these are good for container garden for me personally I don’t believe in the concept of organic container gardening because a container garden is pretty much the least natural medium that you could possibly grow your plants in so why would you be 100% organic in a container that basically defies nature that being said a lot of us have to Garden in containers because we don’t have a big yard I love container gardening I’m not knocking it I’m simply saying if you’re going to Garden in a container they don’t do a great job being grown 100% organic Al so if you’re going to grow in a container I don’t think it’s all that bad to use these types of fertilizers now when it comes to an inground Garden I would only use these if you want to boost your plant’s production and you’re certain that it will do so so for me because I have so many issues in my climate in the humid Southeast that gets a ton of rain growing tomatoes I have found that I can keep my tomatoes alive and productive more often if I give them a little bit of a product like this about twice a month once every 2 weeks so for that reason I have found value in it for my heaviest producing plants and for my container garden if you choose to use these products I would recommend you do your own research and find out if they are right for you and fertilizer number six comes at the absolute bottom of my list and that is the slow release pelleted inorganic synthesized fertilizers now these are the fertilizers that come in those little colored pellets and they are processed in such a way that they shed very slowly so instead of releasing all of their nutrients at once like the water soluble fertilizers that you mix in a watering can they take a little while longer to break down and they are typically what you find that you dump inside a spreader and spread on your lawn those fertilizers are the absolute cheapest fertilizers that you can buy in terms of price per pound and for that reason they are very attractive to people because you can add fertilizer for very little money but in my opinion they don’t belong anywhere near your garden now I do use them for my front lawn because I live in an HOA and I have to treat the front yard with Weeden feed because I live in an HOA but aside for use on my lawn I don’t let these anywhere near my garden because in my opinion I don’t think they do anything well you can make a real argument for the water soluble inorganic fertilizers that you put inside a watering can because it’s really easy to ferate your crops they legitimately do increase yields and they can correct nutrient deficiencies immediately and if you grow in a container garden they’re actually a really good thing to use but these things just don’t do anything well if you apply them to your containers or to your garden they’re not really going to do that much right away they actually tend to shed the nitrogen component a little bit more quickly than the other components so you can actually wind up giving your plants too much nitrogen all at once and they don’t do anything to increase your soil health so if you want something that’s going to take weeks or months to work just use the granulated Organics because they’re going to break down more completely they’re going to have a much better micronutrient profile and they’re actually going to feed your soil and keep the bacteria and the fungal colonies in your soil happy so if you have time on your hands just use an organic slow relase fertilizer these things are the cheapest fertilizers on the market for the reason that’s why I really think they only belong in a lawn if you even have to have a lawn believe me if I didn’t have to have a lawn I probably wouldn’t even have one and that right there are the six different types of fertilizers rank from best to worst in my opinion so if you are confused by all of the different fertilizer products on the market hopefully this will help set the record straight and get rid of some of the confusion so you can make a more informed decision about what products are right for you to use in your garden in your unique situation now that being said if you are a more experienced Gardener I would like to hear what you think about my rankings of the different fertilizers did I do a good job ranking them do you agree do do you disagree with the order do you think that I got some things wrong I’m really curious about your feedback for the experienced gardeners out there drop a comment down in the video description and let us know what you think so everybody I sure hope you found this video helpful if you did please make sure to hit that like button subscribe to the channel and please ring that notification Bell so you’re notified when I release more videos like these if you’re curious about where to get any of these products that are featured in this video I will place direct links to them all down in the video description for your convenience and for everything I use in real life in my garden in general they are all Linked In My Amazon storefront in the video description so expand the video description click on the Amazon link you’ll see everything I use in real life and while you’re down there please check out my spread shop for custom merch if you want to support the channel thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video oh boy I bet I know a certain somebody that would love a dried fig with some peanut butter on it oh Dale you want a treat come on it’s been a while since we’ve had a fig buddy i’ be gentle oh very good he’s gotten so good at taking treats he’s such a gentle guy now the other one here this is for your dad w w m so good go ahead buddy you can finish you can finish the peanut butter don’t worry it’s not a sharp knife good boy