In order to bloom, set seed, and fruit, a plant needs plenty of phosphorus.
There are two main life stages in plants: juvenility and maturity. When a plant is a juvenile it grows vegetatively; that is, the plant focuses on growing roots, branches, stems, and leaves, instead of producing flowers and seeds. When a plant reaches maturity the opposite is true – the plant’s energy is focused on reproductive growth which is flowers and seeds.
Miracle Gro
Sometimes plants stay in the juvenile stage longer then we’d prefer because we want to see pretty flowers instead of more leaves, or we want our plants to produce fruit for us instead of more branches. One way to help plants graduate from their juvenile stage into their maturity stage, if they don’t do it on their own, is to give them a dose of phosphorus fertilizer.
Bloom boosters are high in phosphorus.
Phosphorus, among other things, stimulates reproductive growth. It is for this reason that phosphorus fertilizers are often called “Bloom Boosters”, and can be readily found in any store with a garden center. If you can’t find a fertilizer labeled “Bloom Booster” or “Bloom Enhancer” then look at the ingredients of the fertilizer on the box or bag and see if you can find a fertilizer that is high in phosphorus and low in nitrogen, and then apply as directed.
The picture to the left shows the ingredients of this bloom booster fertilizer. Notice how the phosphorus content is significantly higher than any of the other ingredients.
Be sure to see our next article on The Other Way to Get Your Plants to Flower and Fruit.
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Hey John,
What are your thoughts on using organic fertilizers and composting vs conventional fertilizers? It may be more a question for your wife on the health side of things, but I’ve learned a lot from some composting experts over the past year and it’s pretty amazing what some good old fashion compost will do for your plant without the use of chemicals. And it’s a lot healthier for you!
Aleece:
Thanks so much for your comment! You’re right: it is way better for plants to get their nutrition without the use of chemical fertilizers. Incorporating TONS of thoroughly composted organic matter is the ticket to immense soil fertility. On the subject of encouraging stubborn plants to bloom, phosphorus is the nutrient that will stimulate a plant to bloom and produce for you.
Ideally, plants will go into bloom on their own without any outside help, and this is most often the case especially with annual crops. Using a phosphorus fertilizer is one of those bloom inducing techniques that is only needed -hopefully- but very rarely. In that sense, fertilizing with phosphorus is more like a last ditch effort, not a frequent or common practice. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find an organic fertilizer that is naturally high in phosphorus so if you know of any, by all means, let me know.
I should also add that inducing a plant to flower is, of course, optional: some people would be more comfortable not using phosphorus and just waiting for their plants to go into bloom on their own and that’s okay too.
I personally love the ‘organic’ stuff and composting. I do like using nitrogen in my compost pile to help the compost break down more quickly because then I can use it on my plants sooner, and all that awesome nutrition is constantly coming to them in the rich, dark compost. Other than that, I prefer to use only stuff that is more natural and organic. I don’t like to use the conventional fertilizers or other chemicals if I can help it.
Production in the garden is a creation process and a beautiful process. Putting heavy stuff (chemicals, etc.) just doesn’t seem to fit that, and it just doesn’t seem as healthy.