This is certainly the season, when plants are in active growth. This year, as we enter the active garden season of 2001 with low current rainfall and less than normal snowpack, gardeners can help in saving water by using fertilizers carefully. If we apply too much and jolt plants into lots of new green growth, the results will be plants that then demand extra water for summer care. Moderation is the word. The biology and metabolism of plants differs from that of people.
Fertilizer is only one component of the way plants generate their food.
Fertilizers are various combinations of plant nutrients and minerals that most plants use, along with water and sunlight, to make their own food. Green plants, the most common in our gardens, manufacture carbohydrates through photosynthesis, using nutrients and light to create their food. Humans and other animals are able to gain nourishment by eating plants precisely because the plants have stored food. We depend for our own lives on the abilities of plants to manufacture carbohydrates. This article will deal with fertilizer on trees and shrubs only.