Why fertilizer can make things worse

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]So, for fertilizer, um, another thing you noted, which is really important, is it should only be used if there is a deficit in the soil. A lot of fly-by-night companies will say, "Oh, your tree's not doing so well? Well, let's just give it some fertilizer." And often that actually doesn't solve any problems. It can make them worse because you don't know what's actually wrong.

[00:00:19]It's like, um, it's like giving out too many, um, uh, antibiotics because someone has a cold or something else and it's just kind of this, "Well, let's just throw it at it and see if it works." It's like, "Well, actually you're not solving any problem because you don't know what the problem is." So, you should always get a soils test to say, "Ah, it looks like this macronutrient or this, um, particular, uh, different thing is really in a in a deficit in the soil. Then you can add that in." But you can also do things like what you're talking about, add in the compost that will add that in over a longer period of time. So, making sure you know what is lacking before you add in that fertilizer, you might get a really nice big green flush because there's a lot more phosphorus. Then the tree's like, "Well, I'm really happy."

[00:01:02]But trees are really big. So, if you add a certain amount of fertilizer, they're going to use it up just like that. You have to make sure that it's either a long-term process, but you also are not fixing the ecosystem. And that's something I always always recommend.