Garden Fertiliser Guide: Choosing the Right Feed and Soil Care

Choose Garden Fertiliser by Soil, Plant and Growth Stage

The right garden fertiliser starts with a question: what does your soil or plant actually need? A lawn feed, a flowering fertiliser, a soil conditioner and an iron supplement serve different purposes. Choosing by the job, rather than buying several products and applying them together, makes a feeding programme easier to manage.

This guide helps you choose between Advanced Crop Care, Makhro and Groei products for planting preparation, routine feeding, flowering, lawns and targeted nutrient treatments. Product examples are alternatives to assess, not a shopping list to apply all at once.

Before Planting: Assess the Soil First

Your garden's location is useful context, but it does not identify the pH or nutrient content of an individual bed. Wherever you garden, check the soil rather than assuming that every plot in your region needs the same treatment. Observe drainage and irrigation, record previous fertiliser use and test pH before choosing a pH-correcting product.

The Makhro Soil pH Test Kit is an option for checking garden soil or potting mix. A pH result is not a complete nutrient analysis. For a smallholding, persistent plant problems or corrective applications, obtain soil analysis and crop-specific advice.

Soil Conditioning Is Not the Same as Plant Feeding

Agri-Balance is a soil conditioner containing humic, fulvic and ulmic acids. Use the planting instructions for applications before planting or on planting rows, and the separate directions for trees and nursery plants. Makhro Biosoil is another humic- and fulvic-acid product, with separate directions for fertigation and use as an adjuvant in foliar nutrient sprays.

Choose between these approaches according to the soil, crop and application method. A liquid conditioner does not supply the bulk organic material of compost, and a conditioner is not automatically a complete nutrient programme.

Routine Feeding: Choose a Suitable Format

Organic-Based Liquid Options

Agri-Boost 20L is an earthworm-exudate-derived concentrate that supplies nitrogen and complements a normal fertiliser programme. The Agri-Boost 2L hose-clip format has its own application instructions; do not use the concentrate's mixing directions for the hose-clip bottle.

Makhro Go Organic is a seabird-guano-based option. Grobest FH100 is a fish-hydrolysate fertiliser with garden, soil-drench and foliar instructions. These products have different compositions and dilutions; being organic-based does not make their doses interchangeable.

Water-Soluble and Foliar Feeds

Makhro Multi-Booster supplies nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium, with directions for several garden uses. Makhro Hortisol is a liquid foliar nutrient containing seaweed extract, for use during active growth and after stress periods according to its application instructions.

Granular and Controlled-Release Options

Makhro Turbo-K is a granular NPK product for flowerbeds, lawns and landscapes. Makhro Multicote 8 is a coated controlled-release fertiliser with a release period of up to eight months. Its application schedule is therefore different from monthly liquid or granular feeding. Check what is already in your potting mix before adding another feed.

Match Feeding to the Growth Stage

At planting, separate soil preparation from nutrition. Agri-Balance has planting-row applications, while Groei Asseblief offers a diluted soil application at or just after transplanting and a separate foliar method. Makhro Bioroot contains plant growth regulators and trace elements; it is not interchangeable with a routine NPK feed.

For flowering and fruiting, compare the crop and label directions for Groei Fraai and Agri-Flower Complex. A flowering product is not a reason to add extra phosphorus or trace elements without considering existing inputs. Makhro Vitamino is an amino- and fulvic-acid-complexed trace-element additive for foliar use, rather than a replacement for the main feeding programme.

Agri-Boost's crop-specific application stages include maize knee height and/or tasselling, soybean V2, flowering and pod development, and particular vegetable growth stages. Those stages may fall well beyond an October–November planting window. Follow actual crop development, not an arbitrary calendar.

Lawn Feeding Has Its Own Programme

Groei Power Lawn is a lawn-specific granular product. Turbo-K also has lawn directions, but its rate differs. Choose an appropriate programme rather than stacking several lawn feeds. Measure the lawn area and follow the selected product's spreading and watering instructions.

Targeted Nutrients: Correct a Need, Not a Guess

Advanced Crop Care's Agri range includes iron, magnesium, manganese, zinc and copper chelate products. Agri-Fulbor supplies boron with fulvic acid. Agri-Fulvic Bacta is a fulvic-acid and earthworm-exudate product with separate soil and foliar directions.

Makhro alternatives include Iron Chelate, Magnesium Sulfate, Potassium Sulfate and Copper Sulfate. Select a targeted nutrient after confirming the need and appropriate method. Yellow leaves alone are not a diagnosis, and a nutrient product is not a general disease treatment.

Application Examples: Do Not Use One Dose for Every Product

Match the dose to the product and application method. Check the container label before use, especially where crop-specific instructions differ.

• Grobest FH100, garden use: 100ml in 15L water.
• Hortisol: dilution 1:250, with foliar applications every 2–3 weeks during the specified periods.
• Groei Asseblief: for soil treatment, mix 25ml per litre of water and apply 200ml of mixture around the plant base; for foliar use, mix 20ml per litre. These are separate methods.
• Groei Fraai: foliar dilution of 30ml per litre of water.
• Turbo-K: 10g/m² for flowerbeds and lawns, repeated monthly.
• Multicote 8: 30–60g/m² for flowerbeds; 3–8g per litre of growing medium for potted trees and shrubs.

Do not turn these examples into a combined programme. For Agri-Boost and Agri-Balance, confirm the appropriate crop-specific rate and water volume with the supplier before mixing if the general and specific instructions differ. A concentration, an amount per plant and an amount per hectare describe different dosing systems.

Sprayers, Mixing and Follow-Up

1. Identify the selected product, crop, growth stage and application method.
2. Measure the area or number of plants and calculate the dose from the confirmed label instructions.
3. Use clean, suitable equipment and calibrate a sprayer for the area being treated. Tank size alone does not determine the dose.
4. Follow the product's mixing order and any agitation requirements.
5. Check compatibility before combining products. Do not mix Makhro Magnesium Sulfate with other chemicals.
6. Follow label precautions, weather restrictions, watering instructions and requirements for protective equipment.
7. Record the product, amount, method and date before scheduling the next application.

Soil wetting products such as Waterwise 3D and water-management products such as Aquafix are not substitutes for fertiliser. Likewise, rooting hormones, compost activators and spray adjuvants have distinct uses; they should not be added to a feeding routine simply because they appear in the same garden-care range.

Build a Simple Feeding Plan

Start with the soil, choose a main feed suited to the plants, and add a conditioner or targeted nutrient only where there is a clear reason. Match the format to your equipment and the rate to the measured area. For gardens and small growing plots alike, a recorded, product-specific programme is more useful than a promise that one bottle fixes every soil or plant problem.