What are Natural Fertilizers?

• Many substances that occur naturally in the environment contain the similar ingredients that are in commercial, inorganic fertilizers. Organic nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are naturally found in plant matter, animal manure and rock dusts. Using natural fertilizer ingredients is environmentally-friendly, cost-effective and releases the nutrients in smaller quantities over a longer period than harsher inorganic formulas do. Feeding your Marguerite daisy a variety of natural fertilizers at certain times during the growing season will improve the foliage, flowers and health of the plant naturally.
  
  

Plant Material

• Plant material can be dry or decomposed grass clippings, kitchen compost, leaves and any similar organic matter that readily breaks down. Adding plant material to the soil prior to planting your Marguerite daisy will help drainage and add nitrogen with traces of potassium and phosphorus. Every three to four weeks, work a shovelful of plant material into the soil around the base of the plant for additional feeding.
  
  

Animal Manure

• Manure from an animal can naturally increase the nitrogen level of your soil and also add phosphorus and potassium in lesser amounts. Cow manure is frequently used but it must be well rotted and aged or too much nitrogen, too fast is released, causing damage to a plant's roots. Chicken, bat, sheep and worm manure can also be used successfully with less time rotting than cow manure. Adding a shovel of animal manure to the soil when you plant your Marguerite daisy feeds nitrogen to the foliage, growing more leaves sooner. Animal manure feeding of Marguerite daisies should cease when flower buds begin to develop so the plant's energy is directed to flowering, not producing leaves.
  
  

Bone Meal & Kelp

• Plant material and manures all contain nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, though most will have a higher nitrogen level than phosphorus or potassium. The exception is compost, which tends to have a more equal balance of the needed plant food. When your Marguerite daisy begins to form flower buds and flowers, the plant needs additional phosphorus and potassium to continue producing an abundance of flowers. Bone meal is an ideal food for any flowering plant to add additional phosphorus, which aids in strong root development to take in more water and nutrients. Kelp is high in potassium, the chemical that produces abundant flowering. Feeding these two natural fertilizers to your Marguerite daisy plants, particularly as the flower buds begin to form, then every two to three weeks throughout the remaining growing season, will increase flowering and have your Marguerite daisy thriving. Work 1 to 2 tbsp into the soil around your plant.