We begin each spring with a review of a few garden acronyms that are quite useful to remember. And since I am negligent at math, let’s do that first.

The mystery surrounding the fertilizer label doesn’t have to be hard if we just recall that it’s all a percentage of 100. So, if our label reads “10-15-8” it tells us that 10% is nitrogen, 15% is phosphorus, and 8% is potassium. Other elements may be present but only in trace amounts.

And that’s where the NPK system begins. The first element listed, nitrogen (N), is, as you already know, responsible for the growth of the green, leafy, vegetative parts of plants. Our second element, phosphorus (P), promotes increases of flowering parts and stimulates strong root growth. And the third element, potassium (K), is responsible for strong root growth, including bulbs and tubers. Think carrots and potatoes.

But why the “K”? The NPK system is alphabetical, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, with potassium turning to its Latin roots (pun intended), that of kalium.

Yet how do we know, on a local level, what our soil needs if there is a deficiency? Many times, even without a complex soil sampling kit, or a send-off of our soil to be analyzed, we may be able to determine what our plants are deficient of and make the corrections ourselves just through simple observations.

The word “chlorotic” is used to describe a yellowing of leaves not usually meant to be yellow. So just thinking back to our NPK system, which element is responsible for green, vegetative growth? That’s right, the nitrogen. Are the leaf tips brown and curled up, looking like the plant has been scorched? This could be from a deficiency of potassium, again, creating a block to the essential process of photosynthesis which is vital and necessary to produce the food we eat.

Soil test kits can be purchased locally or online. It’s helpful to do your research first before looking locally for a soil test kit. Then you will be in a better position to make the correct purchase.

I kept finding that the ratings for the soil probe were consistently the most reliable and easiest to use. It can cost anywhere between $16 and $85 for the professional grade soil probe.

So, when looking for soil testing, think also of the pH (parts hydrogen) as derived from a scale where 0 is acidic and 14 is alkaline. A pH of 7 is neutral. Most, but not all, plants thrive in a slightly acidic to neutral range, between 5.5 and 7.

So this leaves us with the interesting fact that normal human blood is in the range of 7.35 to 7.45, leaving us slightly alkaline. Just a little “off” from most fruits and vegetables. I think that’s just fine.