Course 05 · Beginner
Mineral Nutrition and Fertilizing
Learn what mineral nutrients do for a tree, read a fertilizer label with confidence, choose a feed that suits your tree and your routine, and know when a struggling tree needs something other than fertilizer.
- 6 interactive lessons
- 2 quizzes
- About 2.5 hours
- Certificate of completion
Preparation: Course 01's lessons on photosynthesis, sugar transport, and mineral absorption, and Course 04's lesson on chemical and biological properties.
Free to read. Create an account to save your progress and earn the certificate.
What you will be able to do
- Explain what mineral nutrients do in a tree, how they differ from the sugar that photosynthesis makes, and why a tree in a small pot of mineral substrate needs regular feeding while it grows.
- Read a fertilizer label's analysis, including its phosphate and potash figures, its nutrient forms, its release characteristics, and its directions, and distinguish a product's formulation from its application rate.
- Compare liquid, solid, organic, and mineral sources by how and when they release nutrients, and choose one that fits a tree, its substrate, the climate, and the care it gets.
- Build a label-based feeding plan for a healthy, actively growing tree, adjust it for growth phase, development goal, root condition, and weather, and record and review its results.
- Recognize when poor growth or leaf color calls for checking roots, water, light, salts, or pH before fertilizer, and choose the next check.
Already caring for a tree?
Start with the lessons that matter this week.
These lessons help you feed the tree you already have:
- Lesson 2: Understanding labels and formulations what the numbers and directions on your fertilizer actually mean.
- Lesson 5: When fertilizer is the wrong first response why feeding a pale or struggling tree can make it worse, and what to check first.
- Lesson 4: Matching feeding to actual growth when to start, change, or stop feeding a tree that is growing.
Course outline
Section 1
Nutrients, labels, and sources
Find out what mineral nutrients do in a tree and why a small pot runs low, read a fertilizer label line by line, and compare how liquid, solid, organic, and mineral feeds release what they carry.
- Lesson 1: What nutrients do18 min
What does fertilizer actually give a tree?
- Lesson 2: Understanding labels and formulations18 min
What do the numbers and directions on a fertilizer label tell you?
- Lesson 3: Liquid, solid, organic, and mineral sources18 min
Does it matter whether a feed is liquid or solid, organic or mineral?
- Quiz 1: Nutrients, labels, and sources15 min
10 scored questions · 80% to pass · untimed, open book
Section 2
Feeding plans that follow the tree
Build a feeding plan from the label and adjust it to the tree's growth, goal, roots, and weather, investigate before feeding a struggling tree, and write a plan and a record that everyone who helps can follow.
- Lesson 4: Matching feeding to actual growth18 min
How much and how often should you feed a tree that is growing well?
- Lesson 5: When fertilizer is the wrong first response18 min
Why might feeding fail to fix pale leaves or weak growth?
- Lesson 6: Writing and reviewing a feeding plan18 min
How do you turn a label into a plan that you, and anyone who helps, can follow?
- Quiz 2: Feeding plans that follow the tree18 min
12 scored questions · 80% to pass · untimed, open book
How completion works
- Read and explore. Take the lessons in order or jump to what you need. When you finish one, mark it complete.
- Pass the quizzes. Each of the 2 quizzes is untimed and open book, passes at 80%, explains every answer, and can be retaken as often as you like. Your best result is saved.
- Earn your certificate. When every lesson is complete and every quiz is passed, your Certificate of Course Completion is issued automatically and appears on your dashboard.
The certificate records your coursework. It does not certify hands-on technique or the readiness of any particular tree.
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