How To Fertilize a Money Tree | Step-By-Step Guide
Learn more about Money Trees, their history, how to care for them, and all their quirks on this Plant School Podcast episode, below;
The Money Tree (Pachira aquatica) originates in Mexico to northern South America. It’s also known as the French Peanut, Guiana Chestnut, Malabar Chestnut, Money Plant, Monguba (in Brazil), Pochota, Pumpo (in Guatemala), Provision Tree, and Saba Nut. Whew, that’s quite the list of names! Despite all these names, it has one way that’s best to fertilize it.
If you’re wanting to keep your Money Tree in its best shape possible and growing each year, it is in your best interest to fertilize it.
To start, I want to briefly cover some basics to fertilizing to avoid mistakes and errors that could harm your Money Tree. But don’t worry, as always, I’ll be explaining it as simply and quickly as possible. Once you’ve finished reading, you’ll be ready to fertilize your Money Tree and understand why you’re doing it in the first place!
Benefits to Fertilizing
First thing you should know, fertilizing your plant can be compared to giving it a vitamin. And just as a vitamin does, it provides nutrients and keeps the consumer in good health, BUT it’s not necessary for its survival. In other words, your Money Tree will not die all of the sudden because you decide not to give it it’s “vitamin”. It can take years for your plant to show nutrient deficiencies and that it needs some fertilizer via yellow leaves or discoloration of leaves in general. Fertilizing your Money Tree can help it have optimum growth, have less problems, and keep it in good health if properly done. So if this is what you’re wanting for your Money Tree, then let’s get fertilizing!
What Fertilizer To Use
Let’s be honest, choosing a fertilizer can be overwhelming because there’s so many products and options out there. Just the sheer amount of options could even stop you from starting. Some fertilizers are better than others, and I’m here to help!
My personal opinion is to steer clear of organic fertilizers including things such as “fish meal”, “blood meal”, “worm poop”, etc. There are a lot of different types that will tout how organic they are and have catchy names but most, if not all of them, have little nutritional value and are more expensive than the standard fertilizer. The only upside of these organic fertilizers is that they definitely are environmentally friendly, but I would argue that normal fertilizers are just as environmentally friendly when they’re used properly.
As long as you aren’t dumping your fertilizer down the drain or into your local river, you won’t be having a negative impact on the environment with your normal “un-organic” fertilizer. That’s my two cents on buying organic fertilizers, and you’re welcome to take it or leave it.
I have been using Schultz 10-15-10 Plant Food Fertilizer for my Money Tree. I’ll put its Amazon link right here. (I am an Amazon Associates and earn a small commission from sales that use these links at no extra cost to you.)
I’m not being paid by this company to recommend this product to you, it’s just one that I’ve personally used and have great results with. I’ve used it for about a two years now and it’s given me and my Money Tree no problems at all to complain about. It has good nutritional value that can be used on most all houseplants as well. It also lasts a long time because it is nutritionally dense and only a little bit is needed at a time with each use. Like I said, I’ve been using it for over 2 years and I’m still not even halfway through it. It’s definitely a worthy investment for a healthy indoor plants.
Understanding Your Fertilizer
So we’ve got a fertilizer but let’s take a second to understand how the fertilizer is going to work with
the soil and your Money Tree. The 10-15-10 on the fertilizer label relates to the percentage in active ingredients of NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium(K)), in that order. You will ALWAYS find these numbers listed on every fertilizer so you can compare their NPK values. With that in mind, Schultz 10-15-10 Plant Food Fertilizer, has 10% of the active ingredients is nitrogen, another 15% is phosphorus, and 10% for potassium. The remaining percentage is micronutrients or other needed fertilizer ingredients.
N, P, and K are considered to be the three main macronutrients that all plants need and in larger quantities than other nutrients. Nitrogen helps with overall greenness, phosphorus helps with flower development and roots, and potassium helps with the general cellular functions.
So why are we putting these nutrients into your plants soil? To put it simply, each time you water your Money Tree, it takes up nutrients and water through its roots to be used for growth and to be able to function. These nutrients in the soil aren’t magically renewed and so they are slowly depleted by the plant taking them up. If you were to decide to never fertilize your plant, it would eventually run out of key nutrients and show signs of deficiencies with yellowing leaves, off-color leaves, etc. This would especially be the case if you also decided to never replace it’s soil since repotting your plant can supply it with needed nutrients.
Understand that the Money Tree will naturally have leaves turn yellow and die every once in a while when the leaves are old or in cases of watering or other issues. So don’t assume that yellowing leaves mean that you need fertilizer and that the fertilizer will solve all of your Money Tree’s problems, because it won’t.
How Often Should I Fertilize My Money Tree
Even though some sources might tell you otherwise, there’s really not a certain time of year or strict schedule to follow with fertilizing your Money Tree. You’re the one that knows your plant best and it’s mainly the amount of sun that your Money Tree is getting that will determine how often you should or shouldn’t be fertilizing it. For that reason, some people will fertilize more in the summer and less in the winter due to light levels changing. Here are some general guidelines that you can refer to when fertilizing your Money Tree:
- High light = Fertilize every month
- Medium light = fertilize four times a year
- Low light = fertilize once or twice a year
If you decide to fertilize your Money Tree a more often than the guidelines above, you risk over-fertilization and loading up your Money tree with too many nutrients. The reason why we don’t want this is because it can create nutrient toxicity or fertilizer burn. You’ll see this manifested in crisp leaf edges, especially on the tips, or sudden yellowing leaves.
And why should we fertilize more often when your Money Tree is getting more light? Because more light equals the plant taking up nutrients rapidly to keep up with all the energy it’s getting from the sun. A plant in low light is not growing quickly and not taking up those nutrients very fast, therefore, will not need to be fertilized as often. If you’re still not sure or doubt your ability to know how much light your Money Tree is getting, go on the conservative side and only do it twice a year. More is always less when it comes to fertilizing!
Fertilization Steps
You’ve got down the fertilization basics, its benefits, and the frequency it should occur, so you are now ready to fertilize your Money Tree! Before we begin, check off the following two statements to make sure you’re actually ready to fertilize.
- My Money Tree is in good health & has no underlying conditions
- I am not fertilizing to fix present problems with my Money Tree
The reason I have you check off these two boxes is because too many times I see people use fertilizer as a sort of “Hail Mary” to fix all of their plant’s problems and get the plant back to it’s tip-top shape that it came from the greenhouse in. Unfortunately, fertilizing doesn’t work that way. If your Money Tree is already dealing with another problem like improper watering practices, pests, sun scorch, etc., then fertilizing it will just add stress and could cause more harm than help. Fertilizing is a stress to a plant and sometimes the stress can push the plant over the edge and cause it to die. If your Money Tree isn’t struggling with any outside factors and is in good health, it will handle being fertilized just fine!
#1: Gather Supplies
Fertilizing is a rather simple process so your list of needed supplies should be pretty small. All you’re going to need is your fertilizer of choice, in this case I’m using Schultz 10-15-10 Plant Food. You’ll also need a clean watering can or bucket (I keep a separate bucket just for fertilizing so I don’t accidentally have fertilizer where it’s not wanted), a liquid measuring cup, and your Money Tree, of course.
#2: Mix Water and Fertilizer
This step is probably the most important because it’s where damage can happen if done improperly! If you use too much fertilizer, you risk causing fertilizer burn which can damage your plant with browned leaf tips and edges (more details on step 4). Read the label of your chosen fertilizer and make sure that you’re adding the right amount of fertilizer for the amount of water you have measured out. If anything, err on the side of adding less fertilizer than what the fertilizer says to add to avoid damaging your Money Tree.
Put the fertilizer into room-temperature water. We don’t want it too cold as it can shock the plant and we don’t want it too hot as that could permanently damage the plant. Give it a good mix around with a stick or spoon to ensure that it fully dissolves into the water.
#3: Drench Soil
Fully drench/saturate the soil with your fertilizer water so that water comes out of the bottom drainage holes of your pot. This will
ensure that ALL of the soil in the pot has a chance to replenish its nutrients and reach all of the roots. This can help the plant not get fertilizer burn as well. I recommend placing your Money Tree in the sink or somewhere where you don’t mind the excess water running out.
**If your Money Tree’s pot has no drainage holes at the bottom then do not follow this rule! Instead, you need to be very careful with how much water you pour into the soil. If you add too much, you risk having it sit at the bottom of the pot for days and causing your roots to literally rot and your Money Tree is likely to die or lose a lot of its foliage. To avoid causing problems, you can stretch out watering it with your fertilizer-water mixture over a set of a few weeks, or you can carefully water/fertilize it once without adding too much. Whatever you personally feel more comfortable with.
#4: Watch for Signs of Over-Fertilization
Over the next few days, if you notice any brown edges, browned tips, entire yellow or entire browned leaves on your Money Tree, it’s a sign you used too much fertilizer. But don’t fret! You can help it by placing your Money Tree in the sink or shower and leaching out the soil. This means that you place it under running water and let the water run into the pot and out the bottom drainage holes. Do this for a minute or two to help wash out excess fertilizer/nutrients and your Money Tree will have a greater chance of being able to bounce back and survive without a problem.
I sincerely hope this guide helps you understand fertilization and know how to properly fertilize your Money Tree without causing any problems for you and your plant. Your Money Tree can be growing at a rate of 18-24 inches per year while it is young. And fertilizing can be a great way to replenish the soil’s nutrients, increase vigorous growth, and help your Money Tree stay sturdy and healthy. You deserve it too after all the research you’ve put into this plant of yours!
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