Food vs Fertilizer ?

[PaulZone8b]

Maybe this is a dumb question....but what is the difference in plant food and fertilizer ?
I am doing my own compost, using Agrothrive Organic liquid general purpose fertilizer 5-4-5 but wondering if I am giving my veggies enough "food". Sometimes I just dont see the plants responding well and about to give up .... and go to the MirGrw steroids to make them take off. Frustrating. I know I am only a couple years into this, so trying to keep learning.

 

[cpp gardener]

The words are interchangeable, although technically fertilizer is more correct. Plants “feed” themselves with sugar they make with CO2, H2O, and sunlight.

 

[redback]

Maybe this is a dumb question....but what is the difference in plant food and fertilizer ?

They are approx. the same. Much depends on how the plant accesses the soil's nutrients.

Scientific research indicates that a 'living soil' is far better at converting the soil's minerals into plant nutrients than dead soil. To improve the soil life, you need to improve the soil 'texture' by incorporating as much carbon as you can. Carbon in the soil gives it a granular structure that is good at holding moisture, draining excess water and aeration.

At this stage you could apply liquid seaweed and liquid fish emulsion to give the instant boost but buy in lucerne chaff and aged manure mulches to start the decomposition and incorporation of carbon into the soil.

There is danger in applying anything non-organic to the soil because it often destroys soil life.