Neutrog Bush Tucker, what it is and when to use it

March 25, 2025

Bush Tucker is Neutrog's pelletised fertiliser for Australian natives, and the reason it exists at all is phosphorus, which is the one nutrient that turns an ordinary good fertiliser into a problem on a fair chunk of the native garden.

Why natives need a different bag

A lot of our natives evolved on old, phosphorus poor soils and they got very good at scavenging what little there was. The Proteaceae family is the well known one here, so that's your banksias, your grevilleas, your hakeas and the waratahs, and they hunt phosphorus so efficiently that a normal garden fertiliser gives them far more than they can handle. What you see afterwards is blackening leaf tips and then dieback. Sometimes the plant just goes altogether, and it doesn't happen overnight either, which is why people rarely connect the bag they spread in autumn with the grevillea that died the following year.

Bush Tucker is formulated low in phosphorus for exactly that reason. It's an organic based pellet, so it feeds slowly as it breaks down rather than dumping everything at once, and the organic matter does a bit of work on the soil at the same time.

Which plants it suits

It's made for Australian natives generally, and it's the sensible default for the phosphorus sensitive ones. Not every native is fussy, and a lemon scented gum or a lilly pilly will cope with a normal fertiliser perfectly well, but if you can't remember which of yours are Proteaceae then a low phosphorus product across the whole native bed is the easy answer and it costs you nothing.

When to put it out

Feed natives when they're actively growing and there's moisture in the ground to move the nutrients down. Autumn and spring are the two obvious windows here, and the one to avoid is the middle of a hot dry summer, because pellets sitting on dry ground do nothing and a plant under heat stress isn't in a position to use them anyway.

How to apply it without hurting anything

Spread it out under the canopy rather than piling it against the trunk, because concentrated fertiliser sitting against the stem is how you burn a plant you were trying to feed.
The rate is on the bag, so use that. Going heavy on natives is worse than going light, and light is genuinely fine.
Rake it in lightly under the mulch, then water it in properly so it starts breaking down instead of blowing around.
Keep the dog off it for a day or two, because pelletised manure products smell interesting to a dog and some of them will eat it.
Don't feed a plant that's just gone in and hasn't got roots working yet. Wait until it's settled and showing new growth.

The honest bit

Fertiliser is not usually the reason a native garden is struggling. Far more often it's drainage, or a plant in the wrong spot, or a grevillea that wants full sun sitting in shade under a gum. Feeding a plant that's unhappy for a structural reason just gives you an unhappy, well fed plant. So have a look at the position and the drainage first, and reach for the bag second.

Shop related products

Neutrog Seamungus 500g. Seaweed and manure pellets, and a gentle general soil conditioner around natives.
Neutrog Seamungus Liquid Concentrate 1L. The liquid version, for watering over a bed rather than spreading pellets.
Seasol Seaweed Concentrate 1L. A seaweed tonic rather than a fertiliser, and it's what to use on something newly planted.
Neutrog Whoflungdung Mulch 20kg. Mulch matters more than feed on a native bed, and this one breaks down into the soil.

Did you know we keep Bush Tucker itself in the shop in both the 4kg and the 20kg, and neither size can be bought through the website at the moment, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf. We've also got a native planting mix in the garden centre for anything going into a pot.

The rest of the fertiliser and mulch range is in our garden centre, and if you're not sure which of your plants are the fussy ones, bring in a photo and we'll work it out with you.