Fertilizer Archives - Page 7 of 10

Dynamic Accumulators – Do They Exist?

Dynamic accumulators, like comfrey, have become a hot topic. These plants are reported to have extraordinary powers to absorb more minerals than the average plant. This makes them very useful if you are trying to make nutrient-dense compost for your garden.

Imagine how great it would be if you could grow a plant that increases the nutrients you are lacking in the garden. That is precisely what people are doing with dynamic accumulator plants—or at least that is what is being claimed.

In this post, I will examine the idea of accumulator plants and try to figure out what they are. Do they exist? Do they add any real value? Is comfrey a good one?

Do dynamic accumulators exist? source: Ling

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Fish Fertilizer is Damaging the Environment

I always thought that fish fertilizer was an acceptable product. As a nitrogen source, it is very overpriced, as explained in Fish Fertilizer—Is It Worth Buying? But at least the fertilizer is being made from a resource that is a waste product, namely, fish guts (offal), bones, and heads. It seemed like a good use for this waste product.

But a comment left on my other post by Cynthia E. Olen, June 12, 2016, made me rethink things. Thank you, Cynthia.

Did you know that companies are harvesting whole fish to make the fertilizer? I didn’t believe it myself, but it is true.

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Does Fertilizer Kill Soil Bacteria?

Read most organic books or blogs and they will tell you that synthetic chemical fertilizers are killing the bacteria and fungi, the microbes, in soil. Dr. Ingham and her Soil Food Web preach this same message. Stop using fertilizers because they kill the bacteria and fungi. My review of Teaming With Microbes found the same message repeated several times.

Does fertilizers really kill bacteria or fungi in soil?

Some people claim that the ‘salts’ in fertilizer do the damage, but anyone making such a claim does not understand what happens to salts in soil. I’ll explain this in more detail below.

Does Fertilizer Kill Soil Bacteria? — Does fertilizer kill bacteria?

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Fertilizer – What Do Plants Need

In my post Fertilizer: Selecting the Right NPK Ratio, I explained that you don’t feed plants – you feed the soil. Your job as a gardener is to add missing nutrients to the soil. If the soil contains all the nutrients plants need to live – the plants will do well.

The answer to the question, what fertilizer do plants need, is very simple. They need any nutrient that is deficient in the soil. If your soil is not deficient of nutrients – you do NOT need to fertilize.

But how do we know which nutrient(s) is deficient in the soil? I’ll try to answer this question in this post. In order to do that, we need to better understand what nutrients do in the soil.

fertilizer woodchips — One of the best fertilizers – mulch with wood chips

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Fertilizer – Understanding Plant Nutrients

Plant nutrient is a term used to describe plant food. We all know compost is good for the garden, but most of the good stuff in compost is not ready for plants to use – it is not plant nutrients yet! Over time, the complex molecules in compost, like proteins and carbohydrates, will be broken down by microbes into smaller molecules and eventually they become nutrients.

In this post I will take a close look at the main nutrients used by plants. What are they? What happens to them in soil? The answers to these and other questions will help you understand the process of fertilizing plants better.

Fertilizer - plant nutrients - nitrogen cycle — Fertilizer – plant nutrients – nitrogen cycle

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Fertilizer Garden Myths

A lot of the stuff on the internet is garbage when it comes to gardening advice. I am not surprised about that since many people just repeat what they have heard and give it very little thought. Some garden writers don’t actually do much gardening – they are writers, not gardeners. I rarely believe information unless it comes from experts in a field, government sites or published research articles.

This post is about an information guideline on fertilizers and soil amendments which is published by a government source – one you should be able to trust. Unfortunately it is full of incorrect or misleading advice. Let’s have a look at some fertilizer gardening myths.

fertilizer garden myths; Lobelia cardinalis X Lobelia siphilitica, by Robert Pavlis — Lobelia cardinalis X Lobelia siphilitica, grows just fine without added fertilizer, by Robert Pavlis

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Fertilizer – Selecting The Right NPK Ratio

We eat 3 times a day and the food we eat provides all of the nutrients we need to live. The chemicals in food are used by our bodies to grow and maintain our body parts. The protein you eat helps build muscles. Carbohydrates provide energy that is used for all kinds of things such as moving, breathing, thinking and eating more food.

Most of the food we eat is in the form of large molecules such as protein, carbohydrates, DNA, and fats. Our digestive system takes these large molecules and breaks them down into smaller molecules like simple sugars and nitrates. Our bodies then use these small molecules as building blocks to build new large molecules. Our bodies are actually a very efficient recycling plant. We take food in, break it down into basic building blocks, and then use these building blocks to create complex body parts.

Plants differ from humans and other animals in that they do not have a digestive system. Therefore, they are not able to break down large molecules. Plants must start with small molecules like nitrate and phosphate and build the large molecules they need.

Fertilizer - select the right NPK — Fertilizer – select the right NPK, by Robert Pavlis

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Fertilizer NPK Ratios – What Do They Really Mean

Most references say that the NPK values indicate the % nitrogen, % phosphorus and % potassium. They say this, not because it’s true, but because it makes it simple to explain fertilizer concepts to the general public.

What does NPK really mean?

Fertilizer NPK Numbers - What Do They Really Mean — Fertilizer NPK Numbers – What Do They Really Mean

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Eggshells – Do They Decompose in the Garden – 5 Year Study

The advice to add egg shells to the garden or compost pile is very common. In my last post I looked at some evidence that suggested eggshells do not break down in a compost pile or in soil – at least not very quickly. The one exception where eggshells do break down is very finely ground eggshells added to acidic soil .

How quickly do eggshells break down in soil? Is it 6 months or 5 years? Maybe it’s 100 years? No one seems to know. In this post I will describe a 6 year study that has been started to find out if eggshells decompose in that period of time.

Eggshells - Do They Decompose In The Garden 1 — Eggshells – Do They Decompose In The Garden – supplies, by Robert Pavlis

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Bloom Booster – Fertilizer Nonsense #5

Bloom Boosters are said to increase the number of flowers on your plant. Nonsense. They don’t work, and can actually make your soil toxic, making it more difficult for your plants to grow.

Bloom booster fertilizer - who needs it — Bloom booster fertilizer – who needs it? Clematis recta growing just fine at Aspen Grove Gardens without any fertilizer. Photo by Robert Pavlis

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Epsom Salt Myths – learn the truth about using it in the garden

Almost daily, I see a post in social media about using Epsom salt to cure all manner of plant problem. Planting a new plant; add Epsom salt to the planting hole. Are bugs your problem? Epsom salt will get rid of them. It also gets rid of diseases, and blemished on leaves. It makes tomatoes grow bigger, and produces a higher yield, with no Blossom End Rot. Roses are absolutely dependent on the stuff – you must put it in the planting hole every time.

If Epsom salt is such a miracle cure for plants, why is it that the scientific community does not know about it? Time to debunk this myth once and for all.

Epsom salt for plants – or is it best for a bath?

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The Full Scoop on Composting Poop

Human and animal waste is considered to be a good garden fertilizer in much of the world. In more civilized countries we call it ‘icky’. Can you compost urine and poop? Are there disease issues? Does it need to be composted differently than other organic ingredients? Read on to get the full scoop on poop.

urine and straw equals compost — Urine and straw equals compost

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