Organic Fertilizer

By Author: adneysmith
Total Articles: 1
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Nowadays there is trend of organic gardening (sustainable gardening), creating confusion of using natural/organic fertilizers for home garden use. There is a range of natural and manufactured materials available in the market. People are with great misconceptions for selecting fertilizers.

To make a decision to buy the fertilizer one must first understand the basic plant nutritional concepts. Plants manufacture the complex structures they need to grow through photosynthesis and other metabolic activities. There is no need of vitamins, minerals or other complex compounds. There are four basic requirements for a plant to grow. They need water, air, sunlight basically and the rest is the thirteen essential elements. The basic requirement fulfilled of the plants is dependent on the environment and the growth media in which they live. The growth media for house gardening is soil. Soil is essential and living entity for life of plant. Soil is associated with microbial communities which provide all essential nutrients for healthy plant growth. It's a natural fertilizer. There are hundreds of fertilizers we can add to the soil ...
... to improve our soil and make our plants more healthy, vibrant, and productive.

Natural Organic Fertilizers are made from waste products like chicken feathers and manures. These materials are with very slow release rates. It requires soil bacterial action to convert the organic matter into forms usable by plants. A nutrient released is excessively slow when cool soil temperatures reduce bacterial activity. Higher application rates applied the fertilizer last for a longer period of time. Natural organic fertilizers, comparatively with less nutrient content and weight per volume, will require significantly larger volumes in application. The problems associated with use of natural organic fertilizer include slow response, particularly in cool soils, and homeowners misjudge application rates due to the larger volume of material needed. The cost is comparatively high.

In case of manufactured organic fertilizers, carbon is the main building block containing other plant nutrients. They vary in release rate depending on the product. The most common manufactured organic fertilizer is urea. Its fast in release rate, but sulphur coated urea is with slow release rate. The cost is moderate.

Climate change has brought about many variations in the level of minerals and nutrients present in the soil.This increase the need of getting good quality Organic Fertilizer which can full-fill the decency of Nitrogen,phosphorous,Humic Acid,potassium,etc necessary for the healthy growth of crops.