Green in garden, fresh on table.
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As the saying goes, farm manure is a treasure,
from which the crops grow well.
For a back yard gardener,
what kind of organic fertilizers are available?
1. Commercial organic fertilizers.
Made from different materials, you can buy
plant compost, composted animal manures,
bone meal, blood meal, see-weed manure, natural minerals etc.
They are usually expensive
but fertility is relatively low.
2. Home-made compost.
Collect kitchen waste, garden waste and put them in composter.
It is a great way to recycle your waste.
After months’ decomposition,
you can collect very good compost and compost tea,
but it takes long time and also has low nutrients content.
3. Farm animal manure, the most effective one.
Search online and look around.
There are local farmers, horse riding clubs or farm animal lovers.
They would love to give away the manures for free
or sell them at very low price.
I have been buying rabbit manure from a local farmer.
It is better to compost manures before using in vegetable garden.
To apply organic fertilizer,
add as much as possible, evenly spread out,
turn over the soil and bury the fertilizer deep underneath.
There are reasons for doing this:
1. Some organic fertilizers especially manures,
have high salt content.
If contacted directly, young seedlings and vegetable plants
will get dehydrated or burned;
2. Organic fertilizers contain
very active bacteria and biota and may contaminate vegetables,
especially leafy vegetables.
Burying the fertilizer deep can minimize this risk;
3. The soil will provide good environment
for bacteria and biota’s activities
which will help to further decompose organic fertilizer
and release the nutrients;
4. Prevent rain to flush fertilizer away.
The best time to add organic fertilizers is
before transplanting your seedlings.
If your garden have a winter break because of cold weather,
you can bury as much organic fertilizer s as possible.
in the soil and let them decompose over winter.
I don’t suggest to use organic fertilizers
for topdressing vegetables because:
1. Organic fertilizers work slowly
and cannot supply nutrients peaks needed by vegetables
for boosting, flowering and fruiting;
2. Burying organic fertilizer deep
will damage vegetables’ leaves and roots;
3. Organic fertilizers may contaminate the vegetables
which will get harvested in short time.
Our garden is a dynamic ecosystem.
A good soil is the strong foundation for this healthy system.
Good soil takes years to build and continual work to maintain.
Organic matters can improve soil’s physical and biological properties
and at the same time, build up comprehensive fertility.
This is chart of manure releasing nutrients by year.
If we add the same amount of manure in garden every year,
the nutrients available in the soil will increase year by year.
But if we stop adding organic fertilizer,
the soil will lose it fertility slowly.
Because it takes long time to build fertility for a new garden,
beginners who insist organic growing
and refuse any supplement with inorganic fertilizer,
are easily discouraged by unsuccessful result.
Using inorganic fertilizers properly
will make your vegetables grow more and better.
How do you determine when
and what inorganic fertilizer to add?
First, you need to know your vegetables’ demand
and read their signals.
Here are pictures of tomatoes’ leaves
when certain nutrients are deficient.
This chart describes symptoms caused by nutrients deficiency.
Read it carefully and check on you vegetables.
The most common inorganic fertilizers
usually contain Nitrogen, phosphorus and Potassium
which are three primary nutrients.
Usually their names indicate nutrients percentage.
For example, 10-10-10 has 10% of Nitrogen,
10% phosphorus and 10% Potassium.
There are also fertilizers that supplement other nutrients,
such as Magnesium, Iron, Calcium etc..
Pay attention to the nutrients content,
any brand should work similar.
I understand that
most people have concerns of using inorganic fertilizers.
The fact is
the harmful effects of inorganic fertilizers are due to
excessive and extended usage
usage in improper and incorrect way,
as well as extremely lack of organic matters.
The right way to use inorganic fertilizer in your back yard is
1. Only add it when your vegetables need;
2. Add small amount each time
and well mix with top soil;
3. Avoid to add inorganic fertilizer before heavy storm
or it will be flushed away;
4. Keep distance from the plants
and water the soil after to avoid burning the plants.
Fortunately for a healthy garden,
we don’t have to deal with most of the nutrients deficiency problems
mentioned above.
Once soil’s fertility built-up,
there are plenty of comprehensive nutrients available.
Also vegetables’ diversity, mix cropping
and rotation also help to balance nutrients structure.
There are a lot of micronutrients and trace nutrients in the nature
and they are too little to measure
but very important to living creature.
These nutrients are leached out due to vegetation destruction
and are excessive consumed due to over farming.
Some of them are deficient in our foods,
including some organic foods.
Deficiency of some micro and trace nutrients
will cause immunity and health problem.
Ocean is a great source for micro and trace nutrients.
That is why sea foods and products usually contain
more and better nutrients and good for our health.
The same things for our vegetables,
well balanced nutrients help them grow healthier and stronger.
Sea minerals supplements are getting more attention
and people realize its value.
This is sea mineral fertilizer I am using,
it is minerals left from sea salt extraction process
and rich with micro and trace nutrients.
I have been using it in my vegetable garden.
You can add some to composter,
feed through your drip line,
dissolve it and spray with a hose sprayer.
Continue to do that
and you will see improvement in your garden.
Thank you for watching.
I wish the best growing year in your garden.
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See you next time.